Every week, Food52's Senior Editor Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that are nothing short of genius.
Today: A cookie for all your gifting, swapping, and impressing needs this holiday season.
- Kristen
Do you wish you were the sort of person who kept a tidy, well-planned cache of cookie dough in your freezer, instead of things like near-empty pints of ice cream and fossilized bananas that may, but most likely will not, become banana bread?
This is your chance!
(Or if you're already that person, smile smugly to yourself and add this recipe to your file.)
These crisp almond wafers could not be easier to make, or exude more fanciness. Double win. They come to us from Flo Braker, a self-taught baking expert and cookbook author (pictured below), by way of David Lebovitz, by way of our own Rivka -- who tipped me off to their genius, calling them "The Best Tea Cookies on the Planet".
Braker considers this her signature cookie, and has tested and refined all chances of failure right out of it.
This is all you have to do: You gently melt together raw sugar, butter, water and cinnamon, leaving some of the sugar crunchy, then add sliced almonds and flour. No creaming, no pulsing, just stirring.
To get that mod, I-am-so-not-a-drop-cookie shape, you don't have to roll anything out or use a special mold. Just press it into a loaf pan (you know, the one you're not making banana bread in) and bundle it in plastic wrap, then chill it till it's firm enough to slice. Or if you're impatient (or planning ahead, you model entertainer), freeze it.
Then whenever you're ready for cookies, you can peel them off in skinny tan-colored slices, cross-hatched with snips of almond. A serrated knife is your ally here.
A note: If your loaf pan is angled (like they usually are), it will give you barely sloping trapezoids instead of those perfect tiles shaped like sticks of gum. If you worry about this, you can just shave a little extra off the sides of the block to tidy it up. And because there's no egg in the dough, there's nothing to stop you from really going to town on the scraps.
Then you just bake, flipping once so they brown up into wands of caramel, brown butter and almond that snap under your teeth.
They're dry and buttery-crisp without being too fragile, so they'll ship well cross-country or pack up neatly in a tin for a cookie exchange or hostess gift. But as Rivka points out, the best part is you can also slice off a few cookies whenever you see fit. "It's a great arrangement ... I err on the side of caution and bake up about 10 at a time — you know, just in case."
Flo Braker's Pains D'Amande
Makes 7 dozen 1 1/2-inch squares
From Sweet Miniatures by Flo Braker (Chronicle Books, 2000)
2 1/3 cups (325g) unsifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into quarters
1 1/3 cups (300g) Hawaiian washed raw sugar, or turbinado or demerara
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup water
3 ounces (1 cup) sliced almonds
See a slideshow and the full recipe (and save and print it) here.
Want more genius? Try Paul Bertolli's Cauliflower Soup
Got a genius recipe to share -- from a classic cookbook, an online source, or anywhere, really? Please send it my way (and tell me what's so smart about it) at kristen@food52.com.
Photos by James Ransom
-
kristen miglore
I'm an ex-economist, ex-Californian who moved to New York to work in food media in 2007. Dodgy career choices aside, I can't help but apply the rational tendencies of my former life to things like: recipe tweaking, digging up obscure facts about pizza, and deciding how many pastries to put in my purse for "later."
Some past articles from this author you'll love:
Barbara Kafka's Simplest Roast Chicken
Anne Dimock's Straight-Up Rhubarb Pie
Daniel Patterson's Poached Scrambled Eggs
37 Comments on Flo Braker's Pains d'Amande:
Wow! These are really delicious, especially with a hot beverage. So glad I tried them and they are really pretty easy to make.
Made these - lovely cookies. A couple tweaks: I threw in pistachios as well as the almonds - about half and half. The pistachios create pretty green flecks throughout. Also, painted about half the batch with melted dark chocolate on one side of the cookie. The chocolate transforms the cookie into something else completely, (relative of chocolate covered biscotti), but is also very good. My husband, however, really liked the pure tea cookie without chocolate. So both ways - great!
Kristen, I baked a batch of these this afternoon. They are exactly as you described. The batter is SO EASY to throw together. After chilling, I was able to cut very thin and uniform rectangles that make me look much more exacting than I really am. They taste wonderful to boot and I am taking them to a cookie exchange this evening. Thanks for a great recipe.
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added 5 months agoThanks everyone for your great comments -- I hope you try these beauties, and please report back if you do!
I wish you'd stick to ounces or grams but not mix the two. We Europeans don't use cups but we understand both weights. But flip-flopping between g and ounces is maddening:
(325g) unsifted all-purpose flour, 4 ounces unsalted butter, (300g) Hawaiian washed raw sugar, 3 ounces sliced almonds
Here you go, ivanpope -- this iteration of Flo Braker's wonderful recipe is more consistent with measurements, perhaps because David lives in Europe: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/04/flo-brakers-pain-damande-cookies/
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added 5 months agoThanks cookbookchick!
