It’s Day 2 with Your Homebased Mom!
I’m not sure how Leigh Anne did it but, having just recently learned about browned butter myself and, consequently, loving it immensely, I have been on a look out for browned butter anything. I’ll look no further.
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Hi! I’m Leigh Anne from Your Homebased Mom. I love sharing my journey to finding the pretty and delicious in life on my blog. I am excited to be here today to help kick off Amy’s 25 Days of Cookies! I love cookies and can’t wait to see what everyone else has in store! Twenty five new cookie recipes – it’s like hitting the jackpot!!
One of my favorite parts of holiday planning is deciding what cookies we are going to make for our Annual Cookie/Candy Making Day. There is quite a science to it. You want to make sure you have a nice selection of flavors and textures. It should not only be delicious but pretty too! Not too much chocolate (can you really have too much chocolate?), some citrus, a little peppermint and something with nuts.
I am not a big fan of nuts in my baked goods. I love nuts – just not in my baked goods. That was until I made the cookie I am going to share with you today. This recipe calls for toasted nuts. A toasted nut has an amazing flavor.
That flavor is enhanced by the nutty flavor of the browned butter that goes into the frosting on the cookie.
I am a total fan of anything with browned butter. I love, love, love the flavor of browned butter. Sometimes I brown butter for recipes that don’t call for browned butter.
The cookie is full of yummy roasted almonds chopped up nice and fine. You get the amazing flavor of the toasted nut but you don’t have big chunks of nut in your cookie. I like that.
Throw in a cup of toffee bits along with those nuts and the flavor is perfect.
Then cover the whole thing with a browned butter icing and you have heaven. Pure heaven.
The cookie is a nice thin cookie but is still chewy. Love the combination of the flavor of the toasted nuts with the sweetness of the toffee topped with the nutty flavor of browned butter.
After the frosting sets up they are ready to box up to give as gifts or to eat! I love using disposable take out containers I pick up at the grocery/restaurant supply place in town.
Another winner for your holiday cookie plate.
Almond Toffee Cookies with Browned Butter Icing
1 C butter, softened
1 C packed brown sugar
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 C flour
1 C toffee pieces
3/4 C ground toasted almonds, see note below.
Browned Butter Icing (see below)
In your mixer beat butter for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, salt and baking soda. Beat until combined, add in egg and vanilla. Add in flour, toffee bits and ground almonds.
Divide dough in half. Shape into a 10 inch long roll and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 6 hours (or 1 hour in the freezer). The dough needs to be firm enough to slice.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut rolls into 1/4 inch slices and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are firm and light brown. Cool on rack.
Make Browned Butter Icing: In a small pan melt 4 Tbsp. butter over medium heat until the butter turns light brown. Stir frequently. Remove from heat and add in 3 cups powdered sugar and 2 tsp vanilla. Add enough milk (1-2 Tbsp) to make the icing spreading consistency.
To Toast Nuts: I purchase my nuts already toasted from Trader Joes but if you can’t find them you can toast your nuts by heating your oven to 300 degrees and spreading nuts out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until they begin to turn golden brown. Stir once or twice and then cool. I used slivered almonds. Grind them in your food processor or blender.
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Thanks so much for sharing Leigh Anne! Make sure to check out her beautiful blog, Your Homebased Mom. It’s filled with great recipes, and beautiful photos, like this one.
Take care.
♥amy c
These look delicious!!!
Can you recommend a suitable substitute for the almonds. My son-in-law is allergic to tree nuts. This looks like a yummy cookie and I’m dieing to try the browned butter. Have you tried peanuts?
BTW, I was referred here by way of Leigh Anne’s blog. She’s an old friend. You both have some great stuff going here, keep it up. :-)
Mark, I would definitely try a different nut. It is going to change the flavor but should still be good. Let me know if you do and what you think. What other nuts aren’t tree nuts, other than peanuts??
i did a bit of research and found a couple of suggestions.
for the texture, some said fine bread crumbs, polenta, ground rice or semolina.
and then for the flavoring, i don’t know if almond essence would present an allergy too but there is a synthetic almond essence too. of course it would be the same but it might be close.
using peanuts would be that ‘nutty’ part but like leigh anne said, totally change the cookie.
bummer about the allergy! good luck!
This looks like a yummy cookie. Can you recommend a suitable substitute for the almonds? My son-in-law is allergic to tree nuts. Would roast peanuts work?
BTW, I was referred here by way of Leigh Anne’s YourHomeBasedMom blog. She’s an old friend. You both are doing a great job, keep it up.
Oops, I didn’t think the first one posted. My bad.
Oh my…I love brown butter icing. I put it on an applesauce cookie and it is amazing! I can’t wait to try these. They look wonderful!