S6 E19: Two Different Almond Cookies

It's time for cookies, everybody! To satisfy a craving for almond-flavoured sweet treats, Erin takes on two different cookie recipes this week. One is a large stuffed cookie (she calls it a café style cookie), and the other is a little two-bite (maybe one-bite) cookie ball. 

The café-style cookies are stuffed with a filling made of almond flour, sugar, egg, butter, vanilla, and almond extract. We felt the filling just sort of melted away into the cookie, which was a little disappointing. But recipe #2 is a clear winner...

The almond cookie balls are called mandorlinis. They're made with a base of almond flour, powdered sugar, and all-purpose flour. And then a full slab of marzipan, which lends them a chewy texture. Along with the little crunch of the sliced almonds on the surface, these are delicious little cookies. We dare you to eat just one. 

Get the almond cookie recipes! 

Almond Stuffed Cookies

One-Bite Almond Cookie Balls

Also mentioned in this episode: 

Stuffed Brown Butter Cookies recipe

Three Kitchens Podcast - a home cooking show
Check out our website where you can listen to all of our episodes and find recipes on our blog: www.threekitchenspodcast.com

You can support the show with a small donation at Buy Me A Coffee.

Want to be a guest? We want to hear from you!

Join us on our socials!
Instagram @three_kitchens_podcast
Facebook @threekitchenspodcast
YouTube @threekitchenspodcast
TikTok @threekitchenspodcast

Rate, review, follow, subscribe and tell your friends!

Transcript

Erin W (00:14)
is the February of February, Heather. I need two cookies. One is not enough.

Heather Dyer (00:16)
Yeah.

Erin W (00:20)
hi there, hello, welcome to today's episode of Three Kitchens podcast hosted by your favourite hosts Heather Dyer and Erin Walker.

Heather Dyer (00:30)
Hello there. I wonder if we are anybody's favorite hosts.

Erin W (00:35)
You're my favourite host. You're my favourite

Heather Dyer (00:36)
And you can be my favorite

Erin W (00:38)
well, it's always fun to be back here. And I've got a hankering for something sweet. I like a good sweet treat. And I don't know what's if you're going to go and grab something as a baked good, like at a cafe or at like a little restaurant or a store, what do you

Heather Dyer (00:47)
Me too.

Hmm.

Erin W (01:00)
What are you going for when you do that,

Heather Dyer (01:02)
I think if I had the choice my first choice would be pie and then probably cookie I think. Cake is usually kind of down the list for me so I'm gonna put pie and cookies up higher on the list.

Erin W (01:08)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

What about...

What about pastry? Where does pastry live in your land of delights?

Heather Dyer (01:20)
Yeah.

I think it depends on the pastry. hmm. Well, I also like a good steamed bun with like red bean paste in it. So I don't know. I, you know, I'm usually if it's there and it's sweet, I'm going to at least give it a try. As long as there's sugar involved, I'm me up, right? Yeah.

Erin W (01:39)
As long as there's sugar involved, sign me up, right?

Yeah, I like a lot of different sweet treats. I love a good cinnamon bun with icing, no raisins.

Heather Dyer (01:48)
Mmm, yes.

Yes. ⁓

no. I like a raisin. I'm okay with that. Yeah. Doesn't matter. You know, I have a feeling you're not making cinnamon buns, so it doesn't matter our feelings on raisins at the moment.

Erin W (01:53)
No reasons. Okay. Okay.

Okay.

Nope.

Nope. But I thought I'd just throw that out there because some people are for and against and clearly we have both sides of that spectrum represented here. You're welcome. One of my favourite things to get when I'm out is a croissant that has almond paste in it and then the toasted almonds on top and like a little drizzle of chocolate and some powdered sugar.

Have you ever had that before? I think it's got a name, but I have no idea what it is.

Heather Dyer (02:32)
No, I don't think I have, but it sounds fancy. Like this is not just your standard coffee shop pastry. This is like...

Erin W (02:35)
You know what?

Well this is like over, like you can grab it sometimes at Lena's. They've got it over there. Trying to think. Every once in a while you see like the almond croissants when you're at like a little pastry shop and almond I think is my favourite sweet flavour or it's like my default sweet flavour. I love, I loved when we put almond in whipped cream and made that almond.

