Surprise Almond Cookies

April 7, 2021 |

Surprise Almond Cookies is a fun cookie recipe that hides a candied cherry inside a butter and almond cookie. It took me a while to make this recipe because candied cherries are only available during the holidays. Luckily, I remembered to pick some up during this past holiday season.

Cookies by Bess has one other cherry surprise cookie recipe, Cherry Choco Surprises. Both call for candied cherries which are super sweet and perfectly paired with the buttery and nutty cookie. Surprise Almond Cookies include almonds and a perfect amount of lemon flavor which provides another flavor surprise!

I’m rating Surprise Almond Cookies 3-stars for cookie baking difficulty. Honestly, I think the rating should be 2.5 stars. There are several steps involved in preparing the cookies to baking…nothing difficult, but there is a bit of technique needed to hide and form the cookies. In addition, forming the cookies does take some additional time.

Surprise Almond Cookies has a couple ingredients that may not be a part of your normal baking pantry. As I mentioned, I had the candied cherries in my baking pantry because I purchased them during the last holiday season. Cream isn’t something I keep in my refrigerator, so I did have to make a trip to the grocery store. I always have a few lemons on hand, so all good there! The rest of the ingredients are staples for me.

The recipe begins with blending the butter, cream, and grated lemon rind together “very well”. These three ingredients didn’t actually come together until I added the full cup of minced almond meats.

Then, adding the dry ingredients made the dough the perfect consistency for forming the surprise cookies.

To get started, I cut the candied cherries in half and…

took a teaspoon of dough…

I put a cherry in the middle of the dough and…

Formed the dough around the cherry.

Finally, I rolled the cookie into a ball. The dough is the perfect consistency for hiding the cherry. Soft enough to form the cookie ball and firm enough to keep it hidden while baking.

I filled my greased cookie sheet with the surprise cookies and stuck them in the oven.

The cookie balls kept the cherry surprise secret!

I just love the beautiful blond color and the flecks of almonds give the cookies just enough texture.

The cookies baked up nicely! They didn’t change shape much, but the bottoms of the cookies did brown faster than the rest of the cookies. I ended up baking the cookies just under 10 minutes to make sure they didn’t get too brown on the bottom.

Surprise Almond Cookies are a fun cookie to make and eat! The sweet candied cherry is perfectly paired with the buttery and almondy nut flavors.

Surprise Almond Cookies are perfect for a fancy party or backyard picnic. Everyone will love the candied cherry surprise. I suggest pairing these cookies with a chocolate fondue or bowl of vanilla ice cream ?

Enjoy!

XXOO,

Janet

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