Chocolate Almond Sugar Cookies
These Chocolate Almond Sugar Cookies have something for everyone! These swirled chocolate and vanilla cookies get rolled in chopped almonds before going into the oven. Yum!
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A couple of weeks back, I stumbled across the clearance rack at our local grocery store. For some reason, it was packed (and I mean packed!) with bags of pecans, walnuts and sliced almonds. I checked the dates. They were fine. All of the nuts were from the same brand, so I suspect they were just changing brands. Either way, I did a number on that clearance rack!
How do you store your nuts? At room temperature, they have a relatively short shelf-life due to the natural oils. The oils can go rancid, and if you’ve ever tasted a rancid nut then you’ll agree that it’s not something you ever want to taste again. However, if you refrigerate or freeze nuts, then they’ll last much longer. (3-6 months for refrigerated nuts and a year or more for frozen nuts.)
I knew I had some room in the downstairs freezer, so I stocked up on those clearance aisle nuts. It’ll be a while before I need to put pecans, walnuts or sliced almonds back on my grocery shopping list! However, I do need to make some room in that freezer, so I decided to pull out a bag of sliced almonds. I had a craving recently for sugar cookies, so I figured it might be fun to make a sugar cookie with chopped almonds. Win-win!
Chocolate Almond Sugar Cookies
I was planning on just making classic sugar cookies with a bit of almond extract and then roll ’em in crushed almonds before baking. However, at the last moment, I decided to mix things up and add a chocolate swirl to this batch of cookies. The chocolate swirl does add a bit of extra time, but really it’s not too difficult at all. Plus, don’t these cookies look pretty cool?!
I have to confess – I made a mistake with these cookies. I meant to roll the cookies up lengthwise which would’ve produced much larger cookies. Instead, I was on auto-pilot and talking to Robbie about superheroes. That’s when I looked down and realized I rolled the dough up the wrong way. Oops. I couldn’t exactly unroll the dough, so I just went with it. The result was that these cookies are much smaller than intended. However, I’m not sad about that. I just get to eat more this way!
Baker’s note: This sugar cookie dough is soft. The refrigerator (or freezer if you’re pressed for time) will be key when working with this dough. However, once baked, these Chocolate Almond Sugar Cookies are tender and delicious. I’ve always loved a good sugar cookie, and this chocolate + almond version is just a slight twist from my go-to sugar cookie recipe.
One final note about these Chocolate Almond Sugar Cookies (or really any sugar cookies) is the coarse sugar topping. I learned this trick years ago when taking some professional baking classes. Sprinkling sanding sugar on top of cookies and muffins not only adds a sweet, crunchy topping to baked goods, but it also makes them look more bakery-esque. I highly recommend keeping a bag or two of sanding sugar (aff. link) in the pantry. (They make it in different colors, but I almost always use standard white.)
I hope you enjoy these Chocolate Almond Sugar Cookies as much as we did! They were a great sweet treat at the end of the day, and the crushed almonds around the outside were a fun addition. Happy baking!
Did you make a batch of these Chocolate Almond Sugar Cookies at home? Leave a comment, or snap a photo and tag me on Instagram (@Spicedblog). I’d love to see your version!
Chocolate Almond Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp cream of tartar
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 oz. semisweet chocolate melted
- 1 cup sliced almonds finely chopped
- coarse sugar sanding, turbinado, etc, for topping
Instructions
- Using a medium mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt; mix until well combined. Set dry ingredients aside.
- Using the bowl of an electric mixer, add butter and sugar; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy (~2-3 minutes).
- Add egg, almond extract and vanilla extract; mix until well combined.
- Add flour mixture in two separate additions, mixing well after each addition.
- Divide dough into two equal portions. Add melted chocolate to one portion and stir until well combined.
- Press each piece of dough into a 4” square and cover each piece individually with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Remove one piece of dough and place between 2 sheets of wax paper. Roll dough into a 9”x12” rectangle. Repeat process with the remaining piece of dough. Refrigerate dough (still between sheets of wax paper) for 30 more minutes.
- Remove both pieces of dough from refrigerator. Remove wax paper and stack dough pieces on top of each other.
- Cut the stacked dough lengthwise to create (2) 4.5”x12” stacks of dough. Roll each of the stacks into a tight log lengthwise. Roll each log in chopped almonds, pressing lightly so that almonds stick into dough.
- Place logs on parchment-lined sheet pan and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a serrated knife, slice each log into ¼” rounds. Place each round onto prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle tops of cookies generously with sanding sugar. (Note: If dough is too soft, refrigerate for another 30 minutes.) These cookies do not spread much in the oven, so they can be placed fairly close together.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies just begin to turn brown.
- Let cookies cool on pans for 10 minutes and then transfer to cooling racks until completely cooled.
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Will be making this soon can i use vegan butter and flax eggs as am a vegan i love chocolate and cookies soooooooooooo much perfect for my office meals will dm you if i make this and let you know how it goes Thanks Ramya
So I can’t comment on vegan butter and flax eggs as I don’t know how they work in a baking recipe. It’s worth a shot, though! I do love sugar cookies, and this recipe is just a fun variation of my go-to sugar cookie recipe. Let me know if you try it!
