An Oldie, but a Goodie

Continuing on my Kitchen Resolutions path, I decided to attempt a recipe I haven't tried before. On one hand - inspiration can come very easy, whether it's a new recipe in the latest Martha or Bon Appetit or discovering frozen blueberries in my freezer. But sometimes, it can be like pulling teeth. This occasion was somewhere in the middle - I didn't have a new recipe I wanted to attempt and I had a craving for something familiar. Like chocolate chip cookies. Or classic raisin oatmeal ones.

Last year, I took a trip with T and another friend down to Portland to check out the local food scene and shop. At Powell's ( :0...... <--- that's me with drool dripping down, haha! Powell's is an amaaaazing bookstore.) I picked up some classic and not-so-classic cookbooks that I've had my eye on. A modern-take-on-classic Chinese, a Rick Bayless (new Mexican, or should I say - nuevo Mexican?), and a Maida Heatter classic.

(I just painted my nails...I'm just showin' off the manicure a bit :P)

The recipe of choice was the Belgian Almond Cookie - a thin, crisp cookie studded with almonds. The end result I envisioned were the kind of cookies that are a medium nutty brown, with the cross-sections of almonds interspersed. Usually crisp but very delicate - almost like a thick tuile. Ya know what I'm talking about? I'm not sure if the cookie really was ever meant to be like that - for starters, I should have ground the almonds more! The recipe did as for a finely ground almond meal, but mine was visibly chunkier. But I kind of liked that - at least you knew where your cookie came from. These are kind of like fancy "slice 'n bake" cookies - but you have to make and form the dough before freezing, slicing, and then baking. One advantage is that very little dough yields quite a few cookies! (They are thin, after all!) The disadvantage? I have about 3/4 of the original log still in my freezer.

I guess that's not such a bad thing.

(A stack of cookies. I was having trouble shooting in my kitchen - the lights are NOT forgiving, and it was night so....I had to make do with partially shading the shot with my hand. Not recommended. Must get some vellum to soften the light.)