Hellooooooo,
Hope you’re feeling fresh as a daisy following the start of spring and a week of eating greens (c/o Slab Pie), in preparation for this week’s sugar rush.
This week’s recipe is for Almond Praline Cookies, or ‘Crack Cookies’. I honestly cannot stop eating them once I’ve baked a batch, to the point where I will have six or seven in quick succession and feel violently ill afterwards. I’m sure you have more self control than I do, but I think the point still stands.
What makes these so special? Substituting some of the sugar for praline gives the cookie a really deep, rich flavour (thanks caramel), as do the salt and the butter, which contrast the sugariness. Some thoughts:
It is super important to rest these overnight - this will make them that fluffy, soft cookie type. A cake/cookie hybrid, texture-wise, if you will. I didn’t really clock this until I read The Pastry Chef’s Guide by Ravneet Gill - I recc.
How finely you can blitz your almonds will depend on your blender. I take them to a fine powder, but a friend blended them a little less to a coarse texture and they were still divine.
The vanilla extract is very important, imo. These should be ‘very vanilla’.
You certainly can make the dough with just a wooden spoon and a bit of arm power if you don’t have a mixer, just make sure the butter is nice and soft.
For a level tsp, the powder should come up flat to the edge of the spoon. For a scant tsp, it should be a little concave.
Now, I’ve been known to ball up cookie dough to repetitive dance music, but I think this is nice too:
Almond Praline Cookies
100g almonds
100g caster sugar
Very lightly oil a baking sheet and set aside.
Pour the sugar into a frying pan and set over medium heat.
As the sugar begins to melt and colour, swirl the pan and use a fork to ensure even melting and caramelisation.
Once all the sugar has melted and is a deep golden colour, tip in the almonds and toss with a spatula to make sure they are evenly coated in the caramel.
Tip onto the baking sheet and leave to cool completely. Once cool, break the praline into smaller pieces.
Put the pieces into a food processor and blitz to a fine powder - time will vary depending on your machine. The powder should be very fine, holding together when pressed between your fingers (a bit like wet sand).
This will make a little more praline/praline powder than you need for the cookies, but don’t worry - it keeps forever! Store in an airtight container in the fridge and use to decorate cakes, sprinkle over porridge, eat with a spoon, etc.
140g unsalted butter, at room temp
140g praline powder
100g dark muscovado sugar
1 egg, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 level tsp baking powder
1 scant tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 scant tsp salt (I like flaky!)
250g plain white flour
150g flaked almonds
Briefly mix butter and sugar in a large bowl until combined, then add praline and mix again for 1-2min.
Add egg and vanilla and mix until well combined.
Sift the dry ingredients into the mixture and fold in.
Add the flaked almonds and mix to evenly distribute through the mix.
Roll into 50g balls and chill in the fridge overnight in an airtight container.
The next day, preheat oven to 180c/160c fan/gas mark 4, and line a baking sheet with parchment. Make sure to leave plenty of room between the cookies so they do not bake into each other.
Bake straight from the fridge for 12-14min until deep golden brown, and leave to cool on the baking sheet. They are essentially still cooking on the residual heat of the sheet, which will finish setting the outside but still leave the inside soft.
You can freeze the dough - just bake for another 2-4min, straight from the freezer. I cannot overstate the delight of having a freshly baked cookie whenever it tickles your fancy. These are so deeply comforting; I hope you enjoy them in these last few days of total social isolation, and then bake them to share at the inevitable spring picnics come April.
Mia
PS: I think these would be nice with wholewheat flour - let me know if you try?