Almond Tarts

Cookies by Bess’ Almond Tarts are a wonderful mini-tart cookie filled with a sweet and almondy flavors. I hadn’t made a tart cookie before, so I was very curious how these little gems were going to turn out.

After reading the recipe, I loved the idea of using mini muffin tins, shaping the cups, and filling them with a sweet and nutty filling.  Almond Tarts seemed like a unique cookie recipe, so I wondered if Almond Tarts were a common cookie recipe.  After Googling “Almond Tarts”, I didn’t find any similar recipes. Just mini fruit and lemon tarts.

Now that I’ve made Cookies by Bess’ Almond Tarts, I’m not surprised this isn’t a common cookie recipe. It’s a unique recipe that combines ingredients you wouldn’t expect to see together. Sour cream and butter? Almonds and egg whites? All mixed together, they make a wonderfully unique tart cookie!

I also want to mention, I had a blast making Almond Tarts! The rolling the cookie dough into balls, forming the cups, beating the egg whites, filling the cups, and watching them bake up to beautiful tart cookies.

I’m rating Almond Tarts 3-stars for cookie difficulty. The tarts are not hard to make, but the many steps involved and the attention to detail needed elevates the difficulty level a bit.

There aren’t many ingredients to pull together, but I did have to run to the grocery store to get the sour cream…not something I normally have on hand.

Mixing the butter, egg yolks, and sour cream produced a creamy start to the tart cookie dough.

After adding the flour, I wasn’t quite sure the dough was going to work. It was a bit sticky and had an elastic type consistency.

I had to read the recipe a couple times to make sure I was proceeding with the next step correctly. The recipe says to roll the dough into small balls and then chill for several hours. Normally, when chilling a cookie dough, it’s chilled prior to forming balls or other shapes. This recipe called for rolling the cookie balls first.

The recipe didn’t mention using additional flour to help shaped the balls. The dough was sticky, so I decided to use flour on my hands to help.

The little bit of flour helped quite a bit!

The recipe instructions wasn’t specific about the size of the cookie balls, so I estimated the size based on the mini muffin tins cups.

After rolling all the cookie balls, I covered them with wax paper and stuck them I the refrigerator.

I placed a cookie ball in each tin cup…

Then began forming the tarts in the muffin tin cups.

Forming the tart cookies was easy, but a took a bit of time.  I tried to make sure the dough was evenly distributed in the cups.

Once I had the tart cups formed. I beat the egg whites until firm.

Next, I added the chopped almonds and sugar.

And carefully folded all together.

I was now set to start filling the cups!

The recipe doesn’t mention how much of the filling mixture to put in the cups, so I used my best judgement. I wasn’t sure I’d have enough for all of the tarts, so I used about ½ teaspoon for each.

The cups looked so pretty, I just had to take a close up!

In no time, I was ready to bake!

The tarts baked up nicely! I baked them until I could see just a touch of brown on the tart cups.

The filling puffed up a bit and baked perfectly! What a pretty little tart cookie!

The tarts were easy to remove from the baking pans. They lines up nicely on my cooling racks.

I just can’t get over how pretty these Almond Tarts turned out! The creamy color of the cookie tart and the texture of the filling make such a beautiful cookie!

Almond Tarts are a wonderful fancy cookie that combines unique ingredients and flavors. They are a perfect cookie for family gatherings, fancy parties, or any occasion. Not too sweet, they are perfect for dessert with coffee or a champagne toast!

I hope you will try Cookies by Bess’ Almond Tarts. You will need a bit more time to make them, but the steps in the process are fun and the end result cookies are worth the efforts. I just now you will love Almond Tarts!

XXOO,

Janet

 

Print