Almond Bars

These are a staple at my house during the holidays and my favorite cookie probably of all time.

Preheat oven to 325

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons milk
1 cup sliced almonds

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale. About 3- 4 minutes. Add salt, eggs, vanilla, almond extract and baking powder. Add flour and mix until combined.

Divide dough into 6 pieces. On a parchment lined cookie sheet, roll two of the pieces of dough into logs the length of the cookie sheet. Flatten the dough with your fingers until they are 3 inches wide. You will have two long ovals on each cookie sheet.

With a pastry brush, brush the milk onto each oval of dough. Sprinkle the top with almonds.

Bake at 325 for 16 minutes.

Cool cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then slice them 1 inch wide at an angle. Allow them to cool completely on the cookie sheet then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Once cooled, drizzle with icing.

Icing:

2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon melted butter

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies- EVER

These are the only sugar cookies that are better the next day. Soooooo good.

One tool I highly recommend for anyone, especially for making rolled cookies, is a small offset spatula. You can use it to help scoop up cookies and put them on the baking sheet and for frosting. It's an indispensable tool in my book.

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
4 ounces cream cheese, room temp
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all purpose flour
Powdered sugar for dusting & rolling

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until well combined. Add eggs vanilla, salt and baking powder. Add flour.

Dough will be soft, so you will need to work in a little powdered sugar when you're rolling out the cookies. Chilling the dough for 30 minutes will help, though I don't usually do that.

Roll cookies to 1/4 inch and cut into desired shapes. Bake on parchment lined cookie sheets at 325 on the top rack for 9 minutes.

*tip* for super accurate sprinkle placement, try a pair of (clean) tweezers.