Almond Cookies | A Tradition

January has passed by in rushed afternoons, studying as the sun crept down the sky. I missed having time to relax, read, or even to bake. As you can see baking hasn’t quite been in my schedule as of late, and I started to miss spending afternoons stirring up ingredients, feeling the warmth of the oven against my face, and biting into my creations just as they came out of the oven. Finally after weekends of studying relentlessly, I finally found myself an hour of time.

With this extra time, I made these familiar little cookies. I grew up with them, watching my mother bake them at nearly every special occasion, however I never quite liked them, or appreciated them. Soon, my family’s life became a lot busier, and my mother stopped baking the cookies for a while and the tradition was forgotten.

But only for a while.

A couple of months ago, in December I had to complete a school project about my family’s traditions, and the very first thing I thought of were these little cookies. I did not have much time that particular weekend, and my mom was more familiar with the recipe, so I asked her to make them for me. When I finally bit into one I realized how much I had missed my mother’s cookies, and remade them for my family.

Almond Cookies

• 16 tablespoons butter at room temperature (I used browned butter, but that’s purely optional)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of ground almonds

1. Toast the almonds until golden brown.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and the brown sugar together until fluffy, then add in the egg yolk, oil and vanilla, and mix well.
4. Add a half a cup of flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix in well.
5. Repeat step three until all of the flour mixture is mixed in.
6. Add the almonds to the mixture, and mix in well. Scoop 1/2 a table-spoon for each cookie and roll them into a ball and space them out on a cookie sheet evenly.
7. bake at 350 degrees farenheit for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Blondies | Hello Spring

I love spring, its one of the most beautiful seasons, with birds coming out of hibernation, flowers blooming, and the very best part: more sunlight.

The lack of sunlight is one of the biggest reasons I despise winter. The sun used to set at five everyday, and even then it was so drab and depressing because the sun almost never came out from the clouds…but now a five, the sun is still out shedding its vibrant rays of sunshine upon us.

I would say flowers are my very favorite part, however I have ridiculous pollen allergies…although I’m not experiencing  the allergies that badly this year, the occasional sneezing fits…well they’re not fun.

I remember back in first grade where they used to be truly horrible, that one day in class my teacher took pity on me, and let me be teacher for half a day, because she felt bad for me. She even colored my project in for me. I loved that day, and i still do :)

But even with that I still think spring is wonderful. And to celebrate I baked some of my favorite baked goods: Blondies.

I really love blondies. In fact I love them more than brownies!

Just because I’ve encountered a lot of confusion when I’ve mentioned blondies, I ‘ll explain what they are: Like chocolate cake is the opposite to vanilla cake, the opposite to brownies, are blondies! Where brownies depend upon chocolate to flavor it, blondies depend on butterscotch like flavor. Both have the same density(between a cake and fudge), its simply their flavoring that differentiates them.

They are amazing, so buttery and lighter in taste than brownies, which are rich and somewhat heavy tasting.

Blondies

Adapted from Whipped 

• 1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. & 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• any extra toppings that you want such as nuts or chocolate chips and such.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
2. Line an 8 inch baking pan with baking parchment, or aluminum foil.
3. Sift together flour baking powder and salt into small bowl. Set aside.
4. In a medium saucepan melt the butter down, and cook until it starts looking brown and smells nutty.
5. Add the brown sugar, and continue to cook until this darkens slightlfy, smells like butterscotch and the sugar is fully melted down. *If the sugar for some reason isn’t melting, which has happened to me sometimes, remove it from heat and put it in a medium sized bowl letting it cool for two minutes, then add in the eggwhisking the whole time. If you stop whisking the eggs will scramble. If the sugar starts chunking up its okay! Mix as much as you can until the bottom of the bowl feels very mildly warm to the touch, then grab a sieve, and drain the what ever liquid-y parts you have in to a small bowl and reserve that. Grab your food processor, and put the chunky sugar parts in the sieve into the food processor and blend until it is no longer chunky, then put this back in the medium sized bowl that you started with, and add that liquid part that you had reserved. Stir in the vanilla.* How ever if your sugar did properly melt down, remove it from heat, stir it a little with a wooden spoon until cool down a little for approx 4 mins. Then add in the eggs and the vanilla mixing constantly.
6. Stir in the flour mixture, and any additional toppings that you chose, spoon the batter into the baking pan, and spread it evenly.
7. Bake until the center of the batter seems set(approx 20-25 mins)
8. After taking it out, let it cool completely, then remove the baking parchment or aluminum foil, cut and enjoy! :)

~Dee D.