Double Almond Butter Cookies

It’s almond cookie heaven with these easy to make Double Almond Butter Cookies. With a shortbread cookie taste, they’re dressed for the holidays with festive colored chocolate and a sprinkle of almonds!

Let me introduce you to our new Double Almond Butter Cookies. We loved the idea of baking with almond butter, so we adapted our favorite peanut butter cookie recipe to make these very tasty almond butter cookies. Adding some festive frou-frou elevates them to the star of the cookie tray.

We even kept the crosshatch design as an ode to the classic peanut butter cookie!

Ingredients needed for Double Almond Butter Cookies

• Almond Butter – we used creamy almond butter to make these incredible cookie cups.
• Butter – we always use unsalted butter for our recipes so WE control the salt!
• Granulated Sugar – white sugar adds sweetness to the dough.
• Brown Sugar – for sweetness, subtle maple flavor and moisture.
• Eggs – binds the elements of the dough and helps it rise.
• Vanilla Extract – a flavor staple in baking!
• Flour – we used everyday all-purpose flour…nothing fancy here!
• Baking Powder – helps the cookies rise. Make sure your baking powder is fresh! Drop a spoonful of your baking powder into a cup of hot water…if it bubbles up your powder powder is good to go. If it doesn’t bubble, it’s time to buy a new can.
• White Candy Melts – or green candy melts to avoid the food coloring
• Sliced Almonds – we used untoasted sliced almonds, but toast them first if you prefer.
• Green, blue and Yellow Gel Food Coloring – optional

Freezing Almond Butter Cookies

One of the awesome things about almond butter cookie dough and baked cookies is that both can easily be frozen to use later. Here’s how I do it:

Freezing Cookie Dough

1. Make the dough according to the recipe. Tear off a sheet of plastic wrap (about 18-inches long) and lay flat on the counter. Place the dough in the center of the plastic and working from the long side of the plastic wrap, shape into a 12-inch roll. Pull up one long side of the plastic over the roll, fold in the edges, then roll up the dough in the plastic, then a layer of foil.
2. Label cookie dough for the freezer. It will keep for up to 3 months. Thaw before slicing into 1/2-inch thick rounds for baking.

Freezing Baked Cookies

1. Make dough and bake cookies according to the recipe. Let cookies cool completely. Do not decorate. Transfer cookies to an airtight container and freeze for up to three months.
2. It’s recommended that cookies be thawed on the counter in an airtight container. Decorate with melted chocolate and sliced almonds after cookies reach room temperature.

Tips For Making the Best Holiday Cookies

The best tip for making any baking recipe is to measure your ingredients as accurately as possible, and making sure your ingredients are at the right temperature for blending. Baking is really just the science of how measured, blended ingredients respond to heat, so accuracy matters…a lot!

1. Use a spoon, not the measuring cup, to over-fill powdered or ground ingredients into your measuring cup, then use a knife to scrape the excess off the top. Spoon filling helps to keep dry ingredients from compacting in the measuring cup. This method works well for powdered sugar, baking powder, soda and ground spices, too.
2. Make sure to use softened butter and room temperature eggs. If you forget to take them out, here are shortcuts for warming butter and eggs to save you some time.

• Warm the butter, in it’s wrapper, in the microwave. Microwave on High for 5 second intervals, turning the butter over each time. No microwave? First, cut the cold butter into cubes. That’ll give it more surface area to warm. Get out a large mug and a paper towel. Pile up the butter so it will fit under the mug, or do this method in batches. Run water until it is very hot. Fill the mug with the hot water and wait for the outside of the mug to feel warm. Then quickly dump out the water, wipe it dry with the paper towel and sit it upside down over the butter. The heat will transfer from the mug to the butter and gently soften it.
• To warm eggs to room temperature, fill a bowl with warm (not hot) tap water and place the eggs in the bowl. Let the eggs sit in the bowl for 4 – 5 minutes until the egg shell is no longer cool to the touch.