Delicate & rich cookie sandwiches*It's finally spring here in Boston after a very, very long New England winter. You'd think that I'd be switching up the comfort food & baking for lighter, healthier fare but, despite what it says on the calendar, we have been socked in by grey fog and rain for the better part of the past few weeks. The prolonged winter/delayed spring has kept me in baking mode, which is actually sort of fine by me because I still have so many recipes from Joanne Chang's beautiful
flour bakery cookbook to test and taste. A couple of my favorites already are the beloved home made oreos (page 134 in the
flour cookbook) and the so, so easy brown butter rice crispy treats, worth making if only to prove for yourself that brown butter is a bit of magic!
For a friend's baby shower a couple of weekends ago, I wanted to make something a bit more girl-y & refined and the Almond Macaroons with Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache (a combination of my favorite flavors!) seemed like just the thing. I have to say up front that my results didn't seem quite as 'macaroon-y' as I had hoped: the cookie was more like a thin almond crisp. Still delicious, but different, and the reason why I've renamed the recipe in this post. The only real adaptation that I made was too add sea salt to the ganache simply because I had sea salt on hand and I love the chocolate-sea salt flavor combination. In the end, these cookies were pretty delicious and much easier to make than I would have guessed when first perusing the recipe. So, don't be intimidated by the words 'ganache' or 'macaroon'... bake up a batch and let me know what you think!
ALMOND COOKIES
3 1/4 cups (520 grams) blanched almonds**
2 2/3 cups (540 grams) sugar
6 egg whites***
2 teaspoons almond extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
CHOCOLATE GANACHE
8 ounces (228 grams) bittersweet chocolate (about 70% cacao), chopped
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons sea salt (or more, to taste)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat liners.
In a food processor, pulse the almonds until ground to a fine powder. Stop grinding once they are powdery but before they start to clump together and become more of a paste. Remove about 1 cup of the ground almonds from the food processor and set aside. Add the sugar to the almonds left in the food processor and process for 10 to 15 seconds, or until the sugar is completely incorporated. Add the egg whites and continue processing for about 30 seconds or until well combined.
Transfer the almond paste to a medium bowl, and fold in the reserved ground almonds. Fold in the almond extract and salt.
Use a small spoon to make walnut-sized rounds of batter to the baking sheet. It's a bit tricky to get such small rounds, but it's important to keep them small and spread out (about 2 inches apart), because the batter flattens and spreads quickly!
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (keep an eye on them... timing can really vary!) until the cookies are a light golden brown around the edges. Let cool completely on the baking sheet. They are very sugary, and it is much easier to transfer them from the pan to the rack if they are cooled.
For the ganache:
While the cookies are cooling, place the chocolate in a medium heat-proof bowl. In a small saucepan, scald (bubbling around the edges, but not boiling) the cream over medium-high heat
and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for 30 seconds, then slowly whisk the chocolate and cream together until it is completely mixed and the mixture is smooth. At this point, I stirred in about 2 teaspoons of seasalt. It's important to taste test, as sea salt intensity can really vary! Let cool at room temperature or in the refrigerator for at least an hour... the ganache should be thick and spreadable. The ganache can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for up to two weeks (and probably would be delicious melted over ice-cream!).
Remove the cookies from the rack. Spread about 1 tablespoon of the ganache on the flat side of one cookie. Top with a second cookie, flat side down, to make a cookie sandwich. You should have over 20 cookie sandwiches, total.
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Enjoy!
* The grey weather is not helping to get an appetizing image of these cookies... trust me: they taste better than they look!
** I didn't have enough blanched almonds, but I did have raw and so I googled methods to blanch my own: easier than I would have imagined!
***You can use the left over egg yolks to make ice-cream to serve with the delicious little cookies!
For me, nothing says 'dreams of summertime' like a beach house. Preferably a simple little house, with large sliding doors that allow for indoor life to become out door life & vice versa... a very precious seasonal opportunity for us in New England!
Hatch Cottage
Images at top & bottom are from the book Weekend Utopia,
