Almond Horns

In the absence of any delicious snack foods in our house, I know it's time to break out a new batch of cookies. This recipe is Almond Horns (p. 107), a delicious butter cookie so named for it's curved shape, and also sometimes referred to as "almond crescents".

These cookies were quite simple to make. The recipe did call for whole almonds to be toasted and processed, but you could easily use pre-sliced almonds (that's what I had on hand) and I did not toast them, to no ill effect.

The dough definitely needs to be chilled prior to handling; it is rather sticky. Once it is refrigerated, however, it is manageable. I only baked the cookies for 17 minutes as opposed to the recommend 20, and they came out crisp and golden.

The powdered sugar was a bit of a mess, and despite numerous cleanings and wipe-downs, left our floor feeling tacky, but hopefully that will dissipate with a good mopping.

These cookies were absolutely marvelous and only lasted two days. I couldn't keep my hands off them. I left a tell-tale powdered sugar trail wherever I took them though, so no denying who ate them!

Almond Macaroons

So because the best cookie is one you share with a friend ... I decided to send the next two batches of cookies with my husband to his boys' poker weekend in Hocking Hills. I chose two recipes in Martha's "Soft & Chewy" section. These were the Almond Macaroons, from page 91.

The recipe is fairly simple and calls for only six ingredients, most of which you probably have in your pantry already (except for maybe the almond paste). I did have some almond paste in my pantry, actually, and I chose this recipe as a chance to use it. In fact, I doubled the recipe so that I could the entire can.

It was a good thing that I did double the recipe, because it doesn't make very many cookies. Martha claims that her recipe yields a dozen, but I only got a dozen and a half out of the double recipe (of course I think my cookies were a little bigger than hers).

The cookies were soft and chewy. The first batch stuck to the parchment paper a little, so I cooked the second batch 2 minutes less, and they came off the parchment with ease. When my husband and brother-in-law got home and saw them cooling on the rack, they were DYING to eat one, but I am making them wait until their trip tomorrow. I know, so mean.