Almond Bar Cookies

Another recipe I decided to try, from my recent filing spree. And I learned something with this particular one from Gourmet. If a recipe comes from that source, there are some advantages:

• Firstly, you can go to Epicurious to read or find the recipe. (For recipes that are older, most are now on Gourmet's own website. Going back decades.)


• And secondly, people who have tried the recipe, upload comments and reviews of the recipes.

This latter - reading comments - would have been very important to this recipe, had I done that. I would have learned that others who had made these found them way too greasy, but a simple reduction of butter would have helped. I didn't go to Epicurious, so, ended up with a cookie that is good, but just as many said, way, WAY too greasy. If you want to read the comments, click here.

Almonds are good, in my book. Almond paste adds a wonderful richness - and tenderness actually - to baked goods. When whipping up the batter/dough for this, it had a wonderful lightness to it, yet the cookies are solid with almond flavor. It wasn't hard to make. Just wished I had thought through the chemistry of 1 1/4 cups of flour and 2 whole cubes of butter. Too much, for only 25-30 pieces. The cookies are delicious, but a little bit goes a long way. I probably will try these again, heeding the advice of others. You line the 8x8 or 9x9 pan with foil, BUTTER the foil (I question why that last step), then prepare the dough and spread it with an offset spatula in the readied pan, then brush with egg white so the sliced almonds will stick to the top. Bake. Easy.

Almond Bar Cookies

Recipe By: Gourmet Magazine, Dec. 2004

Serving Size : 25
1/2 cup almond paste -- not marzipan
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter -- softened [reduced from 1 cup in original recipe]
1 large egg -- separated
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter a 9 x 9 pan, line with foil, then butter the foil.
3. In food processor, pulse almond paste until broken in small bits, then add 1/4 c sugar and salt, processing 1 minute more. In a large bowl, beat together butter and remaing sugar, 3 minutes. Add almond mixture, egg yolk, and almond extract, beat 2 minutes more. Reduce speed, then add flour. Mix until combined.
4. Spread batter evenly in pan and brush with egg white. Bake 35-40 minutes.
5. Cool in pan 1 hour. Cut into 25 squares.

Per Serving: 119 Calories; 7g Fat (52.5% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 13g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 23mg Cholesterol; 47mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

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