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Dorie Greenspan’s 3-Ingredient Almond Crackle Cookies

Dorie Greenspan_Almond Crackle Cookies recipeThese have just three ingredients — sugar, sliced almonds and an egg — and no reason, other than a baker’s faith, to turn into anything delicious. When a Parisian friend, Martine Collet, gave me the recipe, I kept asking if she’d forgotten anything. Maybe a little flour? Maybe a dab of butter? Nope. 1–2–3, and that’s it. What you get are crisp, flavorful caramel-almond wafers.

ON-DEMAND: Listen to Faith and Dorie talk about this cookie recipe as well as several other cookie recipes from Dorie’s book on The Faith Middleton Food Schmooze.

Excerpted from Dorie’s Cookies, published by Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Copyright © 2016 Dorie Greenspan. Photographs © 2016 Davide Luciano and Claudia Ficca.

 

Dorie Greenspan_Almond Crackle Cookies recipe
3-Ingredient Almond Crackle Cookies
Votes: 130
Rating: 3.7
You:
Rate this recipe!
Print Recipe
Cookies with as much snap as these should be made only on dry days. But, should the weather shift, you can recrisp them in the oven.
  • CourseDessert
  • CuisineAmerican
Servings
20 cookies
Servings
20 cookies
Dorie Greenspan_Almond Crackle Cookies recipe
3-Ingredient Almond Crackle Cookies
Votes: 130
Rating: 3.7
You:
Rate this recipe!
Print Recipe
Cookies with as much snap as these should be made only on dry days. But, should the weather shift, you can recrisp them in the oven.
  • CourseDessert
  • CuisineAmerican
Servings
20 cookies
Servings
20 cookies
Ingredients
  • 6 tablespoons (75 grams) sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1-1/4 cups (125 grams) sliced almonds blanched or unblanched
Servings: cookies
Instructions
  1. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 325 degrees F. Depending on how you want to make these, generously spray two regular muffin tins (make sure you’re using baker’s spray) or line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Have a small cookie scoop or a teaspoon at hand.
  2. Whisk the sugar and egg together in a bowl for a minute or so, until well blended and just a bit thick. Add the almonds and whisk until evenly coated with the mixture. You need to use the batter right away — it separates as it stands. In fact, it’s good to give the batter a stir or two as you’re spooning it out.
  3. Each cookie needs 2 teaspoons of batter. For muffin tins, use your fingers to spread the batter evenly over the base. For free-form cookies, scoop the batter onto the baking sheets, leaving at least 2 inches of space between the mounds of batter, and flatten each mound with the back of a fork.
  4. Bake the muffin-tin cookies for about 17 minutes and the baking-sheet cookies for about 20 minutes, rotating the pans midway through baking. The cookies should be toasted-almond beige, and dry and crackled on top. Transfer the baking sheets or tins to racks and let the cookies cool for about 10 minutes.
  5. To remove the cookies from the muffin tins, work a blunt knife around each cookie, then slip the knife under, tilt it and pop the cookie free. Or carefully lift the free-form cookies with a wide spatula.
Recipe Notes

If your kitchen is cool and dry, you can keep these in a tin or paper bag overnight. Keep them longer, and they might soften, a condition easily reversed: Place the cookies on a lined baking sheet and warm them in a 350-degree-F oven for about 6 minutes; cool on the sheet.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Laurie Rigelhaupt says

    December 23, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    Delicious and easy! I expected no less from Faith and Dorie. However, I was wondering if I should’ve added salt, since you’d talked about it in the show. Then it would have been a 4-ingredient recipe, still not bad.
    Also, I used foil on the bottom onto which I’d rolled a hand-held stick of butter. Came out great that way, not a single cookie broke! I was able to peel off the foil as I lifted the cookies. This is a definite keeper- – THANK YOU! Happy Holidays!!!

    Reply »
    • Tanya Oliver says

      December 15, 2019 at 3:24 pm

      Thank you for the tip as I’d rather use butter than spray.

      Reply »
  2. Angie says

    February 8, 2017 at 11:31 am

    I tried this recipe many times it’s great taste and very easy to make. Use two parchments to avoid sticky when taking out from the baking sheet.thank u for the great recipe.

    Reply »
    • Robyn Doyon-Aitken says

      February 8, 2017 at 12:51 pm

      So glad to hear it. Thanks for your note!

      Reply »
  3. SavvyChef says

    February 9, 2017 at 8:13 pm

    The recipe is easy to follow and very simple, but I did not care for the flavor. Unfortunately it was too eggy, despite the fact that I added vanilla. I would not make this again.

    Reply »
    • Terese Schneider says

      May 14, 2020 at 4:47 pm

      Agree!!

