Almond Thumbprint Cookies
Gluten free with a beautiful natural nut flavour
These almond cookies topped with a dollop of jam or curd make a delicious snack to share over a cup of tea.
Ingredients
- 230g butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 tsp grated lemon peel (optional)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1 ¼ cups cooking nuts, finely chopped
- Non-stick cooking spray
- Approx. ¼ cup of Barker's Raspberries fruit preserve (or your favourite flavour)
- ¼ cup of Icing sugar (optional)
Method
- In a mixer bowl, beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg yolks, lemon peel (if desired), vanilla, almond extract and salt; beat well.
- Mix in flour and ¼ cup of the nuts until blended. Gather into a ball, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
- Heat oven to 190°C. Lightly coat baking sheet with non-stick spray or line with parchment paper.
- Shape dough to form 3 cm balls; roll into remaining 1 cup of nuts to coat lightly. Place 50cm apart on baking sheet.
- Using your thumb or a wooden spoon handle, make a depression in each cookie. Fill each with scant ½ teaspoon jam or curd. Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until golden.
- Cool on a baking sheet 5 minutes; sprinkle with icing sugar if desired. Transfer to wire racks and cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Handy Tips
- Food process your favourite chopped nuts into a fine nut meal, this will make covering in nut mixture more successful.
- Resting the mix in the fridge is important.
- Even in the winter, store nuts in an airtight jar and keep in the fridge. Buy small amounts of nuts often rather than larger quantities.
- Leave the cookies on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to wire rack. They’re so much easier to handle that way.
- If for any reason the airtight container was left open, pop the cookies back into the oven for another bake. As soon as they look a little more golden, they are ready. The “colour” in a cookie – always transfers to flavour – especially important with shortbread.