Heather Dyer (02:41)
Edelweiss.

Mmm.

Erin W (03:04)
scented whipped cream, that was like revolutionary to me. was like, my God, I'm gonna eat whipped cream with almond flavor forever and ever. I didn't know you could do that. So I came across while I was stooping on Instagram, a couple of different almond cookies that I wanna make.

Heather Dyer (03:08)
Yeah.

Erin W (03:21)
and one is called an almond croissant cookie.

Heather Dyer (03:25)
It's speaking your language. It's made for you.

Erin W (03:27)
It was made, it was made for me.

Somebody knew I needed this in my life. And I've never made a stuffed cookie before. And this has an almond paste stuffed inside of a cookie and then you bake it. And it is supposed to be a thick and chewy cookie with the sweet almond filling in the middle. And yep.

I'm feeling it. I need it in my life. I'm going.

Heather Dyer (03:54)
nice. I'm wondering where does the croissant aspect come into it?

Erin W (03:59)
I'm hoping it's just because there's a fuck ton of butter in it.

Heather Dyer (04:02)
Nice. That would make sense, I guess. Yeah.

Erin W (04:04)
You

Yeah,

it's 12 large cookies and it's got a cup of butter in it. So, yep, I'm pretty sure that's where the... ⁓

Heather Dyer (04:12)
⁓ yeah.

Mmm.

Erin W (04:15)
The pastry

croissant part comes in. I'm not sure. We'll have to see how we go about making the dough and rolling it all out. I am really looking forward to this treat. I need something sweet.

It's February.

February is the longest month of the year. Therefore, time for a sweet treat.

Heather Dyer (04:33)
Mmm.

The

Erin W (04:38)
And

so these sound decadent and wonderful and total guilty pleasure. So I thought I'd also maybe make a more balanced representation of an almond cookie. And I also came across something called a mandorlini and it's like a small cookie ball.

that's got marzipan baked into the dough of the ball and then it's got some toasted almonds on top and it's got powdered sugar again, kind of the classic combo. And those sound like they'll be like the perfect bite size, like, you know, like the two bite or the one bite brownies or whatever you get. It's like a little one bite almond cookie.

Because it kind of makes me think that these other ones I might want to serve like a pie if there's only 12 of them and they're these big honkin' cookies like with fillet, I have no idea but it's a lot. There's a lot going on.

Heather Dyer (05:27)
How big do you think they are? Your hand, for anyone listening,

Erin's hands are like size of her head, like, whoa.

Erin W (05:36)
No, right? So

they seem, they seem large and a lot. So I'm going to go for something that's maybe a little more dainty off to the side.

Heather Dyer (05:45)
So you're making two

cookies.

Erin W (05:48)
Yes, I really need

the sweets. I am desperate. This is the February of February, Heather. I need two cookies. One is not enough.

Heather Dyer (05:50)
You sure do.

Yeah.

⁓ the February of February's, I think that's true. Yeah.

Erin W (06:01)
Right? I don't know. Maybe

it's middle age. Maybe it's teenage children. Maybe it's the state of the world, but we need two cookies, damn it.

Heather Dyer (06:13)
Yes, well I certainly am not going to say no to that.

Erin W (06:16)
Hmm,

see, that's why you're my favorite host.

Heather Dyer (06:19)
Nobody would, nobody would come on a cooking show and be like, mm, two cookies is too much for me. I think you better just make one.

Erin W (06:25)
Yes.

You are not our people.

Heather Dyer (06:28)
No, if that's how you feel about it, you best just turn us off right now.

Erin W (06:32)
So do you have any hot tips for me making a stuffed cookie since you have made them before when you made the apple butter stuffed cookies?

Heather Dyer (06:42)
right mmm those were good so that was a like a spiced cookie with apple butter in the middle and caramel remember

Erin W (06:50)
⁓ that's right.

Caramel was in there too.

Heather Dyer (06:53)
So this came about after we had the baking scraps podcast as guests on our show and we got talking about this and they gave me tips on making a stuffed cookie.

for the filling was to freeze or chill it in advance so that it's already scooped into its little portion and it's easier to put onto the cookie and then kind of wrap it up in the dough without it kind of oozing all over the place. So those are my tips.

