Slice and Bake Cherry Almond Shortbread Cookies
Buttery cherry almond shortbread cookies made with toasted almonds, dried sweetened cherries and amaretto liqueur.
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
Ingredients
Cookies
- ¾ cup almonds
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 tbsp amaretto liqueur (or milk, to keep it alcohol free)
- ⅔ cup dried sweetened cherries
Icing
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp milk
- 1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
Toast the Almonds
- First, toast the almonds. 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.
Make the Cookie Dough
- In your food processor, combine the toasted, cooled almonds with the flour, powdered sugar and salt, 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 vanilla extract, almond extract, amaretto or milk, and the dried cherries, and pulse 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 the dough into a log measuring 2 inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Slice and Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line one large baking sheet or two smaller ones with parchment paper.
- Unwrap the dough, and use a sharp knife to slice the cookie dough into 1/4 inch thick cookies.
- Bake the cookies for about 12-14 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.
Icing
- In a bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, milk and almond extract until smooth.
- Lightly drizzle the icing over the cookies. Let the icing set before storing the cookies in an airtight container.
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.
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