Almond Hearts, delicious butter cookies with blended almonds for a unique taste and fragrance. They literally melt in your mouth leaving a sweet aroma of toasted almond.
The texture of the surface is crunchy while the heart is soft and fragrant with finely ground almonds. The fragrance that emanates while baking fills the kitchen and makes your mouth water. They are enjoyable on their own and practical to take for snacks at work or school, but are special when accompanied by hot and cold drinks like tea and coffee.
I decided to prepare these sweet cookies to have a tasty alternative to the classic ones made with shortcrust pastry, I simply took the recipe from my shortcrust pastry without resting and replaced part of the flour with finely ground almonds and the result was amazing.
For those who love homemade cookies, I also recall other recipes
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 60 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Energy 75.31 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 7.65 (g) of which sugars 3.56 (g)
- Proteins 1.44 (g)
- Fat 4.65 (g) of which saturated 2.01 (g)of which unsaturated 2.54 (g)
- Fibers 0.53 (g)
- Sodium 1.83 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 16 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups almonds (finely ground)
- 3/4 cup butter (soft)
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- to taste vanilla extract (or almond extract)
- to taste powdered sugar (optional for serving)
Tools
To cut these cookies, I used a 2 3/8 inch tall heart-shaped cookie cutter, but you can use whatever size and shape you prefer. You can knead by hand, but I used a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. To grind the almonds, I recommend a good food processor, and I invite you to read my review of the food processor I use.
- 1 Food Processor Moulinex
- 1 Stand Mixer Howork
- 1 Cookie Cutter
Preparation
To facilitate the success of the cookies, my advice is always to prepare all the ingredients before starting to knead, and my suggestion, if you have a good food processor, is not to buy almond flour but to grind them yourself.
If kneading with a stand mixer, attach the paddle and place all the ingredients provided by the recipe in the mixer bowl. Start at low speed and let the ingredients turn until you first see them crumbling and then gradually coming together until they become a homogeneous dough. If you are kneading by hand, start with a fountain of flour on the work table, insert the ingredients in the center and gradually, with the help of a fork first and then your hands, blend them until they become a homogeneous dough.
In both cases, bring the dough to a lightly floured work surface and create a ball of dough. You will see that the dough is quite soft, so depending on the outside temperature, see if you can roll it out with the help of flour or if you need to let it rest for half an hour in the refrigerator.
We used the dough immediately and helped ourselves with a floured parchment paper sheet on which we rolled the dough to a thickness just under 3/8 inch.
From this sheet of dough, we cut out our cookies with the heart-shaped cutter and placed them on three trays covered again with parchment paper. Space out the cookies a bit because they will grow during baking. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for about 12 minutes, however, check that they are nicely golden but not too dark. When you take them out of the oven, the cookies will be very soft, so do not touch them immediately; wait for them to cool, and you will see that once cooled, they will become crunchy.
NOTES
The almond cookies are really delicious and one leads to another. For a touch of flair, I dusted some with powdered sugar before serving them, or you could dip part of the heart in melted chocolate, but I assure you they are excellent even plain. These are just variations I suggest.
They keep very well for several days stored in classic cookie jars with a lid.
If you liked the recipe or if you have any questions, do not hesitate to comment here or on social Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and X.
