Celebrate special day with almond crackle cookies

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That special day is coming up next week. You know the one where you spend time with your best friend and celebrate over a special meal or activity. You know, Galentine’s Day.

Whaaaat? What the heck is Galentine’s Day? I hadn’t even heard of it until this past week. I walked into the local Target and saw signs and cards amongst the pink heart-shaped everything that said “Happy Galentine’s Day.”

So, I Googled it immediately. Unknowingly, I had spelled it “galantine.” When I read the Wikipedia definition, “a French dish of de-boned stuffed meat, most commonly poultry or fish, that is poached and served cold, coated with aspic. Galantines are often stuffed with forcemeat, and pressed into a cylindrical shape,” I thought that can’t possibly be right. Who would celebrate that?

I looked again and realized my error. Not “galantine” but “galentine.” I discovered it is a day of celebrating the female friends in your life. Your besties. Your squad, as my 17-year-old calls them. A day to remind your gal pals that you love them and cherish their friendship with you.

If you are a fan of the TV show “Parks & Recreation,” you may already be familiar with Galentine’s Day. Amy Poehler’s character on the show, Leslie Knope, founded the fictitious holiday within the realm of the popular sitcom. But like many things, fiction has become fact and Galentine’s Day is a real thing.

Celebrated on February 13, the day before Valentine’s Day, the new holiday was born in 2010 when the first episode featuring it was originally aired. It’s not anti-valentine, but pro-bestie.

Poehler’s character Knope explains it like this: “Every Feb. 13th, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair minus the angst. Plus frittatas.”

Any celebration worth its salt deserves something sweet to commemorate it. While a delicious but complex and time-consuming chocolate recipe seems to mark special occasions, my goal this year is to find recipes that can be done in under a half an hour. So, I was pleased to find this week’s recipe.

If you are a soft and chewy cookie fan, these aren’t the cookies for you. These beauties are thin, nutty, and shatter easily. Hopefully, this doesn’t describe any of your galentines. These cookies are really fabulous on their own or crumbled over ice cream, yogurt, or pudding.

This recipe is a fast and easy one, coming from author and master baker Dorie Greenspan. It only has three ingredients!

Cookies are ready in under 30 minutes from mixing bowl to mouth and are great for sharing with your galentine or valentine.

Photo by Betty Williams

Three Ingredient Almond Crackle Cookies

Yield: 

Makes 20 cookies

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons (75 grams) sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/4 cups (125 grams) sliced almonds (blanched or unblanched)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Move oven racks to where the oven is divided into thirds. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar and egg together with a whisk until well blended and slightly thickened. Add the almonds and combine until almonds are coated with the sugar-egg mixture. The batter will separate if it stands for too long, so use the batter immediately, stirring often as you scoop it out. Using a teaspoon or small cookie scoop, place 2 teaspoons of batter on the prepared baking sheets. Level out each mound of batter with the back of a spoon or fork, leaving 2 inches between each cookie.

Bake cookies for 20 minutes, being sure to rotate the pans between racks halfway through the cooking time. Cookies should be dry and crackled on top and a light beige. Remove from oven and place baking sheets on racks to cool for 10 minutes. Gently lift the cookies with a wide spatula to cooling racks to continue to cool. Store in a cookie tin or paper bag. If cookies soften, place them on a lined baking sheet and warm at 350 degrees for five to six minutes to crisp up again.