Nut Lace Wafers

I got this recipe from one of Nim's many baking books… Best Ever Baking by Carole Clements.  I was just browsing it and the picture of this cookie caught my eye. The recipe seemed fairly easy to follow but I never got around to making it until she invited me over to her place and graciously let me use her lovely kitchen. She has everything that a baker needs and most importantly, enough space to work comfortably in!  Score… =)

Like I said, the recipe itself is quite simple… but I realized too late that I made things complicated for myself by buying regular almonds rather than *blanched* almonds. Blanched almonds are almonds with the skins removed… but boy… the process to remove the skins is soooo time consuming! I was fooled by this website which said it was easy to remove almond skins and would only take 5 minutes. What liars… it took me longer to blanch the almonds than to make the cookies themselves! So my recommendation is that if you can find blanched almonds then buy them even though they cost more than almonds with skins.  You'll save yourself a lot of grief… =P

The cookies turned out pretty good if I do say so myself… ;-) A minor adjustment I made to the recipe is cut down on the sugar used… I wish I cut down on the butter too coz they came out a tad bit oily. But maybe they'd be ok if I cooled them on some paper towels to absorb some of the oil. O well next time!  But this recipe is definitely a keeper… there's also an oatmeal version of this recipe but I haven't tried it yet.  So many recipes, not enough time...

Ingredients:
70g whole blanched almonds
55g butter
45g plain flour
100g sugar
30mL double cream
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F. Grease 1-2 baking sheets.
2. With a sharp knife, chop the almonds as fine as possible (or use a food processor).
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients and the chopped almonds.
4. Drop teaspoonfuls 6cm apart on the prepared sheets. bake until golden, about 5 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets briefly, just until the wafers are stiff enough to remove.
5. With a metal palette knife, transfer to a rack to cool completely.