Nuts? You're Nuts!

Last week's adventures in nutty baking were so much fun, I decided to explore nuts further.  This time I was in a guest kitchen; one with an amazing Red Kitchenaid stand mixer (and my mom).

We made Almond Cloud Cookies! No almonds needed. (Seriously.)  The most important ingredient is almond paste. Apparently you can make this yourself, but I doubt it's worthwhile. Also, the brand of almond paste one uses seems to affect the outcome. We used Love 'n' Bake. See how on the can, the apostrophe in " 'n " is a heart? Isn't that cute?

The (Brooklyn-based) company is also kind enough to let us know that "Love 'n Bake" and "Love 'n Bake 'Schmear'" and the logo with the cute little heart apostrophe are their trademarks. Schmear? Really? In most parts of the world New York, I believe "schmear" was once used to refer to cream cheese (on a bagel), but apparently it has come to mean anything spreadable. Okay, so I guess almond (or chocolate) "schmear" isn't so... um, verkakte.

Back to the cookies. We're also using Almond Extract (made from bitter almond oil, water, and alcohol) and Almond Flavor (which is bitter almond oil). I'm not sure why we need both, but I'll reserve judgment until I see the final product.

The back of the Almond Flavor bottle has a stern warning, in case we were thinking of, oh, eating it:
Caution: Highly concentrated flavoring. Keep out of reach of children. Avoid contact with skin, eyes, mucous membranes, plastics or countertops.

It then goes on to encourage us:
Ideal for hard candy, frostings, cookies, fudges, baking, chocolate, and more.

I take issue with their use of the word "ideal." Ideal flavoring, to me, would be something that is not a threat to children and countertops.

We took the risk and used it anyway. Bake dangerously, as I always say.

This is another super-simple recipe. (It's also a lot easier to take pictures of what you're baking when there's another person there to do most of the baking.)
So, you separate some eggs. I did one and my mom did the other:

Then combine almond paste and sugar and salt until the mixture is crumbly.

Add the Almond Extract and the (lethal) Almond Flavor.

Then spoon the mixture into these adorable little mounds:

Then sprinkle with powdered sugar and make a little indentation in the middle of each cookie! They say to use three fingers to do this, but that's just silly; three fingers barely fit in the middle of one of these cookies.  Two fingers or one thumb would suffice.

Then, pop 'em in the oven until they start to brown, like this:

And just like that, we created family memories (just as the packaging said we could). Thanks, Love 'n Bake?

Bonus Cookie
I spent and extra 10 minutes making a bonus cookie -- which is not a cookie at all. Last week my coworkers were making cookie requests, and one of them asked for nut brittle. Okay! I make a quick (microwave!) pecan brittle. But it's really tasty. You'd never know it was zapped into existence.

White sugar + corn syrup:

Making brittle, even in the microwave, has to be a pretty quick process. I couldn't stop to take photos along the way. But you heat this mixture, add some nuts, vanilla, and butter, and then baking soda, which makes it look like this:

Then (QUICKLY!) spread it on a greased cookie sheet. In this case, a greased, silicone cookie sheet. Hurry up, before it cools and hardens!

These tiny candy floss strands formed between the spatula and the brittle. I thought they were beautiful.

When it's completely cool, you can break it up into delicious, bite-sized chunks. I won't tell your dentist if you don't tell mine.