I have been looking forward to Thanksgiving week because I love cooking and baking holiday foods. This year, we have three different Thanksgiving meals to go to (not all in the same day thankfully). It’s awesome because I get to make so many different things to bring. Plus, who wouldn’t want to re-live a Thanksgiving meal three times in one year?! This year I had planned on making several different dishes, mainly my favorite and best recipes. I always make baked macaroni and cheese and apple pie but I saw these cookies on Pinterest that just looked so pretty that I had to make them. I tweaked the recipe just a bit and boy, are they yummy! The original recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens. Here is my rendition:

For the cookies (recipe is doubled because I had a lot of mouth’s to feed!): Doubled recipe makes about 60 cookies

2 cups butter, at room temperature

1 1/3 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons almond extract

3 cups white unbleached flour

1 cup almond flour

Seedless raspberry preserves

1/4 cup white sugar, set aside

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon water mixed with a teaspoon vanilla

1. In a stand mixer (or with a hand-held mixer) cream the butter until light and fluffy.
2. Continue mixing on medium speed and add the sugar. Beat until combined
3. Whisk the flour and almond flour
4. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture by the cupful, increasing the speed as the mixer needs
5. Mix in the almond extract until combined
6. Form the dough into an inch-thick rectangle and wrap in plastic wrap
7. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour
8. Line a cookie sheet with parchment and preheat the oven to 350
9. Take the dough out of the fridge and slice the dough rectangle into squares about one inch by one inch.
10. Roll each square into a ball and into the sugar and place on the cookie sheet
11. Take a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon and make an indention in each cookie
12. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of preserves in the indention
13. Bake cookies for 12 minutes or until the edges are a slight golden color
14. Mix the powdered sugar, water and vanilla extract. You will know it is the right consistency when a you dip a spoon into the mixture and it forms a ribbon on top of the mixture that slowly disappears.
15. Drizzle this sugar icing on each cooled cookie using quick zig-zag motions

These cookies are just so pretty and even easier to eat. I think they make a great addition to any holiday party, especially Christmas parties! The almond flavor is intensified with the added almond flour, which I like. They come out soft and chewy with perfectly crispy edges thanks to the extra step of rolling in sugar. Basically, they are a flavor explosion in your mouth and you will want to shove as many in as possible. Make them!