Erin W (07:09)
okay.

Okay.

Okay, okay.

Heather Dyer (07:26)
I hope it works for what you're doing.

Erin W (07:26)
All right.

I think that's good advice. All right. Well, time is a-wasting. Time to bake the cookies.

Heather Dyer (07:33)
Time to bake the cookies. I can't

Erin W (07:59)
made all the almond cookies and I have since eaten all the almond cookies, not by myself. Don't let this mislead you.

Heather (08:06)
I put back quite a few myself.

Erin W (08:09)
Good, good. I'm really glad I went after both of these cookies. They were really easy to do, super basic cookie dough making. I'll talk about the mandorlinis first. And so those are the little balls and they had...

almond flour, powdered sugar, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and a bit of lemon zest. And then your wet ingredients were a full slab of marzipan, which I bought two slabs of that stuff a while back, so this used up an entire slab and I was like, well isn't that convenient? So that was great.

So the marzipan, egg white, one egg white, a tablespoon of milk, and then some almond extract. You could use amaretto in there, which is an almond liqueur. Doesn't live in my house, and I'm not gonna buy a whole bunch just so I can put a tablespoon into my cookies, but I think that'd be delicious if you had it in your cupboard. And so,

Blend all your wet ingredients together, add in your dry ingredients, scoop it out with a cookie scoop, roll those little balls in some almonds, place them on a baking sheet and they bake for somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes and yum. These were so easy to make. I whipped up this recipe in no time.

It was so quick and the texture of these with the little like crunch of the sliced almonds on the surface and then the chewiness in the middle. I love to these.

Heather (09:41)
Me too. These are my favorite of the two. I'll say it right up top. I love the texture. Like they're chewy, like soft and chewy. Almost like not like a cookie, almost like, I don't even know exactly. Like somewhere between a cookie and a blondie or like something similar, right? Like, ⁓ they were so good. Yeah. I love those.

Erin W (09:47)
Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know how to describe it.

⁓ yeah, very chewy.

yeah, and I think they are the everyday easy to make cookie that you can just, the batch didn't make a whole bunch. It was, let me do some quick, maybe 40 cookies. So it was kind of a smaller batch and just because they're kind of tiny, you just want to like pop them all in your mouth constantly. But.

Heather (10:17)
Okay.

Yeah.

Yes,

it's like it requires a little bit of restraint to make it a two bite cookie because you just want to pop the whole thing at once. We tried to like bite half just to make it last a little longer. they were I love these. These are delicious and they keep well like, you know, not that they lasted all that long, but they don't get like dried out or anything. They keep their nice

Erin W (10:33)
Two bites, I'm in there.

you

Mm-hmm.

Heather (10:51)
chewy

moist texture. Mmm yummy.

Erin W (10:54)
Yeah, I just put them in a tin and had like a little bit of wax paper wrapping them in and they just sat on my counter for they may have lasted three days, but they were good from beginning to end. So.

Heather (11:03)
Mm-hmm

Winner winner.

Erin W (11:07)
Yay. These were the ones that I saw first and I was like, ⁓ I want that marzipan in there.

Heather (11:12)
I've never bought marzipan ever. It's not something even on my radar. So now I wanna go buy it just so can make these cookies.

Erin W (11:16)
You can buy it.

You

want to buy it. You have to buy it. And now you know that one recipe is just one block of that and they come in 200 gram packages at Edelweiss. So you're welcome. Next time you're up there, you know where to find it. All right. My second was the almond croissant cookies, which were these big like

Heather (11:25)
⁓ Now I do. Thanks so much.

Okay, I will be going to get some.

Mm-hmm.

Erin W (11:47)
cafe style cookies is what I want to say because they were like, I don't know, pretty, pretty four inch round, maybe a little bit more. They were huge. They were like a plate of cookie. And so they had the filling that I made up first and that was almond flour, sugar, egg, butter, vanilla, and almond extract. So you will notice that these ones do not use any marzipan.

Heather (11:54)
Yeah, they were big.

Erin W (12:13)
So.

Disappointment number one.

