Delicious Chinese Almond Cookies
Chinese Almond Cookies
Chinese almond cookies are my absolute favorite of all time! I used to buy Amay’s Almond Cookies in the tub load! My god, I can eat handfuls of it at a time because that is how addictive it is. When you take that first bite, the crumbs from the cookies explode all over your lips and your front teeth, followed by the nice hollow crunch of subtly sweet almond goodness and ending with supreme buttery awesomeness. Oh yeah. The almond. Oh yes, you must have a whole almond on an almond cookie! You must! Now with Amay’s cookies, the almond is placed perfectly on the center of the cookie, which made my eating experience that much more exciting because I would always wonder if I should bite the almond in half or pick it out and then eat the rest of the cookie. Yes, consider that! You can find these cookies in any Chinese supermarket/grocery. If they don’t have it, you should no longer shop there!
Ok, that was my five minutes of droolage for that cookie. But this post isn’t about the Amay almond cookie, it is about the recipe that I found to imitate or improve on that cookie. Now, I have looked for recipes online, asked my favorite Chinese pastries chef at work, and even asked my distant aunts on how to make the perfect Chinese almond cookie and ‘lo and behold, it’s in an American recipe book in Borders. Yes Borders.
Last Friday I decided to stop into Borders to “take care of business.” I refused to use the Starbucks one because that’s absolutely gross and sometimes there’s no TP. I personally think some of the best public bathrooms are in bookstores. I could be wrong, but in my positive experience, I’ve been fortunate to be in the clean ones! But please don’t get the impression that I do not go to bookstores to read books. I go there all the time! Amazingly I never go there to look for recipe books, but for business and other pleasures.
Anyways, at the Borders on Wall Street, next to the “restroom” is the section for recipes! I don’t know whether that is a good thing or not, but I would definitely chose a recipe book for my reading material if I need to do my business there. After maybe 45 minutes of looking and deciding on which book I should get, I decided to get the “Favorite Brand Name Recipes: Cake Mix Cookies” published by Publications International, Ltd (PIL). Unfortunately I cannot find the book online, but I will take a picture of it next time. The only reason why I chose to buy this recipe book is because of the Chinese Almond Cookies recipe. I kid you not. Plus at $9.98 for over 60 cookie recipes and with pictures, I think that’s a bargain.
Please click on the following link to see the recipe and other pictures!
Chinese Almond Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 package (about 18 oz) yellow cake mix
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
- 30 whole almonds (depends on how many cookies you decide to make)
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon waterInstructions
1. Beat cake mix, butter, egg, and almond extract in large bowl with electic mixer at medium speed until well blended. Shape dough into ball; wrap in plastic wrap and chill 4 hours or overnight.
2. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Soray cookie sheets with nonstick cookie spray; set aside.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets. Press 1 almond into center of each ball, flattening slightly.
4. Whisk together egg yolk and water in a small bowl. Brush tops of cookies with egg yolk mixture. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 5 minutues on cookie sheets. Remove to wire rack; cool completely.Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.
*Tip: Almond extract has a very distinct taste that people either love or hate. If you don’t like it, substitute vanilla for the almond extract.
This was all taken out from the recipe book. Let me show you my first attempt!
Chinese Almond Cookie Close Up
Chinese Almond Cookies on baking sheets
Pictures are from the courtesy of my brother. My hands were much too dirty from touching and eating cookies and I definitely would not want to dirty my SLR camera with my buttery hands.
Verdict: Amazing. I don’t care if half the recipe is from the box. If anything, the cake mix box measures all your ingredients for your convenience and I love convenience. This recipe is so delicious. The Amay cookies are good, but they’re not fresh of course. When it’s fresh out of the oven, the cookie is still warm, soft, and smells so wonderful that your mouth is going to go into orgiastic spasm attacks; well for me it did. I have to say that hands down, this is the best thing that ever came out of my oven. Everyone that tasted it wanted more, but they cannot because I ate most of it!
Anyways, when you’re in the baking mood, please consider this awesome recipe that takes no time to make!
<3,
FCG
Comments
5 Responses to “Delicious Chinese Almond Cookies”
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Yes! I definitely want some of this. It looks so delicious and amazing. I better get loads of this when I see you!!!
Did you know that every hotel in NYC is required by law to provide a restroom to the public? So if you need to go, you can alway go in a hotel and it’s quite nice.
Thanks for the reviews and recipes!
Wow, the cooking method of this dish is great, I’ll try it later and I hope it tastes the way it look. Thanks for sharing!
Mine came were really crumbly as a dough and cooled down too hard and dry. Are you sure that is the right amount of butter ? Also, was that a cake mix with or without pudding ?
regards
-Ranu
my dough is chilling in the fridge for 2 hours and it is hard as a rock. Is that supposed to happen??