I know that you have done this recipe over and over to get the right proportions, but I have a friend who cannot tolerate gluten. Have you ever done these gluten free and if so, what type of flour have you used? I have an all purpose gluten free and I also have several mixes that I made up from the CIA's gluten free baking cook book. If you are familiar with that cookbook, perhaps one of those mixtures would be better. I would hate to waste all that butter and almonds messing around with this recipe to get this done right. I know that my friend would just LOVE these cookies and I would love to make them for him.
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added 5 months agoSorry creekpaddler -- I'm not familiar with the CIA's gluten-free formulas, but I'd suspect that you'd be okay using either. The dough is only stirred together briefly, so there isn't much gluten development in the original recipe, and much of the texture derives from the crunchy sugar and almonds. The dough wouldn't go to waste, of that much I'm confident!
These cookies are amazing, easy & have a great yield. I'm trying another batch today swapping out the cinnamon with my favorite spice...cardamom.
You've Sold me on the cardamom! fantastic suggestion!
I love the mere idea of these. Brilliant.
Moderators -- is there some way that in some future version of this site, comments on a post like this could also be seen when you click on the recipe itself? If I'd found the recipe in some other way than through this article, I'd never see this full thread of raves about the recipe...
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added 5 months agoGreat point -- our tech team has a lot on their plates right now, but we'll definitely keep this in mind. It would be great to have the article and the recipe more in sync.
These are my favorite, favorite tea cookies...remind me of my childhood...mmmmmmmm...sweet, nutty, crunchy goodness! Thanks so much for posting the recipe!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I was in Orvieto in September and had an incredible thin cinnamon almond cookie from Dolceamaro Gelateria and Bakery. It was the best thing I ate all day! I have been wondering how I could find a similar recipe and you have come to my rescue with another genius recipe. I'm very excited to try them out.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I was in Orvieto in September and had an incredible thin cinnamon almond cookie from Dolceamaro Gelateria and Bakery. It was the best thing I ate all day! I have been wondering how I could find a similar recipe and you have come to my rescue with another genius recipe. I'm very excited to try them out.
I was under a rock on Friday, but catching up now, I'm thrilled to see these cookies featured in my favorite Food52 column. They really are the best tea cookies on the planet. Thanks, Kristen, and hope everyone loves these cookies as much as I do!
These sound SO good - a slice-and-bake praline. Genius indeed. Thanks, Kristen!
These are fantastic! So easy, so elegant. Not too sweet... Just perfect!
Oh my, oh my, the first batch just out of the oven...and cool...and the first taste...typically don't use omg but OMG! what goodness and joy...turn on the holiday music.
Thanks Kristen!
I don't think I can express how happy it makes me to see this recipe. These are my favorite cookies of all time! I buy them in Belgium and wherever else I find them and had after much dedicated searching had despaired of ever finding a recipe for them. I think I now have it - will be making today. THANK YOU!
These sound amazing and just in time to save me from agonizing about what cookies to make for a lab party tomorrow when really I don't have time for baking and need to be grading. Thanks for another great column!
These are reminiscent of the Almond Thins I used to buy at the corner bodega across from my office in NYC. So addictive! I can hardly wait to make them myself -- and these have got to be even better! I, too, look forward to what Kristen has in store for us each week. And, I too, have fossilized bananas in my freezer, along with some of mrslarkin's delish blueberry scones. (No, wait -- we ate those!)
Time to make more scones! And these cookies! :)
Just found this site thru an article in today's Parade magazine reporting on the Food52Cookbook. Where is your scones recipe? LOVE scones, and sounds like they can be frozen? Yum
Just found this site thru an article in today's Parade magazine reporting on the Food52Cookbook. Where is your scones recipe? LOVE scones, and sounds like they can be frozen? Yum
Just found this site thru an article in today's Parade magazine reporting on the Food52Cookbook. Where is your scones recipe? LOVE scones, and sounds like they can be frozen? Yum
Gah! I am that person! I want to be that other person (well, every now and then I manage to have a couple useful things in my freezer. Usually some scones, now, thanks to Mrslarkin!). And, I too wish I'd had this recipe before mailing out my secret santa gift. And I wish I could eat almonds. But, that's a side wish to those other ones. Absolutely wonderful again, Kristen!
Hee! You're welcome 5&S! I was that person, too. Well, before the Halloween power outage, that is. Had to throw out all the leaky mushy defrosted bananas.
Lol. I guess power outages can be seen as useful in some respects. That's most likely the only way my freezer can be saved from my hoarding at this point.
Look lady (that's right, I 'look lady-ed' you). Stop making fun of the stash of moldering bananas in cryo-suspension in my freezer. First of all, it's cheating to look in my freezer. Second of all....well, I don't have anything else. :) These sound great! I soooo love this column. Since I am on the delayed sending program for my food52 secret santa package maybe I'll add them to the box!
love
yum. this is right up my alley, surprise-surprise. I guess the poor cauliflower I have stashed in the fridge will have to wait another day.....
Love this!
AAAHH!!, If Only this was out yesterday..I cd have added this for my secret santa package :-(
This series just keeps getting better & better! Thank you Kristen..
Have I said how much I love this series? I do. I do.
Please Sign up (or log in) to add a comment!