Spiced Almond Shortbread

What's your favorite kind of cookie?

I'll tell you what mine isn't. My favorite cookie isn't chock-full of interesting ingredients. My favorite cookie does not have oozing chocolate chunks. My favorite cookie isn't chewy. My favorite cookie doesn't have the irresistible aroma of peanut butter or the the wholesome goodness of oatmeal.

No. I love all those cookies, but none of them is my favorite.

My favorite cookie is firm, but also soft. Has a bite to it, but also melts in your mouth. Is sweet, but also distinctly salty.

My favorite cookie, is a shortbread. I love the simplicity of it. It uses the most basic ingredients. Butter, sugar, flour and vanilla. Everything about shortbread is irresistible to me! The aroma, the texture, the flavor, all of it. I love plain shortbread or shortbread with lemon zest or orange zest, or bits of dried fruit. But today, I was in the mood for some spice.

I used a Donna Hay recipe today. It was scary. It used a LOT of butter. I know shortbread uses a lot of butter, but the proportion of butter in this recipe was more than any other I had made before. The final result was excellent though. I ate only two pieces. I think because I made the cookies, I knew exactly how much butter was in them. So, I couldn't convince myself to pick up another one. Fortunately for me, there were many takers for these cookies - some friends, some family and my husband were glad to get rid of them for me.

Spiced Almond Shortbread
Ingredients
100g cold unsalted butter, chopped
150g cold salted butter, chopped
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon pwd
1/4 - 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
100g blanched, toasted almonds, chopped

Method
1. In the jar of the food processor, or in a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the almonds.
2. Mix just until it forms a dough.
3. Add in the almonds and mix for a few seconds till incorporated.
4. Wrap the dough in cling film & refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 350.
6. Press the dough into a fluted pie tin. Using a fork, prick the surface of the dough to keep the shortbread from rising. Score the dough where you intend to cut them into individual cookies.
7. If desired, for the traditional shortbread look, cut out a circle in the center of the dough using a plain, round cookie cutter.
8. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let it rest for 2-3 minutes.
9. Cut into triangles using your score marks as a guideline.
10. When completely cool, dust with more powdered sugar, if desired.

I didn't have blanched almonds, and so for the first time ever, I blanched the almonds myself. I was surprised at how easy it was. I just brought some water to a boil in a saucepan, added the almonds to the boiling water, left them there for 30 seconds and then drained them. I dropped them into a bowl filled with iced water, left them there for about 3 minutes and drained them again. All I had to do then, was just give each almond a little squeeze and they just popped out of their skins! (If you haven't tried this before, I must warn you that these almonds are really slippery. I lost a couple, and I still don't know where they landed!) Chop the almonds to the size you want, and roast them in single layer in your oven. Next time I would chop the almonds smaller for this recipe, but only because it would make it easier to slice the cookies.

These cookies were a huge hit in our home. My husband, who isn't a big cookie fan, but would gladly devour a huge chunk of chocolate cake, ate quite a few of these. He actually sat down with the box of cookies on his lap and ate the last few. My little girl loved them too, especially because they were extra-crumbly, and so made an extra-big mess for mommy to clean up!

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