      Reply »
  4. Jill says

    March 15, 2017 at 9:55 am

    Is there anything that could replace the almonds other than other nuts, Perehaps almond flour, fruit, chocolate
    chips? Thank you Love the program

    Reply »
    • Robyn Doyon-Aitken says

      November 17, 2017 at 11:09 am

      Since there are only three ingredients, I’m less inclined to replace the almonds with something other than a comparable nut. I tend to think swap-ins should be really similar in recipes like this. The chocolate chips will melt, for example, and might end up a mess. I see one listener added coconut, though. I endorse add-ins! Swaps just may not be so easy if you’re going for a nutty-textured cookie.

      Reply »
      • Bettye says

        December 23, 2018 at 12:30 pm

        Pecans
        Brown sugar

        Reply »
    • Susan Short says

      November 24, 2019 at 5:03 pm

      Heard about this recipe on NPR (Splendid Table). They said coconut flakes were a good sub. for the almonds. I’d assume they meant the unsweetened flaked coconut, which you may have to go to a health food store to find.

      Reply »
      • Robyn Doyon-Aitken says

        November 25, 2019 at 10:03 am

        Thanks for this!

        Reply »
  5. Joan says

    April 1, 2017 at 9:40 pm

    This is an amazing cookie ! That said, I went ahead and added an equal amount of coconut as almonds, and everyone really loves them. Try drizzling some melted dark chocolate over them too…..just great !
    We all love this recipe as it is so simple and easily changed up a bit to make them even more versatile.
    Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe with all of us who hate having to measure out 30 different ingredients,refrigerating for two hours, and rolling out miles of dough.

    Reply »
  6. Connie says

    April 18, 2018 at 12:50 am

    So simple and easy to make not only that delicious. Thank you sharing your recipe.

    Reply »
  7. Theresa D says

    November 29, 2018 at 10:19 pm

    These are quick, easy and fantastic tasting cookies. My go to for quick easy go to for Christmas cookies. After cookies have cool out of oven I dip in chocolate and sprinkle with crush candy canes.

    Reply »
  8. Alicia says

    December 24, 2018 at 8:53 am

    I make almost identical cookies with confectioners sugar, and egg whites, but I add orange and lime zest. I sprinkle Maldon salt on before baking, which takes them to another level entirely.

    Reply »
    • Robyn Doyon-Aitken says

      December 24, 2018 at 4:41 pm

      Sounds wonderful!

      Reply »
  9. Janie says

    September 24, 2019 at 3:04 pm

    can you bake these in advance & freeze them?

    Reply »
    • Robyn Doyon-Aitken says

      September 25, 2019 at 3:25 pm

      Hi Janie. Dorie doesn’t specifically say, so you’ll have to experiment with a couple of cookies and report back.

      Reply »
  10. Donna says

    November 24, 2019 at 11:55 am

    Just made these and they were really easy and good! How about using coconut sugar instead? And what about adding cocoa powder?

    Reply »
    • Robyn Doyon-Aitken says

      November 25, 2019 at 10:05 am

      I just learned from listener Susan that unsweetened coconut flakes could sub in for the almonds, if that sounds good to you. And, I don’t see why you couldn’t add cocoa powder, if that’s your thing. Maybe even a chocolate drizzle over the cookies? I might try that!

      Reply »
  11. Dianne says

    April 6, 2020 at 2:37 pm

    Very surprised at how delicious these are! I used 1 cup of sliced almonds and 1/4 cup (heaping) of unsweetened coconut. Love this simple recipe! Thank you!!

    Reply »
    • sally says

      May 12, 2020 at 10:43 am

      If I make these today, how will they keep? We are practicing separation from each other! Makes 20 cookies. eat a couple and then what?

      Thanks so much!

      Reply »
      • Robyn Doyon-Aitken says

        May 13, 2020 at 3:38 pm

        Dorie offers a solution for cookies that hang around a few days, “If your kitchen is cool and dry, you can keep these in a tin or paper bag overnight. Keep them longer, and they might soften, a condition easily reversed: Place the cookies on a lined baking sheet and warm them in a 350-degree-F oven for about 6 minutes; cool on the sheet.”

        Reply »
  12. Pat Hochman says

    April 13, 2020 at 9:25 pm

    We have forgotten the name of a white wine that has a (Spanish Who’s grapes are refrigerated as they are picked and reigning in its name

    We bought and now world like to buy a case but forgot the name

    Doc hochman

    Reply »
    • Robyn Doyon-Aitken says

      April 15, 2020 at 1:19 pm

      Hi! Maybe this one from Baron de Ley? Ring a bell? https://foodschmooze.org/super-10-baron-de-ley-white-wine-find/

      Reply »

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