I wanted to post this recipe before Christmas, but had some other nice dishes that I really wanted to share with you guys and just completely forgot about this amazing almond cookies. But I will fix my mistake.

I’ve baked a dozens of those for my friends, packed them in a cute small boxes and gave as a little New Year presents. Everybody loved them sooo much! With this recipe the holiday cookie season is officially over for me, I have a whole year to come up with new, even better cookie ideas!

Almond Thumbprint Cookies

By voloshyna, January 16, 2014

• Total Time: 60 minutes
• Prep Time: 40 minutes
• Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• For the dough: -
• unsalted butter - 2 sticks, room temperature
• confectioners sugar - 3/4 cup
• egg yolks - 2
• almond extract - 1 teaspoon
• all-purpose flour - 1 3/4 cup
• almond meal - 1/2 cup
• kosher salt - 1/2 teaspoon
• For decoration: -
• skinless almonds - 1/2 cup, optional
• jam - 1/4 cup, optional

Instructions:

Using a stand or hand mixer, cream the butter and confectioners sugar until light and fluffy, 4-5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl with a spatula. Beat in the yolks and almond extract, until smooth. In a medium bowl mix all-purpose flour, almond meal and salt, combine with the butter mixture, mix well. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in a plastic and transfer into refrigerator for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lay cookie sheet with a parchment paper. Form 1 tablespoon of dough into a small balls; place on a cookie sheet. Chill 10-15 minutes. Press in the skinless almonds into the center of the cookies, or use your thumb to create an imprint, you could fill them with your favorite jam later. Bake the cookies at 350 F for 17-20 minutes. Cool cookies on racks, dust with a confectioners sugar (optional), then fill with jam.

Such cookies I ate recently at one restaurant in Los Angeles. That was the most delicious cookies I’ve ever tried. Of course I didn’t get a recipe, but by experiment, I found the ideal combination of ingredients. My cookies turned out just the same like in that restaurant. You will need only 30 min to cook it. Best to served this cookies with walnut ice cream or sweet cream dessert.

The best cookies with almond and caramel (in 30 min)

By voloshyna, July 26, 2012

• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 15-18 minutes

Ingredients:

• softened unsalted butter - 3/4 cup
• brown sugar - 2/3 cup
• white sugar - 1/4 cup
• eggs - 1
• all-purpose flour - 2 cups
• almond extract - 1 tsp
• baking powder - 1 tsp.
• sea salt - 1/2 tsp.
• toffee chips - 1/2 cup
• sesame - 2-3 tbs.

Instructions:

Beat softened butter with the sugar, about 1 minute. Add egg and almond extract. Beat until the mixture becomes creamy. Mix flour with baking powder and sift into the creamy mass. With wooden spoon, knead the dough. Add salt and caramel, mix it again. Preheat oven to 180 C. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop out a wooden spoon of the dough and place them on baking sheet 4" apart. Each cookie sprinkle with a pinch of sesame seeds on top. Bake for about 15-18 minutes. Transfer on a wire rack to cool.