Heather (12:15)
That's a point against them in this episode.

Erin W (12:16)
I was like, oh, there's no more. As I started making this,

I was like, oh, there's no more of the pan in these. How is that legal? Anyway, so that filling, it's illegal. That filling went into the fridge because it was very soft and you want to be able to scoop it and put it into little balls between your cookie dough. So it's easier to handle after you have refrigerated it for, I'm going to say like 30 minutes. So.

Heather (12:22)
⁓ legal.

Erin W (12:40)
Made up the filling, popped in the fridge, started working on the cookie dough. Cookie dough was a bunch of butter and a bunch of sugar blended together. Then you had one whole egg, one egg yolk, more almond extract again, and vanilla extract. So once you've got that nice, smooth, wet paste, you're going to add your dry ingredients of baking soda, salt,

flour and almond flour. These are a very buttery batter.

And to assemble these guys, you scoop out an ice cream scoop size of dough for the cookie and you split it in two and you kind of make two circles with that, two little pads. And then you take a little cookie scoop of your filling and put it on top of one of those circles. Put the other circle cookie dough on top. And then I just kind of pressed it between my hands to flatten it and then sealed.

around the edges so my filling wouldn't bubble out and then just kind of pressed it into this cookie between my hands. Flop it down in some of those sliced almonds again and then on your cookie sheet. Six to a cookie sheet is all that will fit because these spread out and get really big.

Heather (13:50)
Okay.

Erin W (13:54)
The cooking time recommended was 20 minutes at 350. I think they could have been in the oven a little less long. I think they, I think for me, they cooked a little bit too much. were crisp on the edges and like the filling almost completely incorporated into the dough. You almost couldn't see it in the middle. They were the best fresh out of the oven.

A day later, they weren't as good. My kids got around that by popping them in the microwave that we now have.

Heather (14:26)
You do?

Erin W (14:27)
My kid bought a microwave when we went to Goodwill.

Heather (14:29)
That's

so funny.

Erin W (14:33)
We went goodwill shopping and he tears off and goes and gets a shopping cart and I'm like, oh boy, what's this gonna be? You know which one this is. He comes around the corner five minutes later with a microwave for $25 in his shopping cart.

Heather (14:42)
I can imagine.

surprised he didn't buy it to take it apart and see what's inside.

Erin W (14:54)
If the microwave didn't work,

that was, cause we were like, what if it doesn't work? That was his plan. Well, I'll make it work. That tracks. So my kids were microwaving these before eating them to soften them up again. And I was like, yeah, that's the key.

Heather (15:00)
yeah, okay. That tracks.

Hey.

Okay, I should have done that. I didn't really think about. Yeah.

Erin W (15:13)
I didn't really think about it. And honestly,

I had them for breakfast. I don't know, however many days in a row that I could. And I didn't ever, I kind of have a thing against microwaves. So I was like, I'm not, it lives in the basement and sits on top of the freezer. Cause I was like, that's not in my kitchen.

Heather (15:23)
I know, that's why I'm a little surprised when you said you have one. I was like, do?

Well, you

also don't have room for another thing in your kitchen.

Erin W (15:36)
Well, that's what I said.

was like, I ain't got no kind of space for this. So it lives on top of a freezer in our basement and so far has been used for cookies and microwave popcorn.

Heather (15:45)
You know what, that's not a bad reason to have a microwave in the basement. We have a spare microwave in our basement as well, but it just sits there with dust off. don't even, it's in our laundry room on the countertop.

Erin W (15:56)
Anyway, enough about microwaves. These cookies.

Heather (15:55)
yeah. That's cute. Yeah. Okay,

I just want to say the claim, like putting croissant in the title of this is a big misleading claim. Like I get lots of butter, but it does not have the same end result. No, no, there's nothing croissant like here.

Erin W (16:13)
Yes.

No flakiness.

Heather (16:19)
That's a strange thing that they called it that.

Erin W (16:21)
We won't be putting that in our title.

Heather (16:24)
Okay, good. It's definitely it makes you think it's going to be something more pastry like and it really wasn't. It was a cookie for sure.

