Fruit feves part three: almond
Of all these Valrhona Inspiration feves, the almond ones are sort of the odd one out of the bunch. They are the only ones that are nuts rather than fruit. They are also a bit less intense in flavour, they are mellow and sweet and a bit biscuity, and almondy.
I thought I would lean way into the almond zone with these cookies, by adding almond feves, almond extract, flaked almonds and chunks of almond paste. But not marzipan, because I really don’t like it and think almond paste is a superior option (you should feel free to use marzipan if you like it though!). Tangy, sticky jewel-orange apricots go nicely with all that big almond energy.
Check out the whole fruit feve series:
strawberry - pb & j cookies
raspberry - raspberry almond freeform florentines
passion fruit - passion coco cream puffs
yuzu - yuzu pistachio shortbread
Note: Almond paste is available in European specialty grocery stores or the import section of good supermarkets. Or you can make your own - it’s easy and the extra keeps very well in the freezer for a future project.
quadruple almond and apricot cookies
½ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
4 oz almond feves
2 oz almond paste, chopped into pea sized chunks and frozen
⅓ cup flaked almonds
½ cup dried apricots, sliced into ½ cm wide slices
Combine sugars, butter and salt in a medium bowl, stirring until evenly mixed and smooth. Whisk in egg, vanilla and almond extract; whisk vigorously until the batter has a smooth, ribbony texture.
Fold in flour and baking soda, until just combined. Mix in almond feves, almonds, frozen almond paste chunks until evenly incorporated. Chill the dough between 30 minutes to overnight to allow for more flavour development.
Heat oven to 350° F, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Scoop using a medium cookie scoop (around 2 tbs) onto a lined cookie sheet. Leave at least 1.5” between cookies, they will spread a lot. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the centres still look a little soft and the edges have just started to brown. Err on the side of slightly underbaking to ensure that your cookies are chewy. Cool on a wire rack.