Mais Oui, It's Paris (Sweets)

Oh, yeah, le troisieme from the delightful Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan.  This recipe is why it is just so fun to cook straight through a cookbook once in a while.  I would have never chosen this one.  Let's take a look at

ALMOND COOKIES

Four ingredients, and none of them are flour.  Are you listening, you gluten-avoiders?  Four ingredients:  Blanched almonds, egg whites, sugar and pecans.  The pecans are optional!

Put the sugar and almonds in a food processor and grind until fine:

Slowly add the egg whites; you don't want to make meringue so don't run it too long.  Finally, add some chopped pecans for extra nutty goodness.  (Sometime I will tell you about my love affair with pecans.)

Dollop onto the cookie sheet and bake.  (Your helper is probably not as cute as mine, and definitely not as sweet.)

I just realized that I failed to take "finished" pictures.  If you can see the shape of the cookie there, that is basically how they looked coming out of the oven.  They hold their shape very well, and are chewy and very rich and nutty.  In short, I loved them.

Why would I have never chosen to make these?  Because it just sounds weird!  And also, for some reason the blanched almond thing intimidated me.  But you can actually buy those at the grocery store, so just whirring them in the food processor is very simple.

Everyone liked these, especially one of my boys.  These truly tasted special, a little more sophisticated, and the layers of nut flavor were especially good.  I usually use only one variety of nut in a baking recipe, but I like this.  Next time I'll toast the pecans for extra nuttiness.

It's a good thing I have lost my fear of blanched almonds.  Looking ahead, they are in a bunch of these recipes!  Until next time...