Monday, May 6, 2013

Almond Meltaway Cookies, Giveaway winner and a great new site!

Almond Meltaways

How's that for a title?

FIRST...the winner of the beautiful garden markers.....Dolores Tabor!

Dolores said: "My favorite herb is Rosemary, love it. As a plant on the garden walkway so you can smell it when you brush against it".

Dolores please contact me with your mailing information. You can message me to the right by clicking the "contact me" button, or send me a message on Facebook! CONGRATS!

Thank you again to Eileen from Say Your Piece for providing the beautiful garden markers!

SECOND: I have a fantastic new site to tell you all about. It's called Cookie Hound. The master mind behind this site is my friend Amy from Very Culinary.

You've all seen Tastespotting and Foodgawker right? Well imagine a site like those but devoted entirely to cookies! Yes...ALL COOKIES ALL THE TIME!

Who doesn't like cookies? Now you can explore page after page after page of every kind of cookie you can imagine for any kind of occasion you can think of. It's cookie nirvana!

I was lucky enough to be included in the inception of this terrific site. You can click my Cookie Hound button on the right to see all the cookies I've submitted so far, or just click here. Make sure to hit home to see the hundreds of other cookies!

Almond Meltaways 1

THIRD: These cookies! These melt in your mouth cookies.

In between working in the yard all weekend I snuck in enough time to make a batch of these delicious little cookies. They took no time at all to whip up. My youngest was just crawling out of bed as I was frosting these. He ate the ugly ones for breakfast!

Almond Meltaway Cookies
recipe from The Novice Chef
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon flaked sea salt (or can use regular table salt)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons almond extract (I used pure, not imitation)
Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk (or water)
2 teaspoons almond extract

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and almond extract, mixing until combined. Add flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time, mixing until a soft dough forms.

Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into small circles and then press with hands (or with the bottom of a cup) into a disk shape. I floured the bottom of my cup so the dough wouldn't stick. Place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 8 minutes. The cookies will not look browned or cooked, but they are! Remove from oven and let cookies rest on baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For icing:

In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, milk and almond extract - until smooth.

Using a spoon, smooth icing onto the top of each cookie and let set for 10 minutes, or until hardened. Store in the fridge, let come to room temperature when ready to serve.

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