Erin W (16:31)
Yeah,

it was just a really big bake shop cookie. And they were time consuming, as you would expect to make a stuffed cookie, because you got to pad out the dough, you got to get your filling, you got to put it in there, you got to carefully and then each tray only six fit and then you're baking them for 20 minutes. I mean, this was a chunk of time. And while I made these.

Heather (16:36)
Okay.

Erin W (16:54)
I was listening to another Barbara Kingsolver book called Unsheltered, which was a gooder. So I happily spent a bunch of time in my kitchen, baking the cookies, making the cookies, listening to my book. But these are by no means like a cookie that I'm gonna make frequently, right? Like they're like a one time cookie.

Heather (17:09)
Nice.

Hmm.

Yeah. ⁓

Erin W (17:18)
that you make maybe

for, I don't know, a special occasion type thing.

Heather (17:24)
I feel like that's the case with stuffed cookies. It's like those ones that we talked about earlier that I made with the apple butter in the middle. A lot of work, especially since I made apple butter as well. A lot of work for something that it's like, is there something in the middle? Kind of hard to see it. And I feel like there probably are stuffed cookies where you you break it open and you can definitely see and taste a filling.

Erin W (17:30)
Right. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Heather (17:52)
The ones I made, not so much. The ones you've made, not really. It's like, yeah, so I don't know.

Erin W (17:55)
Not so much.

Yeah,

I'm really glad I made both because, you know, if you want that big bake shop cookie and you want to spend the time doing it and I think watch that cook time, maybe get a softer cookie out of it and maybe the filling wouldn't disappear so much if it was a shorter bake. I was a little bit unsure about the doneness. I probably left it in for the full 20 minutes. Could have gone maybe more like 16, 18 maybe.

Heather (18:25)
I wonder what these would have been like if you just didn't fill them. Like what, because the filling kind of went into the cookie. I wonder what that gave the flavor.

Erin W (18:32)
I think the filling

made the cookie softer.

Heather (18:36)
Okay, and probably lend into the flavor as well, I would think.

Erin W (18:40)
And probably

was the flavor as well, because it had the almond flour in it. But again, no marzipan. Come on.

Heather (18:42)
Yeah.

Come on.

Erin W (18:47)
So I'm going to make these mandorlinis all the time.

Heather (18:51)
⁓ I have

amaretto that I rarely use for the odd cocktail or something. ⁓ So I am happy to share some of that with you. just, even like I've heard, big bottle of it. So it was probably from the speakeasy days from something we concocted way back when. And I thought of that too when I tasted those, the little ones, thought, mmm, amaretto would be...

Erin W (18:56)
well.

Ta-da.

Sounds about right.

Heather (19:17)
because it's just, it's almond, but it's a slightly different flavor.

Erin W (19:22)
Yes, and

those mandorlinis weren't as sweet either. And I think that the flavor that the alcohol has would really lend to the flavor in those cookies. They were a much more complex, entertaining flavor, whereas I felt these others ones were just like sweet and cookie-like, but nothing like new or exciting. So, it's a maz-

Heather (19:25)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

It's a little more.

Yeah.

It's the marzipan. It's

that marzipan.

Erin W (19:48)
You gotta

have the Mazpan.

Heather (19:50)
Obviously you do.

Erin W (19:51)
Yeah, that's my verdict on two cookies, but honestly, just like make all the cookies and enjoy them.

Heather (19:57)
Well, yeah, obviously.

Erin W (19:58)
Happy second spring.

Heather (19:59)
did you know that today as we are recording, today's Groundhog Day and Balzac Billy, our local groundhog predicted early spring and so did one in Ontario that's a willy.

Erin W (19:59)
are tracking it.

W-Wierton, Willie? Yeah.

Heather (20:12)
Wierton, Willie, and Balzac,

Billy. I was like on the way to school, we heard it on the radio and then we were laughing like, why are all groundhogs named William? What's the deal?

Anyway.

Erin W (20:22)
that's

hilarious, I love that, I never made that connection.

Heather (20:25)
Welcome Spring!

Erin W (20:27)
You

Heather (20:28)
was really funny.

Heather Dyer (20:53)
Nothing like waking up and immediately going, no, I forgot like three things on my list for today. Yeah.

Erin W (20:59)
⁓ dear.