Rachael Ray's Almond Paste Cookie Recipe

A few months back my mom and I stopped at Hannaford because frankly it is the only grocery store in her rural town and if you ask her she will tell you, she hates Hannaford. I find this a little humorous, because if you know my mom she doesn't hate many things.  So, the fact that she says this just tells you how much she despises the place and wishes the good old fashioned P&C store they had for years was still there. I agree with her. The truth is the way that the store is set up doesn't really make a lot of sense and they are constantly changing and rearranging where items are located which does not make for a very enjoyable shopping experience. I don't know about you, but as busy moms we don't have time for that.  Let's get in, get what we need and GET OUT!

Anyway, the good thing about this store is that they do have a bit of a different selection than other grocery stores do when it comes to gluten free items and when we went to the gluten free section that day, we TOTALLY SCORED (said in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure style) with Aleias's gluten free Almond Paste cookies!!!!! They were so chewy and tasty; like the real thing. We opened the bag in the car, and could not help but almost devour the whole bag before sharing some with my "anti-gluten free" dad who agreed they were very good. At $7.99 for a bag of about 15 cookies though, it got me thinking that it might be more cost effective to try to make some for myself. After all, how hard could it be, being that the ingredients on the back of the bag didn't list any flour at all?

You would think that if a recipe didn’t call for flour that you would be in the clear- free  to just grab all the ingredients, start mixing, throw them in the oven to bake and have yourself some yummy gluten free cookies. Oh, but not so fast! You ALWAYS have to check the labels and I learned this (again) when I went to look for the almond paste- at Price Chopper (of course), happily my store of choice:)

Before being diagnosed with celiac disease I had been in the best shape of my life. I had been an active runner all my life and continued to be active through all of my pregnancies and I lost the weight quickly after having each of my 3 children. I had always been a junk food junkie enjoying my chips, cheese and chocolate, but never overindulged and had always been “healthy.” As a matter of fact in 2007 I was at the top of my game. I felt fabulous; in the best shape of my life when I ran a half marathon a year after having my second child.  

Back to my point about reading labels though, I have never been a label reader. What are labels and why would I have to look at them? I had no idea, never had to and never will I thought! And, we’ll leave the rest of that tangent for another post.  

There were two options on the shelf at Price Chopper, plenty of tubes of Odense Almond Paste or one can of Solo Almond Paste. My gut instinct was to grab the tubes, because there were so many and I needed 2 lbs of the stuff for Rachael Ray’s Almond Paste cookies. I was just about to grab the tubes of Odense almond paste and GET OUT when I paused, swallowed and remembered, "Oh yes, I am now a label reader and will be for the rest of my life." (hard pill to swallow). I looked at the label and saw that those bad boys contained glucose syrup derived from wheat, (apparently glucose syrup can be derived from other sources). Discouraged by my discovery, I put that back and looked at the one can of SOLO in front of me. I hesitantly looked at the back, afraid of what I might see, but surprisingly these little suckers did not include wheat/gluten in the ingredients list.

With the help of the kind employee that just so happened to be straightening the almond paste section, he informed me that there were more cans of the Solo brand in another section. I said a little prayer that there would indeed be more in the other section. I was thrilled when he quickly returned with a few more cans. I scooped up just two because they were a little pricey and who knew if the cookies would be that good anyway. When I got home I called the company just to confirm that the paste was in fact gluten free, and thank God it was!!:)

 Here’s a picture of this heavenly stuff:

And, finally here’s what you’re really here for, the Rachael Ray recipe. I halved it and it made about 3 dozen delicious cookies.  I brought them to my Italian side Christmas party last week, everyone gave them rave reviews and said they tasted just like my grandmothers. And to think that I had to say goodbye forever to all of my tasty memories, I discovered these God-sent Almond Paste cookies. Try them, and let me know what you think!

Ingredients

2 pounds almond paste

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon salt

6 rounded tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup egg whites

1 1/2 pounds blanched, slivered/sliced almonds

Makes approximately 8 dozen cookies

Preparation

Grate the almond paste with the large holes of a box grater.

Mix the sugars and cornstarch together in a large bowl. Add the grated almond paste to the sugar mixture. Mix until fine granules form (you can also do this in a mixer on low).

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl with a fork until frothy, 1-2 minutes. Add the egg whites and salt to the sugar/almond paste mixture and mix to combine.

 Roll the dough into teaspoon-size balls and roll in the slivered/sliced almonds to coat. The dough will be very loose – keep your hands wet to make it easier to roll.

 Place the balls on wax or parchment paper and cover with additional paper. Let the dough balls sit out on the countertop for 1-3 hours, until they dry out a bit.

 Pre-heat the oven to 375°F.

Bake the cookies on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets for  for 12-15 minutes, until puffed and light golden brown.

 Note: this recipe may be halved.

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I used a hand mixer to mix the sugars and almond paste. It took me a good 5 minutes of constant beating to make fine granules. Also, I baked the cookies for a total of about 20 minutes and they were perfect, still chewy inside.