Cookie Week - Almond Spiral Cookies

It's my favorite time of year and the best week to be here at WITK!  It's cookie week! I stocked up on butter, sugar and sprinkles and baked all weekend. When I was younger and still living at home, my mom, brother and I would spend an entire weekend making Christmas cookies. 

There were Russian tea cakes, butterscotch chip cookies, Mexican wedding cakes, cherry thumbprints, black forest drops, iced cut out cookies and so many more. I think we wound up with over a dozen different types of cookies each year. The cookies wound up on trays and dessert plates. They were taken to school and work. Everyone got to share the indulgence and we all wound up a few pounds heavier. 

Since I moved away from home over ten years ago now, I haven't really done a major cookie weekend. Even my mom has pared down her cookie baking because she retired last year. This year I decided to do a cookie baking weekend with the boyfriend and send all the treats to work with him!

Today we're starting off with a take on my classic almond sugar cookie. I went with a simple green and white color scheme because I had green sugar crystals in my pantry. Yeah, I'm real creative. Stay tuned all week for more cookies. So many cookies!

One Year Ago: Acorn Squash & Sausage Bake
Two Years Ago: Thai Chicken Curry
Three Years Ago: Dark Chocolate Hearts

Almond Spiral Cookies

A Wilde Original

1 stick butter, room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
Green food coloring
1/4 cup green sanding sugar

In a large bowl, beat together butter, powdered sugar and salt until smooth.  Add almond flour and almond extract and beat until combined.  Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the edges.  Add egg and combine.  Finally, add flour slowly until completely mixed.

Scrape half of the batter out of the bowl and onto a large piece of plastic wrap.  Fold over plastic wrap and roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness, about 6x10 inches.  Transfer to a baking sheet and chill dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.  To the remaining dough, add enough green food coloring to achieve your desired color. Mix until evenly colored. Scrape batter out of the bowl and onto a large piece of plastic wrap and roll out to 1/8-inch thickness, about the same size as the white dough. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Remove dough from the fridge and peel back plastic from the top of each piece of dough. Flip one piece onto the top of the other, gently press together.  Allow dough to warm slightly, until you can bend the dough.  Peel the top piece of plastic wrap from the dough.  Using the bottom piece of plastic wrap, begin rolling the dough into a 10-inch long cigar.  Be sure to press the dough together as you roll to make sure you have no gaps in the spiral.  Wrap the dough log in the plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge for another 30 minutes.

Pour green sanding sugar onto a flat plate.  Remove dough log from the fridge and roll in sugar crystals, gently press into the dough. Re-wrap in the plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.  Once dough is solid, remove from the freezer and slice into 1/4-inch medallions.  Place on a parchment (or silpat) lined baking sheet and place in the fridge until the oven is heated.

Preheat oven to 350 F and bake cookies for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet on a wire rack.