Chinese Almond Cookies

Gung Hay Fat Choy! We had a couple of friends over for dinner last night, and for kicks, I made it a Lunar New Year dinner.  (I put some decorations up and we ordered some noodles.)

This new year is the Year of the Water Snake. Here's a fun little article about what that might mean for you and your zodiac sign: What does the Year of the Water Snake hold for you? I'm a monkey, so, apparently I might make some money this year, but my health is also on the decline...great. Thank you, Chinese Zodiac Predictions, for your practicality and realism, as always!

Anyway, in an attempt to bring on this good fortune, I made some Chinese Almond Cookies for dessert (click the link for the recipe). I thought it was interesting that the sugar is part of the dry ingredient mixture, and the almond meal is blended with the butter and wet ingredients at the start. This made for a much crumblier little cookie – scrumptious texture. I also read that these cookies are traditionally made with lard instead of butter, but butter is better!

It's actually pretty fun to shape all of the cookies, pressing them into little coins with your palm and placing the almond on top. Each one gets a light brushing of egg before they go into the oven, which adds a little bit of chew to the outside, and gives them a pretty golden color.

We kept munching on these over coffee, and we all agreed they were reminiscent of the almond cookies that come with the bill at a restaurant...but better! 

Taste: ★★★★★ Loved it!

Difficulty: ★ ★ Chill time, egg-wash, and almond slivers make these a tad more work than the average cookie.

Clean-Up: ★★ Your average cookie clean-up!