These gluten-free Chinese almond cookies are crisp, buttery and delicious, and you don’t have to be gluten free to completely fall in love with them. Mildly sweet and full of almond flavour, you’ll just think they’re “regular” cookies, and it will be hard to stop at only one!
Makes: 45 cookies
Prep time: 40 minutes
Baking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 200g brown rice flour
- 120g tapioca starch
- 120g blanched almond flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¼ cup almond paste, at room temperature
- ½ cup caster sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 tsp almond extract
- egg wash (1 egg + 1 tsp water)
- sliced almonds, for topping the cookies
Method:
- Preheat oven to 160°C.
- Combine the brown rice flour, tapioca starch, blanched almond flour, baking soda and salt and whisk together. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the room-temperature butter and almond paste. Beat until well combined (this can be done with a mixer or by whisking by hand).
- Scrape down the butter from the sides of the bowl and add the sugar; beat well.
- Add the egg and almond extract and beat until well mixed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once again.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and use a wooden spoon to combine until a cohesive dough comes together.
- Using a scoop or spoon, portion out the cookie dough into 20g pieces and roll into balls (or completely skip the weighing and scoop out dough balls that are roughly the same size).
- Cover the dough balls with a cloth or cling film until you are ready to bake so that they don’t dry out.
- Place the cookie balls on a parchment-lined baking tray. Slightly flatten each ball using your fingers, the bottom of a drinking glass or the bottom of a measuring cup.
- Top each cookie with a sliced almond.
- Beat together the egg and water for the egg wash and brush onto each cookie.
- Bake for 20 minutes (remove promptly because the cookies will start to darken quite quickly).
- Remove the baking tray from the oven and let the cookies cool on the tray for 5–10 minutes (this will help them to crisp up as they cool). Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Recipe notes:
- ¾ cup butter = 168g
- 100g almond paste = approximately ⅓ cup + 2 packed tbsp
- Marzipan is not the same as almond paste, and it cannot be used as a substitute in this recipe.
- I like to measure out the butter and almond paste while they’re cold and put them in a mixing bowl to let them come to room temperature before beating. It’s easier to handle and measure them when they’re cold.
- Tapioca starch = tapioca flour
- The butter mixture can be creamed by hand using a wire whisk.
- Weighing out the dough to 20g each is optional, but it makes for more “perfect”-looking cookies!
- Lard is used in some almond cookie recipes instead of butter and would make these cookies dairy free and more crisp. But lard will not give as much flavour as butter.
- If you use margarine to replace the butter, be sure the packaging states clearly that the margarine is dairy free if you are lactose intolerant.
- If your oven has uneven hot spots, turn the baking tray halfway through baking.
- Store the cookies in a sealed container or bag for up to one week.
- For detailed instructions – with images – on how to make these cookies, check out the recipe on my website.
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