Every Christmas when cookie baking time rolls around Jackie and I like to try out a few new recipes, along with our traditional favorites of course. As we grow up, we like to learn more about our heritage and cooking traditions related to that so we focused our recipe search on our Scandinavian heritage this year. These Scandinavian Almond Bars were one of the first ones we came across and we knew we had to make them. One, because we had actually heard of them before (probably from relatives or times spent in Minnesota) and two, we both love anything with almonds and almond flavoring. They remind me a little bit of biscotti in the way they look, perfectly crisp around the edges and softer in the middle and filled with the most amazing delicate almond flavor.
The cookies are simple to make and the ingredient list is short, but they are so impressive and the flavor goes a long way. The base is basically a sugar cookie, but it’s taken to the next level by adding just a tiny bit of almond extract. I absolutely love the flavor of almond in desserts, and if you do too, you will be in heaven when you taste these cookies. I made these using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Flour, because the recipe looked so good I wanted to make them gluten free to be able to try them myself. I find that some recipes work really well with this flour substitution and this was definitely one of them. The dough held together perfectly and the flavor was incredible.
After making the dough, you press it out to form long, thin rectangles on your baking sheets. You then brush them with milk (yes, milk…this was something we had never even heard of doing before making these cookies) and sprinkle them with sliced almonds. This adds the perfect amount of crunch and texture to the cookies, a little extra almond flavor, and they look great for presentation. Once you bake the cookies, you make this amazing easy glaze out of powdered sugar, milk, and almond extract and drizzle it over the top of all the cookie slices. Definitely don’t skip this step, the icing is incredible and the cookies just melt in your mouth while you enjoy the delicious almond flavor. We loved learning a little bit about our heritage through these traditional cookies and they were so good that they’ll definitely be on our annual cookie list for years to come.
- 1 3/4 cups flour (substitute Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Flour for GF option)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 2-4 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 3-4 teaspoons milk
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate large bowl, beat the butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until fluffy, about 1 minutes. Add eggs and almond extract and beat until combined. Add flour mixture and beat until combined.
- Grease two baking sheets. Divide the dough into fourths and form each potion into a 12 inch roll (about 1-2 inches thick). Place rolls 4-5 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each roll until about 3 inches wide. Brush with milk and sprinkle with almonds.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes until edges are golden brown. While still warm, cut on the diagonal to form 1 inch strips. Cool on wire rack.
- Combine the powdered sugar, almond extract and 2 tablespoons of the milk. Add more milk as necessary to achieve desired consistency. Drizzle over the top of the completed cookies.
