Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies

Chocolate Chip cookies with the hidden goodness of almonds!

I am always trying to sneak in some ‘healthy’ ingredient into everything I cook and these chocolate chip cookies are no exception.

I needn’t go into the goodness of almonds since much has been said about them. They are good and we know that. Period!

So how did I go about it? That is again a story in itself. I was planning to make almond powder for almond milk but that went wrong. Quite a disappointment that was. I simply packed all the soaked-peeled-roasted-ground almond in a jar and left it at the back of my freezer compartment. But soon an idea struck and I knew what I could do with the ground almonds. Almond cookies.

Almond cookies sounded good but I was not sure of using almonds solely. I decided to tweak the custard cookies recipe and the results were pretty satisfying.

This is how my Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies went.

Ingredients:

• Ground almond* – 1/2 cup
• All purpose flour – 1/2 cup
• Custard powder (vanilla flavour) – 1/2 cup
• Baking powder – 1/2 tsp
• Sugar (powdered) – 3/4 cup
• Butter (unsalted) – 1 cup
• Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
• Chocolate chips – 3/4 cup

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Sieve the flour, custard powder and baking powder together.

Add the ground almond and sugar. Mix well.

Add the butter and essence and knead well using your hand. It might look crumbly initially but do not add more butter or any other liquid. Keep kneading and soon you will get a smooth and soft dough.

When you have smooth dough add the chocolate chips and mix well. This might result in loosening the dough a bit. But this is okay.

Divide the dough into fifteen equal sized balls and flatten a bit between your palms. These will be a little small in size.

If you want larger cookies you can shape them as desired. But be sure to maintain the same size. This will ensure even cooking.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the cookie balls. Keep an inch of space between the cookies to give room for expansion.

Place the cookies in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes.

When you see the cookies turning a golden brown you know they are done.

Let the cookies rest on the cookie tray for 10-15 minutes. When slightly cool transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and allow the cookies to cool down thoroughly.

Store cookies in an airtight jar and enjoy them with you cuppa or watch you children gobble them up with or without milk.

*Almond powder – Soak almonds in water and soak overnight. Peel the soaked almonds and roast them till dry. Once cool, grind the almonds to get a grainy textured almond powder.