Chattyheads
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Cook time: 
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Serves: 40
 
Ingredients
  • 250g (or 2 cups) whole, blanched almonds
  • 30g (or ¼ cup) all-purpose flour
  • ¾ teaspoon table salt
  • 200g (or 1 cup) granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of honey
  • 3 tablespoons whipping cream
  • 113g (or ½ cup) unsalted butter
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and line a sheet pan with baking parchment.
  2. Add half the almonds, the flour and the salt to the bowl of a food processor. Grind together until the almonds are finely chopped, but not yet completely pulverized. There should be some bigger chunks of almond still visible in the mixture.
  3. Put the remaining half of the almonds in a ziploc bag, taking care to seal in as little air as possible, and roughly crush the almonds with a rolling pin. I like to have bigger pieces of almond in my cookies, so I usually just jab every single almond once with the handle of the pin to split it in half.
  4. Combine the split (or crushed) almonds with the previously grinded mixture and set aside.
  5. In a large saucepan over low heat, combine the sugar, honey, cream and butter. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Pop in a sugar thermometer and heat the mixture to 113°C (235 °F).
  6. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the almond mixture until a paste forms. Stir in the almond extract.
  7. For individual cookies: use a teaspoon cookie scoop or just a pair of regular teaspoons to scoop batter onto the prepared sheet pan. This batter will spread during baking and one teaspoon of cookie batter will actually flow out into a 5-cm (2-inch) cookie, so teaspoons of batter should be spaced at least 6 cm (2,5 inches) apart.
  8. For cookie shards: use a pair of dessertspoons (or a 10-ml cookie scoop) to scoop batter onto the prepared sheet pan. Space the heaps of batter 6 cm (2,5 inches) apart. During baking, the batter will spread out into a giant cookie.
  9. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until they've turned a nice golden brown. The cookies will be very soft when you take them out of the oven.
  10. Let the cookies (or giant cookies) cool and crisp up on a flat surface. If you've chosen the path of cookie shards, break the giant cookies up into smaller shards. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Recipe by The Tough Cookie at https://thetoughcookie.com/2013/03/24/chattyheads/