Almond Joyful Cookies

The folks at King Arthur Flour came up with this wonderful take on the Almond Joy candy bar, an interesting blend of an almond coconut cookie, rich chocolate icing, and chopped toasted almonds. I suspect that the cookie base would also be delicious with an almond drizzle icing for those of us who can’t have chocolate, so I’ll have to try that next time.

While the original recipe was supposed to yield 39 cookies, my batch made about 28, as I used a 2-inch cookie scoop. I also adjusted the recipe slightly to use 1/2 cup of chopped toasted almonds instead of a full cup, which was more than enough.

Ingredients

For the cookies

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract (or flavor)
• 1/4 cup almond paste
• 1 egg
• 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
• 2 1/3 cups flour

For the icing

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons butter

For the topping

• 1/2 cup blanched almonds, toasted and chopped*

*To toast almonds, place them on a rimmed baking sheet and toast at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes; almonds will become golden brown and fragrant when done. 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, salt, almond extract, coconut extract, and almond paste; batter will be slightly lumpy, but that’s okay. Add egg, beating until fairly smooth, then beat in coconut. Once coconut is incorporated, beat in flour.

Using a 2-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of dough onto baking sheets and flatted with your fingers slightly.

Bake for 14-16 minutes, until the edges are light golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes on cookie sheets before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, combine chocolate chips, corn syrup, and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring well until chocolate chips are melted and mixture is smooth.

Dip tops of cookies into icing, then top with chopped almonds. Allow icing to set before storing; store cookies between sheets of waxed paper in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Makes 28.