August 29, 2011
Mignardise
http://www.hertzmann.com/articles/miscellany/recipes/img/01039-xl.jpg|800|600
ghrieba aux amandes
(North African-style butter cookies with almonds)
During the ten-year period I was traveling a lot to France, I routinely purchased the latest cooking magazines from the kiosk near my hotel in Paris or whatever city I was in, and for years, these magazines have been a major source of recipes for me. (Today, I’m stuck with a four-foot high stack of old magazines in my office.) The most expensive of the magazines, and the one with always the fewest recipes, was Elle à table. It also was the source of the most avant-garde recipes in my repertoire. Today, I can access all of the recipes from the past years online at the magazine’s website. Also, the magazine greets me every morning with an email pushing a selection of recipes based on the day’s theme.
One morning, one of the recipes that popped up was for a North-African inspired butter cookie made from almond meal. I’m always intrigued by flourless cookies so I decided to try the recipe. On the third try, I think I finally reworked the recipe so it was suitable for my mignardise plate. (My only problem is that even this small recipe, half the size of the original, makes about 50 cookies.) There’s nothing special or mysterious about the preparation, and in my case, by the time the oven has preheated, the cookies are ready for baking.
During baking, these cookies don’t quite double in size so it possible to get them all on a single half-sheet size baking sheet. I’m pretty sloppy when I brush the orange-flower water on cookies and there’s lots of little puddles on the baking sheet when it goes in the oven. I don’t bother to wipe them up, and they seem to evaporate without any problems.
The finished cookies are reminiscent of macaroons, but the surface is more rustic and the texture a bit coarser. Since the cookies are a bit plain in appearance, you could fancy them up a bit by pressing a small cube of candied orange peel into the tops before baking.
1 large
egg, beaten
75 g (38  c)
finely granulated sugar
75 g (23 c)
unsalted butter, melted
250 g (9 oz)
ground, blanched almonds
2-34 g (about 1 rounded 12 t)
baking powder
zest from 1
lemon
orange-flower water
1. Preheat oven to 180 °C (355 °F). Line a couple of rimmed baking sheets with silicone pan liners or parchment paper.
2. Whisk the egg and sugar together until mixed. Whisk in the butter followed by the almonds, baking powder, and lemon zest. At some point, the batter will thicken. At this point, switch to a spatula and continue to mix until the batter is homogenous.
3. Using a 2.8-cm (about 1-in) scoop. Arrange the cookies on a baking sheet as small mounds. Brush the tops of the cookies with the orange-flower water.
4. Bake the cookies until the bottoms are brown, about 15 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool briefly on the baking sheets before transferring to cooling racks.

© 2011 Peter Hertzmann. All rights reserved.