Chewy Chocolate Almond Cookies

I came across these cookies in Courtney’s blog a while back, and they drew me in immediately. I’m a huge fan of using almonds in pretty much anything, and any baking recipe that has 5 ingredients and uses minimal effort is pretty much my ultimate baking recipe. We were actually headed to my in-laws’ the weekend I first saw this recipe, and I planned on making them that night for my sister in law, who’s gluten free. But, the one drawback about these is they require an overnight chill in the fridge, and I didn’t have that kind of time.

I’ve since been meaning to make a batch of these and take them to work, too (it seems half my office is allergic to gluten), but, well, it didn’t happen. So, Thanksgiving turned out to be the perfect time to make these. I was able to easily whip up the dough one night, and while a little messy, rolling them in sugar and baking them didn’t take very long the following day.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m sort of weird with chocolate. I like chocolate a lot, but I’m not huge on chocolate cookies and chocolate ice cream (I know). That said, I really loved these cookies, and I’ll totally make them again. The almond flavor is very subtle (I’d recommend using almond extract if you want a more almondy flavor), and in my opinion, these taste very much like a brownie — which is certainly not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a pretty great thing to eat a rich and chocolatey cookie. I think these would also work well as a “holiday” cookie with the addition of a little peppermint extract or some mint chips folded in.