Chocolate Dipped Hokey Pokey Cookies
(courtesy of Brenda Horton, president, Ladies Auxiliary of the Fleet Reserve Association in Carson City. Makes 8 cookies)
½ cup almonds, sliced
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 egg white
1 teaspoon unsalted butter, melted
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into ¼-inch pieces
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Toast almonds on baking sheet until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
Combine sugar, flour, egg white, butter, salt, and almond extract in stainless-steel bowl. Stir until smooth. Gently fold in almonds until coated. Let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Trace 2, 6-inch circles onto a piece of parchment paper and place on baking sheet. Evenly divide batter between circles and spread with rubber spatula to entirely cover each circle. Bake 20 to 24 minutes until uniformly golden brown, rotating baking sheet 180 degrees at 10 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and allow to cool 3 to 4 minutes. With pizza cutter, slice each baked circle into 4 wedge-shaped cookies. Let cool 30 minutes before removing cookies from parchment paper.
Melt chocolate using double boiler, stirring with rubber spatula until chocolate is melted and smooth, about 2 minutes. Remove chocolate from heat and continue to stir until temperature lowers to 90 degrees F on candy thermometer.
Dip ½ inch of rounded edge of each cookie into melted chocolate. Place cookies onto parchment paper and allow chocolate to set at room temperature for 20 to 25 minutes.
Store in airtight container at room temperature up to 4 days.
