CHEF JEFF — ONE BYTE AT A TIME: Almond Cookies

These tasty morsels are high in magnesium, a natural stress buster.

Almond Cookies

½ cup unsalted butter

1 tablespoon almond butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons amaretto

2/3 cup almond flour

2/3 cup unbleached flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

24 blanched almonds

Beat margarine, sugar, almond butter together until light, fluffy. Stir in amaretto, almond flour. Sift together flour, baking powder; stir into margarine mixture until just combined. Dough will be slightly sticky. On lightly floured surface, form into log about 12 inches long, 1½ inches in diameter. Wrap well in foil, refrigerate until well-chilled, 2 hours or overnight. When ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Slice dough into ½-inch thick rounds; place on lightly greased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Gently press blanched almond into center of each. Bake 10 minutes or until cookies are just turning golden. Remove from oven. Cookies firm up as they cool.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies.

Grab more food tidbits at the Chef Jeff blog at GrandForksHerald.com.

Tags: chef jeff, jeff tiedeman, one byte at a time, accent, updates, food, recipes