Will try with vegan butter and flax eggs and let you know how it goes Thanks Ramya
also i didnt receive your newsletter again for my gmail please check it Thanks Ramya
Thanks, Ramya! You’re right – the newsletter didn’t go out like it was supposed to yesterday. It’s been a bit strange lately – hopefully it goes out this morning. Better late than never, right? 🙂
How much fun are these cookies? Love the swirl in these and the addition of almond is brilliant!
I love sugar cookies, and these are just a fun twist on my go-to recipe. Plus, it was a great way to use up some extra almonds! 🙂 Thanks, Michelle!
I love patterned sugar cookies like this. So decorative and fun — not to mention delicious. 🙂 Valentina
I hear ya, Valentina! These cookies do look pretty fun…and they don’t take all that much effort. Of course, they still disappear just as quickly as regular sugar cookies, though! 🙂
What a find for you! And these cookies are quite the find for me! I’m loving the swirl and nut crust. These look delicious!
The swirl makes these sugar cookies really quite fun. Of course, these cookies still disappeared just as quickly as regular sugar cookies…but at least they looked cool while they were around. Haha! Thanks, Kathy!
No one loves a large cookie more than I do, but I think these are perfect at their current size! The look fantastic!
Thank you, kind sir. More cookies = more better, right?
So it would be fair to assume you’ll be sharing many recipes with almonds, walnuts, and pecans for the next little (of maybe not so little) while? That’s great – I love nuts! The only thing I’m sorry about is that clearance rack didn’t offer your any lavender. You must be upset yourself! Anyway, these cookies look pretty, and the classic flavour combination is so lovely.
Yes, I do indeed have a handful of nutty posts on tap. I just couldn’t resist that price! It is indeed unfortunate that the store wasn’t offering any lavender on clearance. Perhaps they sell so much of it that they don’t need to put it on sale? 🙂 Either way, these sugar cookies turned out quite fun…and tasty. Thanks, Ben!
What a find! I store my nuts in the freezer – it seems to really prolong their freshness.
Not only do these cookies sound delicious, I love how they look with that two tone spiral!
The spiral of these cookies is a fun twist – literally! 🙂 Thanks, Marissa!
I love the swirled pattern of these cookies. You can’t go wrong with chocolate and almond combination. I can literally smell the nutty chocolaty goodness coming out of oven when the cookies are baked. These cookies would be perfect for Holiday cookie exchange.
I do love the chocolate + almond combination! In fact, chocolate candy bars with almonds ranks up there in my top 3. Oh, and you make a good point about holiday cookie exchanges – this would be a great recipe for that! Thanks, Holly!
Yup I do refrigerate nuts as well as chips (potato and corn) as well specially the opened ones, they stay longer and crisp too. Those cookies looks like fun to make.
Refrigerate potato and corn chips? I haven’t heard of that! Of course, those don’t stay open too long in our house anyways…haha. Thanks, Raymund!
oh how pretty are these david! yes i keep almond meal in the fridge. living in the sub-tropics means weevils etc. so everything has to be carefully decanted in bug proof containers. when i was a young cook, i didn’t realise this and heard rustling in the pantry. an open custard powder packet was full of … cockroaches!!! OMG! the horror.
In general, we don’t have problems with weevils, etc. We did have some dry beans go rancid in the pantry a couple of years back – that was so frustrating to find where the little bugs were living! Oh no, your story about cockroaches is terrible. I do miss the Southern states (here in US), but cockroaches do live down there…fortunately roaches must not like cold weather as I rarely (if ever) see them up here. Either way, thanks for the comment, Sherry!
What a find! Clearance sales like that are the BEST. And it’s even better when a delicious recipe like these sugar cookies comes out of it. 😋. The nuts and the chocolate swirl are so gorgeous David! Haha and I can so relate to those distracting superhero conversations 😄. Although I must admit that when I get distracted, I certainly don’t end up with gorgeous cookies like these!
I’m with ya, Shannon – I can’t walk past a clearance rack without taking a quick peek! And as far as distractions? They happen multiple times a day – I think I was just lucky this time with the cookies. Normally the distractions don’t lead to anything good at all. Haha! Cheers, my friend!
I always store my nuts in the fridge – I did;t know/think to freeze them! Thanks for that tip, my friend! Also I so LOVE these pinwheel chocolate almond sugar cookies! Love how pretty they are – delicious to eat and look at! BTW – that grocery store clearance section is dangerous, Lil S won’t let me go near it because the one at the store near us always has wines on sale 😉
Wait – wine on clearance!? Now that’s a dangerous rack for sure. Haha! Thanks so much, Shashi – and my apologies on the delay. I somehow didn’t get a notice for your comment. Either way, hope you are doing well!
Do these ever look good!! That roll is seriously perfection, David! And chocolate and almond is such a delicious combination. Wishing I had about 6 right about now to dunk in my coffee. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead, my friend. 🙂
Hah – thanks so much, Dawn! We had a fun time making these cookies. And I think you’re onto something – these would be great with a mid-morning cup of coffee. Have a great week yourself!