Almond Cherry Cookies

I came across this recipe in the LA Times, knew I had to try it, but wanted to wait until Kaitlyn came for Christmas because the recipe is naturally gluten-free. It was worth my patience. The LA Times has been a source of many of my favorite recipes over the years--my butternut squash soup is the best I've ever tasted anywhere, anytime, and it's straight from the Food Section, as is the turkey chili also found in this blog.

This cookie recipe is from a bakery in Berkeley, requested by a reader in the Culinary SOS column because it is gluten free. I've never had a substitute-ingredients gluten-free baked good that was quite as satisfying as the original, but half my cookie recipes simply don't include flour. Who needs it when almonds, sugar, and egg whites make such a perfect bite?

The only change I've made in the instructions is the cookie size. The bakery's instruction was to form the balls from 2 tablespoons of dough, supposedly 1 ounce. I used my 2-Tbl meatball scoop and formed a few cookies, and realized they'd be 'way too big. So I weighed 2 Tbl of dough, and it was 2 ounces, not 1. I also changed how I formed the dough around the cherry. I like things easy.

Almond Cherry Cookies

About 30 dried cherries, preferably sour

1 pound blanched almonds

2 cups sugar

3 egg whites

1/2 tsp almond extract

pinch salt

Place cherries in a pyrex bowl and pour boiling water over to soak. Grind the almonds and sugar together in a food processor until a fine, flour-like texture. Add egg whites and almond extract and pulse until the dough comes together and balls up. Wrap in plastic and chill. Drain the cherries and lay out on paper towels to dry a bit.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line cookie sheets with silpats or parchment. Form 1-ounce cookie balls using a 1-tbl scoop or spoon. Flatten the center of the ball with your thumbs, place a cherry in the dent, and wrap the dough up around the cherry to make a ball again. Place cookies about 1 1/2 inches from one another on the sheet, flattening a little.

Bake for about 20 minutes until lightly golden at the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through for even baking. Cool completely on a wire rack before storing in a sealed container.

We all loved the cookies, assuring ourselves that this much almond must be healthy (as I assure you it is). Tim was conducting a series of gin and whiskey tastings along with the cookies, and I highly recommend St. George Botanivore gin as the perfect accompaniment. Kaitlyn and I wondered why the recipe didn't just call for almond meal, but then decided that the chemical reaction from grinding the almonds with the sugar was likely an essential component of flavor and/or texture. And, it makes the house smell really good.

Next time I make this recipe I'm planning to try variations--dried dates, cranberries, or apricots soaked in a little Cointreau could be delicious. Basically anything that pairs well with almonds. The one guarantee is that this recipe is going into regular rotation, because it is so easy, and heaven in your mouth.

Royal Icing (optionally with Ponzu)

Carmen's Royal Icing:

2 cups (230g) confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon meringue powder (available at stores like Michaels)
Dash vanilla
Juice of 1 lemon

Warm water for adjusting consistency

Optional additional ingredients: Ponzu marinade, balsamic vinegar, Tabasco (of course)

Combine sugar and meringue powder on low speed using flat beater (not wire whisk). Add lemon juice, vanilla, and enough warm water to thin the icing to a spreadable consistency. Mix on medium for 5 minutes. Stir in food coloring. Use immediately or store in an airtight container at room temp, or in fridge up to 2 weeks.




My niece Alissa graduated and turned 18 last week. That much accomplishment required a fair amount of celebration. Of course I volunteered for a fun thing--a plate of cookies celebrating my girlie. Because these cookies were travelling a bit between making and eating, I frosted them with royal icing, which is fairly indestructible.


Getting the consistency right is a process—the recipe above will make a nicely viscous frosting that could glue furniture together. I add too much lemon juice, then I need to thicken up again with more sugar, and eventually need a bit more egg white to keep everything balanced. It’s okay, because more icing means more color options for the cookies. Along the way, I generally end up tossing in a few drops of Tabasco because everything can use a little, and a few more drops of balsamic vinegar, for the same reason.

This time I did start with lemon juice, but it was from a Meyer lemon whose lovely flavor was too gentle to stand up to all that sugar. I needed more punch, so I pulled out my bottle of Ponzu sudachi marinade—it’s mostly mirin, citrus juice, rice vinegar, and I don’t know what else but has a really bright profile.

Suddenly the royal icing wasn’t just a convenient vehicle for color flow on sugar cookies, but its own really yummy element. All the citric acid made the icing behave properly and set firmly, and the flavor made those cookies rather hard to resist—I don’t care how long you’ve worked on cookies, it’s so satisfying to watch them disappear.