Tea Parties require Tea Cakes

These tea cakes were perfect bite size treats for our roommate tea party. I only filled the muffin cups half way so they wouldn't overflow - so cute! Adapted from Taste of Home.

Almond Tea Cakes
60 Servings
Prep: 30 min. + chilling Bake: 20 min.

Ingredients
2 cups butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
4 teaspoons almond extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Filling:
1 egg white
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Milk
Sliced almonds

Directions
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs and almond extract; mix well. Add flour and baking powder (dough will be soft). Chill.
For filling, in a small bowl, stir egg white, sugar, almonds and lemon juice. Remove a portion of the dough at a time from the refrigerator. Place 1-in. balls of dough into miniature muffin cups, pressing slightly into sides and bottom. Place 1/2 teaspoon of filling into each. Cover with quarter-sized circles of dough.
Brush with a little milk and top with an almond. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Yield: about 5 dozen.

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 each) equals 119 calories, 7 g fat (4 g saturated fat), 23 mg cholesterol, 73 mg sodium, 13 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 1 g protein.

These Almond Cookies Are So Much Better

These Honey Almond Flower Cookies turned out so much better! But they could have tasted a little bit more like almonds - gotta keep looking for the perfect Almond Cookie Recipe!

These look like my kind of cookie...

Courtesy of hotpolkadot.com

Honey Almond Flower Cookies
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp honey
2 tsp almond extract
3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Slivered almonds for garnish
1 egg yolk for egg wash
1 tsp water for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and position a rack in the center. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper then set them aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar until it's light a fluffy. Add the egg, honey and almond extract then beat it until it's combined well.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt then add it to the butter mixture and mix it well.

Scoop a heaping tbsp of dough for each cookie and roll them into balls. Lightly compress the balls into thick discs between your palms. Carefully press five of the slivered almonds into each cookie in a flower arrangement. Whisk together the egg yolk and water then, using a pastry brush, coat the tops of each cookie in the egg wash making sure not to knock off the almonds. This will make the cookies shiny, golden brown and act as an almond flower glue to hold the garnish.

Bake them for 10 minutes until they turn a light amber brown. Transfer them to a cooling rack and enjoy!

The Last Two Didn't Burn... but the other 18 Almond Cookies weren't so lucky...

The Two that Didn't Burn

Fluffy, Chewy, Sweet, Almondiness with Burnt edges is how I would describe these cookies from AllRecipes. I was so excited to use my new almond paste, I just picked the first recipe with good reviews that I had all the ingredients for. What I realized afterwards? This cookie is basically just sugar, flour and egg whites! I think there needs to be a little more substance!

I tried to improve with each batch, and the last batch was definitely the best. The first one I left in for exactly 15 minutes and they all were burnt and stuck to each other. I used Pam spray to coat the baking sheet, and sometimes I think Pam seeps into the edges and cooks them faster, so I decided to use butter in the next batches. 

The First Batch

The second batch, I used a stick of butter to lightly grease the baking sheet and I made much smaller cookies. I was sitting by the oven, checking on them every minute and some how, they still ended up crispy. They were still tasty, and they came up off the baking sheet much easier, but still I was not satisfied!

The Second Batch

The third batch was only three cookies because that was the only batter I had left. I was so determined not to burn these cookies, that when one cookie started browning, I just pulled them out. One of the reviewers suggested using parchment paper, which I bet would have helped with the crisp edges. They also said to chill the dough in the fridge for twenty minutes and use an ice cream scoop. But for now, I'm going to try almond cookies with some more substance.

THE RECIPE

Ingredients

1/2 pound almond paste

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 egg whites

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.

2. In a large bowl, use your hands to mix together the almond paste, flour, egg whites, white sugar and confectioner's sugar until well blended. The mixture will be very sticky. Scoop out rounded teaspoonfuls of the dough and drop them onto the cookie sheet. Place 2 inches apart.