Rose's Alpha Bakers: Almond Coffee Crisps

The latest in my whirlwind baking adventure with my fellow Rose's Alpha Bakers is Almond Coffee Crisps from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Baking Bible. The cookies are buttery and flaky; and because they are made without eggs, they are very delicate and melt in your mouth.

crispy with a hint of coffee flavor

Rose described these light and crumbly cookies as "crisp, fragile, ethereal" and they really are. I'd advise making these when you're going to serve and eat them all because they are very delicate (I broke two just lifting them from the baking sheet...you might think I did this on purpose so I could eat them, but that was just a lucky coincidence!). They were also very fast and easy to make, another plus.

These cookies would go wonderfully with coffee or tea...a tea party, perhaps? I'd love to have a little tea party and serve finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, cookies, tiny pastries, and, of course, tea! These delicious cookies would fit in very well on my tea party sideboard!

mise en place for the cookies - so simple!

I was a little skeptical that the tiny bit of ingredients above would make 36 cookies...but, of course, they did (note to self: never doubt Rose!). The cookies spread quite a bit when baking, so what starts off as little cookies rounds when raw bakes up to nice 3" cookies when baked.

I decided to skip the final step of dusting each cookie with more espresso power. I wasn't sure if that would be coffee-overkill, or just make a mess. Either way, I'm glad I skipped it. There is still a hint of coffee flavor, but it's not overpowering. Overall? Yum! 

I processed the toasted almonds with a few tbsp of the flour mixture until finely ground
and then added the rest of the flour mixture and processed again

the result is similar to almond flour

the sugar and butter are creamed until smooth

then the flour is mixed in...

...and pulsed until the dough comes together

the finished dough is kneaded a few times to make sure all of the butter
is completely mixed in. The dough is extremely easy to make and work with.

tiny little balls of dough are measured out - 10g each...so small!

all of my balls of cookie dough

a dozen balls of dough placed on the cookie sheet...

...and then pressed into flat rounds

they spread quite a bit when baked, into thin, crisp cookies

and done! A delicious plate of almond coffee crisps

time to make a pot of coffee and enjoy a cookie

Bye for now...