almond lace cookies

In my search to find an "Irish" cookie recipe I kept coming back to lace cookies. But from there you have to narrow it down from "almond lace", "oatmeal lace", "pecan lace", etc. I picked almond, simply because I had almonds. I don't have the exact place I found the recipe, but it or variations of it are all over the internet. 

Almond Lace Cookies

1/2 cup chopped almonds (or ground in a food processor)

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 TBSP heavy cream

1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract [I used almond but would probably do 1/2 of each next time]

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease cookie sheets. 

2. Boil the chopped almonds for 2 min. in just enough water to cover them. Drain and use a food processor to chop finely. [I chopped in food processor, but didn't boil and I don't think it would make a difference.] 

3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the flour, sugar, heavy cream, extract and chopped almonds. 

4. Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 1/2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Keep plenty of space or you will have them melt together. 

5. Bake until golden rims form, about 5 minutes. [I always want to cook cookies for too long and these were no exception, I cooked them for a minute longer and I shouldn't have.]

6. Let sit for a minute or two and then place on rack to make flat or on form to shape*.  They are really soft when they come out of the oven but harden pretty quickly after that. 

My Notes: 

 *I wanted to make cookie cups so I inverted a greased muffin tin and put the hot cookies on them to cool into formed cups. However teaspoons sized cookies were too small for a traditional sized muffin tin- I'd either use a mini-muffin tin or use a larger cookie to form my cups next time.

You can also cool them flat and drizzle with chocolate.

Or fill with freshly whipped cream and berries. Or dare I say both??