Description
These charming Owl Cookies combine a tender almond-flavored dough with playful details like halved almonds for beaks and brown M&Ms for eyes. Perfect for a fun baking project and delightful treats, these cookies feature a buttery texture with subtle vanilla and almond extracts, baked to golden perfection.
Ingredients
Scale
Dough
- ½ cup (80g) Whole meal almond meal
- ½ cup (67g) Confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
- 1 ½ cup (187.5g) All-purpose flour (Maida)
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon Almond extract
- ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks/165g) Butter, slightly softened at room temperature
Decoration
- 8 almonds, halved into two pieces for beaks
- 16 brown M&Ms or Skittles for eyes
Instructions
- Prepare Almond Meal: In a food processor or grinder, add ½ cup whole almonds along with 1 tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar and grind into a fine powder. Adding the sugar prevents the almonds from turning into almond butter.
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, combine the ground almond meal, remaining confectioner’s sugar, all-purpose flour, and salt. Mix well and set aside.
- Cream Butter and Extracts: Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the softened butter with vanilla and almond extracts until well combined and smooth.
- Combine Dry and Wet Ingredients: Add the flour almond mixture to the butter mixture and gently combine to form a dough.
- Chill Dough: Divide the dough into two flat discs, wrap them, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight for best results.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Dough: About 20 minutes before baking, remove one dough disc from the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). On lightly floured parchment paper, roll out the dough to ¼ inch thickness in a round shape.
- Cut Owl Shapes: Using a 2 ½ inch cookie cutter, cut rounds and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Using the same cutter, make two deep cuts from opposite sides of each round to create wings without cutting through completely.
- Add Eyes and Beak: Place small (⅛ teaspoon) dough pieces on each side for eyes—use ¼ teaspoon pieces if you prefer bigger eyes. Press a halved almond in the center of each cookie for the beak. Slightly press a brown M&M or Skittle onto each dough eye spot.
- Create Wing Texture: Use a fork to make impressions on the lower part of the cookie wings to add detail.
- Bake Cookies: Bake for about 15 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. If the dough becomes too soft during handling, refrigerate again for about an hour until easier to work with.
Notes
- This recipe is adapted from an original source.
- For best texture and ease of handling, chill the dough overnight before baking.
- Using confectioner’s sugar while grinding almonds helps prevent almond butter formation.
- If the dough warms and becomes sticky, refrigerate again before rolling and cutting.
- Adjust eye dough pieces size to customize the owl’s eye size.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 140
- Sugar: 7g
- Sodium: 55mg
- Fat: 9g
- Saturated Fat: 5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 14g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 2g
- Cholesterol: 25mg
