A Few Life Certainties: Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

of a few things i am certain: country music can be oh so sad sometimes (i'm listening to Sammy Kershaw's Matches right now), i am incapable of coloring between designated lines, i like reading obituaries (maudlin and emo, i know) and wedding and birth announcements (that should even out the whole creepy dark vibe and tip the scale to just plain sappy), and i don't like icing. that may be kinda un-american, verging on just odd but the sweet stickiness of icing does not sit well on my palate. even when my mother used to cut back the sugar in her icing, the richness of the butter in the icing would get to me. i always always always leave icing untouched on a slice of cake, sometimes my plate looking like it's playing host to an icing carcass. and don't get me started on fondant. since picking up the whisk and spatula, committing to following the rules of baking (ie. doing the exact measurements thing) and really making an effort to create edible sweet confections, i've been introduced to butter cream, ganache, and flavored whipping cream, and i'm still certain: icing is icing and icing is evil. and not in a good way.

so, dear readers, you'll be surprised and maybe even turned off to find out that i pulled a completely hypocritical thing this past weekend. i used an exorbitant amount of icing for delicious almond chocolate chip cookies and... well. um. the icing was store bought. I KNOW! but the thought of playing with the powdered sugar, butter and tracking down some amaretto liqueur annoyed me. so i bought whipped vanilla icing and called it a day. however, rest assured, these cookies turned out lovely. chewing, soft with a hint of crunch. definately good cookies. for certain.

Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies
slightly modified from Bella Eats who adapted from Giada di Laurentiis

makes 4 dozen cookies or 2 dozen cookie sandwiches

1/2 cup rolled oats
2-1/4 cups all purpose flour (i used 50/50 AP and Whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar (i used about 2/3 cup of brown sugar, not very packed)
1 cup granulated sugar (again, about 2/3 cup of sugar)
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 tsp pure almond extract
1 (12 oz) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup whole almonds, toasted and chopped

i scaled back the amount of sugar used to offset the sweetness of the icing. i also broke down the prep into two days, a la NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies, not adding the oats and chocolate chips until the day of baking (48 hours later).

Method:

Preheat oven to 325*. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Finely chop oats in a food processor (we used a small chopper) (i did this step separately and 48 hours later), mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and beat in the eggs and extract.

Add the flour mixture in 3 batches and mix until just blended.

Gently fold in the chocolate chips and almonds, and in my case, the rolled oats as well.

Drop dough (about one rounded tablespoon each) onto cookie sheet, two inches apart.

Do not flatten.

Bake until cookies are golden, about 13 minutes.

Cool the cookies on sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire cooling rack.

Can be eaten sans icing (but with a glass of cold milk) or sandwich icing between two cookies.

today's song: Kings of Leon, Revelry

**i was at this show Tuesday night. great band.