Almond Thumbprint Cookies for Passover

My “Almond Thumbprint Cookies” are a great Passover sweet treat. They are made using ground almonds and matzo cake meal rather than all-purpose flour and they don’t have any leavening agents. Because I like chocolate, I used a chocolate kiss for the center of the cookies as well as jam. While the highlight of Passover, the Seder meal, is celebrated on the first forenight of Passover, the holiday lasts for eight days. If you are observing it properly, you are supposed to avoid flour and leavening agents for the entire time. Now, that can be a challenge. No bread, pastries, pasta or other foods with flour or leavening for eight days? These little cookies help pass the time. And, once Passover is finished, you can still eat these cookies. They are quite tasty.

Almond Thumbprint Cookies for Passover

This recipe is adapted from the Smitten Kitchen blog site and that recipe author adapted it from Gourmet. (More about the Smitten Kitchen and using other folks’ recipes in an upcoming blog post.) So, the recipe has been around for awhile. I gave it my own spin by substituting whole almonds for hazelnuts.

And, according to Smitten Kitchen, you can substitute all-purpose flour for matzo cake meal during the rest of the year after Passover is finished; and you can fill the centers with jam rather than chocolate morsels. Many options!

Recipe and Ingredients

I made two batches of cookies, one with purchased almond flour. In the other recipe, I used whole almonds and pulverized them myself. This takes alot of effort. However, purchased almond flour is quite expensive. Both batches turned out great, so it is really the cook’s choice. (I store both whole almonds and almond flour in my extra freezer — they last a long, long time this way.) And you can blanch, roast and pulverize the almonds ahead of time — make enough for several batches!

The dough on the left is made with ground almonds, the batch on the right with purchased almond flour.

Other ingredients in the recipe are matzo cake (flour) meal, sugar, butter and egg, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. I do admit that these are rich cookies (aren’t most cookies rich?). Where is the butter? Apparently, I left it out of this photo — however, a stick of butter is an intregral part of the recipe. Of course, Hershey’s chocolate kisses go in the center of each cookie — or you can substitute jam. I have homemade blackberry jam and used this in one batch. Next time, I may substitute almond extract for the vanilla — since I am using almonds. Take note that there is no baking powder or baking soda in this recipe. No leavening agents in Passover recipes!

What is matzah, or matzo or whatever?

What is matzah? It is unleavened bread which is served during the Passover holiday and is baked in strict accordance to Jewish dietary laws. It must be blessed by a Rabbi. During the eight-day Passover holiday, matzah meal and matzah cake (flour) meal can be substituted for all-purpose flour and bread crumbs in some recipes; other times this just doesn’t work. And, the difference between matzo and matzah is simply in how it is pronounced. It is the same thing.

The irony, to me, is that matzah is made with wheat flour, which is otherwise forbidden. So, matzah is NOT gluten-free. The rationale is that the enslaved Israelites were in a hurry to excape Egypt. They didn’t have time to make or bake leavened bread. So, this special bread is unleavened and it must be mixed up and baked in just a few minutes. You have to be a really speedy cook to make this bread at home. My husband usually purchases several boxes of Matzah, so no need for me to make homemade Matzah.

Some anonymous person dropped off this box of matzah at our front door this week. What a kind gesture!

Matzo meal vs matzo cake flour

I located matzo meal, but not matzo cake (flour) meal, in local groceries stores. And, wow, I did make quite an effort to visit alot of stores! I even had my husband check several stores in Houston during one trip to that city. The cake flour version is simply ground finer than matzo meal and it works much better in pastry recipes, in my opinion.

So, I ordered the matzo cake (flour) meal on Amazon. It arrived in just a couple of days. Convenient. Now, Why did I drive all over town?

Banching and roasting whole almonds

If you are using whole, raw almonds in this recipe then they should be blanched and roasted. Whole almonds are purchased with the skins still intact. And who wants almond skins in their cookies? To remove the skins, blanch them before mixing up the cookies. It takes a little time but is really quite easy. And, it can be done the prior day. To remove the skins, boil a small pot of water. Remove the water from the stove, and add the whole almonds. Let them sit for two minutes. Then drain in a colander and perhaps run a little cool water over the almonds so they can be handled. Then squeeze one end of the almond between two fingers and slip off the skins. The skins just “pop” off. Work quickly; the skins won’t easily remove if the almonds cool down.

The almonds swell as they blanch, so you will probably have a few extra blanched almonds (shown on the photo on the right). Use for another recipe — (for example, sprinkle on a salad.)

After the skinned almonds dry on paper towels, I toasted them in the oven for 10 minutes, turning once, until they are nice and aromatic. Don’t over-do it. The almonds will continue to cook after coming out of the oven and we don’t need burnt almonds in this recipe.

Food processor recipe

I make this recipe in my food processor. What would I do without this kitchen appliance? Mixing up a batch of this cookie dough is so fast and quick.

To make the cookies, pulse the blanched, toasted almonds in a food processor until they are ground up. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients (matzo cake meal, sugar, salt) and pulse. Pulse in cold butter which has been cut into very small chucks. Blend the egg up along with the vanilla extract. Add the egg/vanilla to the food processor bowl and process just enough to combine. The dough should pull away from the sides of the food processor and form into a ball. (This is a small recipe batch, the egg is the only liquid ingredient — no milk, water or juice is added. No oil either — we have lots of butter in the recipe.)

Transfer the dough to another container and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Then, portion out small spoonfuls of dough; press and roll into balls using the palms of your hands. Press a Hershey’s Kiss in the center of each ball. (I put the Hershey’s Kisses on upside down. I guess I didn’t want them to look like Christmas cookies.) This recipe makes exactly 24 cookies. Bake until golden brown on the bottom. Don’t overbake.

These cookies are very crumbly. Let them cool down on the sheet pan for 10 minutes, then use a sharp spatula to loosen them and transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

If you prefer jam rather than chocolate kisses in the center of your cookies, make a little thumbprint in the cookies prior to baking. After baking, reinforce the thumbprint by pressing down on the baked cookies. Fill the centers with a very small dollop of jam. I have homemade blackberry jam, and used it. This makes great cookies, too. The cookies in this photo are made using almond flour — not the whole almonds which I ground up.

These cookies are top-notch — and not so, so sweet. I love the both the chocolate and jam center versions. You don’t even miss all-purpose flour (or leavening agents). You will never guess that I used Matzo cake meal and ground almonds (or almond flour). Although you can store the cookies for three days, I am guessing that these cookies won’t last that long. Fortunately, the cookies are quick and simple to mix up using a food processor — especially if using almond flour rather than whole almonds. Enjoy the recipe, for the remainder of the Passover holiday. And file this recipe away to use again next year!