High altitude tested almond cutout cookies with a tender, buttery almond sugar cookie base, crunchy sugar baked on top for easy decorating and the prettiest sparkly finish. These almond sugar cookies are made with both almond flour (or finely chopped almonds) and almond extract, for so much delicious almond flavor. This is a Christmas cookie recipe you’ll definitely want to make this holiday season! See the decorating ideas section below for making these with cinnamon sugar, too.
Looking for more almond recipes? Don’t miss this cardamom almond star bread, almond biscotti, almond poppy seed muffins, and almond snowflake cookies decorated with buttercream.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy to Make. The almond sugar cookie dough is a breeze to make in a food processor, and you don’t even have to remember to soften your butter ahead of time, since you’ll use cold butter.
No Spread Recipe. These almond cutout cookies are based on my perfect vanilla sugar cookies, which don’t spread in the oven, so the shape of your cookie cutters is perfectly preserved.
No Decorating Skills. If you’re not confident in your cookie decorating skills, the sparkling sugar on top of the cookies is easy and looks so beautiful.
High Altitude Tested. While these almond Christmas cookies will work at any altitude, high altitude bakers can bake with confidence since I test all of my recipes at Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet.
Make Ahead. You can bake these cookies in advance and freeze them for weeks until you’re ready to put your Christmas cookie boxes together.
Tastes Like Christmas. Christmas cookies with almond extract are my favorite, and these taste like the holidays.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Almonds. Both almonds and almond extract add delicious almond flavor to these almond sugar cookies. In the dough, I mixed in finely chopped raw almonds. For a deeper, nuttier flavor, toast the almonds first.
- All-Purpose Flour. Provides structure and strength to the cookies.
- Powdered Sugar. Sweetens the cookies, of course, and the fine texture makes a soft, tender cookie.
- Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness and enhances the flavor the almonds.
- Cardamom. This is a really nice complementary spice in almond baked goods.
- Unsalted Butter. Adds richness, moisture and flakiness.
- Vanilla + Almond Extracts. Use good-quality extracts for the best flavor in these almond sugar cookies.
- Milk. The milk helps to bind the dough together, without adding something like an egg, which would leaven the cookies and make them puff up and lose their shape.
- Egg White. For brushing onto the cut cookies, so that the coarse sugar will stick.
- Granulated Sugar + Coarse Sparkling Sugar. For sprinkling onto the cookies before they bake, giving them a beautiful sparkly finish. You can use just granulated sugar, but combining it with coarse sparkling sugar, or decorator’s sugar, adds extra crunch and sparkle.
Instructions
Toast the Almonds.
- You can skip the step of toasting the almonds first, but it really brings out so much more richness and nuttiness, as well as a lovely crunch that’s wonderful in baked goods.
- To toast the almonds, simply spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet, and bake at 350 F for about 5-7 minutes, until fragrant. Be sure to cool completely before adding to your cookie dough.
Make the Dough in a Food Processor.
- In your food processor, combine the almonds, flour, powdered sugar, salt and cardamom, and pulse until the almonds are finely ground.
- With the processor running, drop in the pieces of cold butter, one at a time. Pulse until well distributed.
- Add the extracts and milk, and pulse just until the crumbs come together into a dough. This almond sugar cookie dough comes together easily and quickly with a food processor, in under 2 minutes!
- Dump the dough out, and knead a few times with your hands, just to incorporate any stray floury bits, until you have a soft, supple dough. Shape into a flat disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Roll and Cut the Cookies.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough (dusting with a little more flour as needed), to between 1/4 – 1/8 inch thick.
- Cut as many cookies as you can, and place the cut cookies 1 1/2 inches apart on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Gather up the dough scraps, roll again, and finish cutting all of the dough. I used a variety of cookie cutters for my almond cutout cookies, including stars, trees, gingerbread people, bells, snowflakes and candy canes.
Coat the Cut Cookies in Egg White and Sugar, then Chill.
- In a bowl, combine the granulated sugar and sparkling sugar.
- Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the tops of the cut cookies with egg white. Hold a cookie over the bowl of sugar, and sprinkle sugar over the cookie so it sticks to the egg white. Set the cookie back on the baking sheet, sugar side up.
- Repeat with all the cookies.
- Set the baking pan in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour. Chilling helps prevent the cookies from spreading while baking.
Bake.
- Preheat the oven to 350. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 10-12 minutes. They should be pale golden, with flaky edges. When turned over, you shouldn’t see any wet or raw dough underneath.
- Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Other Decorating Ideas
- Egg White + Sparkling Sugar. In my recipe today, I brushed the cut, unbaked almond cutout cookies with egg white and sprinkled them with coarse sugar. This method bakes on a sparkly, crunchy sugar crust on top of each cookie that looks simply beautiful, and is all the decoration that they need. Without this sugar crust, the cookies are soft and tender, so leave it off if you want a soft cookie, or are planning on icing your almond cutout cookies after baking.
- Cinnamon Sugar. Instead of plain sugar, sprinkle the cookies with cinnamon sugar. For this variation, I also added 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon to the cookie dough. Then I brushed the unbaked cookies with egg white and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar before baking.
