One of THOSE days!

Yesterday Rick and I spent the bulk of the day baking for a friend's reception. It was a comedy of errors from start to finish - one of those experiences that made me feel like an incompetent young bride again!

Anyway, after mistakes, tweaking, tasting, tweaking, and throwing a few cookies away, I finally got a batch of almond cookies that looked and tasted passable.

Here's the recipe in a much larger font that the little magazine pull-out I was using. ☺

Almond Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. almond extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Glaze: 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. almond extract
4-5 tsp. water

sliced or slivered almonds for the top

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine butter, sugar, and almond extract in large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add all remaining cookie ingredients. Beat until well mixed. (I do all the mixing with a spoon instead of a mixer.)

Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. (I line mine with baking parchment since these cookies are rather "delicate".) Flatten balls to about 1/4 inch thickness with the bottom of a buttered glass dipped in sugar. Bake for 7 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 1 minute before removing from cookie sheet, then cool completely before glazing.

Stir together all glaze ingredients in small bowl. Decorate cooled cookies with glaze and almonds.

Enjoy with tea!