Eating my way through San Francisco…luckily The Boulevard is across from a
great pathway with a view of the double decker Bay Bridge (Embarcadero), so I could walk up an appetite.
This is the first time I’ve followed a cookbook author to her restaurant and it was so worth the trip. I was so excited (and hungry) I took a bite of my wild salmon before taking a picture. And, of course I had two desserts.
The hardest part of making these cookies is not eating the cookie dough. It’s right up there with chocolate chip cookie dough.
When I bought the ingredients, the check-out clerk commented – You are making Asian style cookies? But The Gourmet Cookie Book has them listed as Portuguese – “Almond Bolas” from the 1970s. They taste like macaroons to me (raw or cooked), but no coconut in this recipe.
So easy…
With my new Christmas present-to-me Cuisinart mini-food processor, I ground 3 cups of blanched almonds, combining with 1 1/2 cups Japanese Panko bread crumbs and 1 1/2 cups superfine sugar. After whipping up 3 egg whites until stiff peaks formed ( with my other present-to-me 7-speed hand mixer), 
I gently folded in egg whites and 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract.
That’s it – no butter, no flour.
Form tablespoons of dough into balls; place balls on buttered baking sheet. Make a dent in the middle (shaping the cookie around your thumbprint).
In a separate bowl, beat the 3 egg yolks with an additional egg. Fill the cookie hollows with the 1/2 teaspoon beaten egg, topped with almond slivers (or whole almond). Top one cookie at a time to catch the yolk mixture before it seeps into the dough.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes, or until cookies are golden. Cool on wire rack.
The Chinese year 4709 – Year of the Rabbit – begins on Feb. 3, 2011. These cookies will not last until then – too good.
No Charge Book Bunch
Potpourri with Rosemarie 