Butter Cookies for Mary
I met my friend Mary on the very first day of college. She is one of the smartest, funniest people I know. A savvy foodie, she and I spent some good times cooking and eating our way through New York City in our younger days.
Yesterday, she emailed me and asked for, "that cookie recipe with almond flour and butter." Well, that would cover a couple dozen of my recipes. After a bit of email back and forth, we narrowed it down to one of the recipes I had concocted a few years ago, when I still lived in New York. Here it is, Mary.
2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ cup salted butter, cut into pieces
¼ cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- In a food processor, place almond flour and salt and pulse briefly
- Add butter, agave and vanilla and pulse until ingredients are well blended
- Separate dough into 2 balls and place each on a piece of parchment paper
- Cover each ball of dough with another piece of parchment and roll out to ⅛ inch thickness
- Place in freezer for 30 minutes
- Using a 2 inch round cookie cutter (or the top of a 2 inch wide jelly jar) cut out cookies*
- Bake at 350° for 5-7 minutes
- Cool and serve
Makes 24 cookies
* if dough becomes too soft to work with, roll it out again between the 2 pieces of parchment and return to freezer for 10 minutes
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Posted on February 27, 2007 in desserts by Elana
you might also like: Pecan Shortbread Cookies
or Black and White Cookies
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18 comments
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hi elana, I love the simplicity of this recipe. I'd like to make but without the butter. any reccommendations?
thanks!
Ian,
You could try experimenting and reformulating the recipe without butter perhaps using grapeseed oil, that is a very good butter substitute.
Elana
k, great, thanks for the reply. what baout using a different kind of flour aside from almond?
Ian,
This is indeed a frequently asked question from my readers. The answer to this question and many others can be found on my FAQs page.
Elana
HOW CAN I PRINT A RECIPE ONLY? MY PRINTER PRINTS ALL THE PAGES WITH COMMENTS ETC.
JAY,
You can click the text link "print friendly recipe" located below each post to print the recipe.
Elana
Elana, Love your recipes, your website, pictures, etc! SO glad I found it!
Question: I've made your pecan shortbread cookies and they're wonderful. Now I want to try the Butter Cookies for Mary. However, my question is this--rather than roll the dough out, do you think it would work to just put a spoonful on a cookie sheet and press down with a fork or glass?
Thanks!
Mary,
I haven't done that myself, though would think it's not such a big adjustment that it's worth a try.
Let me know how it goes if ya do it.
Thanks,
Elana
Instead of the butter cookie recipe, I decided to make the Pecan Shortbread cookies, because I got some fresh pecans from my neighbors' trees.
I placed small spoons full (about eight) on a cookie sheet, and pressed them down with a fork. They were delicious!
Then I took the rest of the dough and rolled it out thin on a cookie sheet without sides, and cut it into squares with my pizza cutter. They were delicious.
Also thought what a wonderful pie crust it would make for a sugar-free cream pie!
I think the moral of the story is that this recipe is so perfect and tasty that you could do all sorts of things and it will always taste delicious!
Mary
Mary,
Thanks so much :-)
Elana
Elana, I have a few new recipes that call for bulgur wheat. What do you think would be a good gluten free substitution for that?
Stefani -Thanks for stopping by; please see my faq's regarding your question :-)
This is my second fave recipe thus far..the first being the chocolate orange truffles. I tried rolling them out but it didn't go too well. So, I balled them up and smushed them by hand. This was more fun.
Carey -Great improvisation with this recipe. Next time if you want to roll out the dough just chill it a bit longer and dust your rolling surface with almond flour to prevent sticking. Thanks for your comment.
Elana
I love your site and your recipes!
I am gluten intolerant. I have not had the Celiac test yet as my doctor only recommended that I follow a gluten free diet at this point.
I attempted to make these cookies but they came out very bitter, I am not exactly sure what I did wrong.
Do you think it is possible
that I did not add enough Vanilla???
If that is the case would they be bitter?
What kind of butter do you use?
I am excited to try more of your recipes.
Thanks
Kristy
Mine were bitter too! I am a great baker and have never had a bitter result. I have made the CC cookies and they were great. I can only assume that it is my butter. I used maple syrup for sweetener.
Won't make these again
i've made these a dozen times (followed the directions, used the exact ingredients) and they always come out tasting great...
i would try making them again, without substituting ingredients, also making sure your ingredients are fresh (ie. salted butter)
Very good recipe. I substituted an equal amount of honey for agave syrup -- perhaps I should have adjusted the amount up, since I hear agave syrup is sweeter than honey. The first thing I noticed was that it took ~15 minutes to bake instead of 5-7. This may be a result of my oven being untrustworthy, although it seems to be fairly modern. It also was less sweet than I would have liked, but was incredible with a little dollop of raspberry jam or honey on top.