Super Duper Almond-y Frangipane Thumbprint Cookies #KitchenMatrixCookingProject

Welcome to the final September post for our year-long #KitchenMatrixCookingProject; you can read more about it here. This month Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories selected our recipes and she is ending the month with cookies!  

Bittman suggests a dozen cookies in his book, including bar cookies and thumbprints. The boys were looking over my shoulder when I was planning recipes and the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf gushed excitedly, "Can I make thumbprint cookies with frangipane!?? I've never done that before." If you've been following me for even a brief amount of time, you probably know this about me: I never say no when the boys want to buy a new-to-them ingredient or when they want to create a new recipe. Never. But, before I get to our frangipane thumbprint adventure, here's the #KitchenMatrixCookingProject cookie tray...

An InLinkz Link-up

Super Duper Almond-y 

Frangipane Thumbprint Cookies

As you can imagine 'super duper' isn't usually a phrase I utter. But, when the recipe developer is 14-years-old, that might be an appropriate descriptor. In any case, I was assured, "Yes, that's the name of the cookie. Please type it correctly." Yeah. Okay.

Thumbprint cookies are in our oven a lot. A lot. They're easy and only require a few ingredients. I also love how flexible they are. We're filled them with hazelnut spread, with quince jam, with marionberry jam, and with lemon curd though it appears I've never posted that recipe. I'll fix that soon.

But, for this version, D wanted to make frangipane which has the flavor or marzipan but the texture of a custard. It's D's favorite filling ever. And I have to say I am also a huge fan. But he makes it differently every time, so I have to pay attention to what's on the counter as he's mixing. Sometimes he puts in sliced almonds, sometimes only ground almonds. Sometimes he likes to add lemon extract, sometimes he goes for almond and/or vanilla.

Ingredients makes approximately 30 cookies

Dough

• 3/4 C butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 C organic granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 C flour
• 1/2 C ground almonds
• 1 t pure almond extract
• 1 t cold water (or vodka or gin)

Frangipane

• 1 C ground almonds
• 1/2 C organic granulated sugar
• 1/4 C butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/2 t pure almond extract
• 1/2 t pure vanilla extract

Procedure

Frangipane

Place all of the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Use a hand-blender to process until a thick paste forms. Set aside.

Dough

Preheat oven to 325°F. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in the eggs until incorporated. Stir in the flour and ground almonds until a flaky dough is formed. Add in the water and pure almond extract, gently working the dough until it forms a ball.  

  

Pinch off pieces of dough and form into small balls, about the size of a walnut in its shell. Place each ball onto the baking stone or parchment-lined baking sheet, pressing a "thumbprint" into the center of each and slightly flattening. The cookies will not spread, so make them the size that you want!

Spoon about 1/2 t frangipane into each thumbprint. Bake until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Let cookies cool for several minutes on the sheet before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

These didn't turn out to be as photogenic as he would have liked, but we decided that food shouldn't always to portrait-ready. There is something to be said for delicious, messy food. So, there you have it: D's super duper almond-y frangipane thumbprint cookies that look a little ugly but taste amazing!