It's been a while since I've had real Chinese Almond Cookies at a restaurant, but from what I remember they have a pretty strong almond extract flavor and a light, crunchy texture. This, plus a reader request for a recipe similar to Trader Joe's Almond Windmills, is what motivated me to try an old recipe from Helen Witty again. I made these years ago, but did not take many notes. Here they are again in two different versions.
Lard, Shortening or Butter
The first ingredient in the original Chinese Almond Cookies recipe is lard, which is probably more authentic. I didn't have any lard, but I did have some shortening and used that. The texture was crisp and crunchy. Actually, it was wonderful, but I didn't care much for the flavor of this particular brand of shortening and tried the cookies again with butter. The cookies with the butter also held their shape nicely, but they didn't have the same crunch as the shortening cookies.
Chinese Almond or Scandinavian?
As you can see I cut some of the cookies with round cutters and shaped some into squares, which made them look more like Scandinavian type cookies. I guess you could go either way with these. If you like almond flavor, they are worth making. And you can choose whether to use the lard, shortening or butter. The sparkling sugar on top is optional, but adds some sweetness and crunch. These cookies aren't too sweet, so you can add a lot. If you have some Speculoos spice mix or just some pumpkin pie spice, try adding a teaspoon of that for even more flavor.
Recipe
Chinese Almond Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup lard, Crisco or unsalted butter (190 grams shortening or 214 grams butter)
- ½ cup dark brown sugar (110 grams)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (50 grams)
- 2 large eggs, cracked in a separate bowl**
- 1 tablespoon almond extract
- ½ cup finely chopped toasted almonds
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (340 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- almonds and coarse sugar for garnish
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, using a wooden spoon or electric mixer, beat lard or whichever fat your are using until creamy. Beat in both sugars.
- Whisk together the eggs in a separate bowl and measure out 2 tablespoons. Set aside. Stir remaining eggs and almond extract into the sugar mixture.
- Stir together flour, baking powder and salt, then mix into batter to form a soft dough.
- Divide dough in half and press each half into a slab about ⅓ of an inch thick. Chill the slabs while you preheat the oven or until you are ready to bake.
- Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.
- When ready to bake, punch out rounds with a 1 ½ to 2 inch cookie cutter. Brush tops of cookie dough rounds lightly with the reserved 2 tablespoons of egg, and place an almond in the center. For a little extra crunch, you can sprinkle the cookies with coarse sugar.
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