- Royal Icing. If you’ve got royal icing skills, use them! These are perfect sugar cookies for decorating with royal icing. I have an easy royal icing recipe that’s perfect for cookie decorating, and I love how the icing dries smooth to the touch, while still remaining soft underneath when you bite into the cookies. You don’t even have to use a piping bag, and in fact, I prefer not to. In the photo above, I simply dipped some of the cookies in vanilla royal icing. You can see more examples of sugar cookies dipped in royal icing in my recipes for iced chai spice sugar cookies and iced chocolate gingerbread cookies.
- Simple Powdered Sugar Glaze. A simple glaze made of powdered sugar, milk and almond extract would be delicious, too. Simply whisk together 1 cup of powdered sugar + 1 tsp almond extract + 2-3 tbsp milk and spread over the cookies. Let dry completely before storing the cookies.
- Buttercream. I love a soft sugar cookie frosted with buttercream. While you can’t stack them, like you can cookies decorated with royal icing, they look gorgeous and taste so good. I’d recommend reading my comprehensive post on Perfect American Buttercream Frosting. My buttercream is ideal for both cakes and cookies. For examples of how I’ve decorated Christmas cookies with buttercream, see my snowflake cookies, Christmas tree cookies, pumpkin sugar cookies, star cookies, and gingerbread cookies.
- Cake Decorating with Cookies. Cakes decorated with cookies are so fun and festive, so for a beautiful Christmas cake, I decorated this one with a few of the cinnamon sugar crusted snowflakes, and a cinnamon sugar deer cookie on top. A tiny wreath made out of fresh thyme is the perfect touch around the deer’s neck.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! If you’re not planning to bake your cookies immediately, you can make the dough, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months. If frozen, thaw the dough in the refrigerator overnight. Then let it sit out at room temperature until pliable enough to roll out without too much difficulty.
Leftover almond sugar cookies should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.
The baked cookies can also be wrapped well and frozen for 3-6 months.
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Sparkling Sugar Almond Cutout Christmas Cookies
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie Cutters
Ingredients
- ½ cup raw almonds, toasted
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- â…› tsp ground cardamom
- ½ cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 tbsp milk or cream
- 1 egg white
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp coarse sparkling sugar ("decorator's sugar")
Instructions
- First, toast the almonds (this step is optional, but adds more depth of flavor). Preheat the oven to 350 F, and place the almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for about 5-7 minutes, until fragrant, but don't let them burn. Let the almonds cool completely before adding them to the dough. You don't want hot almonds that will melt or soften the butter in the dough.If you like, you can remove the skins by rubbing the almonds between two towels, but I left the skins on mine.
- In your food processor, combine the cooled almonds with the flour, powdered sugar, salt and cardamom, and pulse for about a minute until the almonds are very finely ground.With the processor running, drop in the pieces of cold butter, one at a time. Pulse until well distributed.Add the extracts and milk, and pulse just until the crumbs come together into a dough.
- Dump the dough out, and knead a few times with your hands, just to incorporate any stray floury bits, until you have a soft, supple dough. Shape into a flat disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough (dusting with a little more flour as needed), to 1/4 inch thick. Cut as many cookies as you can, and place the cut cookies 1 1/2 inches apart on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.Gather up the dough scraps, roll again, and finish cutting all of the dough.
- In a bowl, combine the granulated sugar and sparkling sugar.Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the tops of the cut cookies with egg white. Hold a cookie over the bowl of sugar, and sprinkle sugar over the cookie so it sticks to the egg white. Set the cookie back on the baking sheet, sugar side up.Repeat with all the cookies.
- Set the baking pan in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour. Chilling helps prevent the cookies from spreading while baking.
- Preheat the oven to 350. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 11-12 minutes. They should be pale golden, with flaky edges. When turned over, you shouldn't see any wet or raw dough underneath.Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Cooled cookies should be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
- They can also be baked in advance, and frozen for 3-6 months.
- The cookie dough can also be made in advance, wrapped in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen for 3-6 months. Let thaw in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature until pliable enough to roll out.
Your cookie recipes sound delicious. What changes must we make to make these at sea level?
This recipe will work at any altitude, since it doesn’t contain leavening.
Please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for various altitudes: https://curlygirlkitchen.com/baking-faqs/
Where did you get the cookie cutters
These cookies are incredible. It’s like taking a basic sugar cookie but elevating the flavors completely – the addition of almond and cardamom add such a depth of flavor. I’m obsessed with cardamom so I honestly mixed in even more than was called for even though I am usually a stickler for following recipes exactly, and it turned out great. I wasn’t sure how much sugar topping would be too much, but I laid it on pretty thick and it turned out great and not too sweet at all!
Thank you so much for commenting, I’m so glad you loved them. 🙂
How much almond flour would I use in replacement of the almonds?
1/3 cup
Would this recipe work for a gingerbread house? My grandchildren don’t like gingerbread cookie dough.
I wouldn’t recommend it. Gingerbread cookie dough is meant to be stronger and more stable, and these cookies are made from a “short” dough which would not hold up to all that construction.
Just made these. Quite dry and not nearly as pretty as the pictures. Not bad though. Will make again but this time with an almond-extract flavored royal icing to offset the dryness and make them prettier.
Sounds like you added too much flour if the cookies ended up dry. Be sure to measure your flour by lightly spooning it into the measuring cups and then sweeping it off the top to level it.