Almond Brittle Salted Egg Yolk Cookies

A cookie for the holidays. Not a holiday cookie.

Hey everyone!

Today’s post is a little shorter but this recipe has been in high demand so I wanted to get it out while we’re all still in cookie mode. While I wouldn’t label this cookie a traditional “Christmas cookie” (neither would Tim Mazurek) it’s still a great addition to any upcoming party or gathering you have coming up next week.

The original version of this recipe used salted egg yolk paste from a jar and brown rice flour. Salted egg yolks are easier to find in vacuum sealed pouches from most Asian grocery stores so this version uses a few whole egg yolks grated on a Microplane to make the recipe more accessible.

Brown rice flour is easier to find these days but I found that it caused the cookies to soften too much by the second day. I opted for whole wheat flour instead so the cookies stay crisp but still have a nutty/complex flavor.

The revised almond brittle here is much easier than the original recipe as well. The addition of baking soda helps introduce tiny bubbles into the sugar syrup which makes the brittle break easier when chopped with a knife. Sliced almonds, rather than whole, are the key to a crunchy texture that won’t accidentally chip a tooth and the overall thinness of the brittle allows the shards to pleasantly meld right into the dough as it bakes.

Before I get to the recipe, I wanted to tell you about a little pocket of the internet that I love - and one that is perfect for this current season - a subreddit dedicated to crowdsourcing the answer to the age-old question - what on earth is this cookie cutter supposed to be? As someone who's spent a lot of time digging through family collections of vintage cookie cutters and boxes of twisted metal shapes at vintage sales I love seeing the debate over really obscure and rare cookie cutter shapes. A recent post that gave me a good chuckle:

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A few notes…

• Don’t be afraid of making brittle at home. While working with hot sugar can be intimidating, what a lot of recipes don’t tell you is that you can work slower than you think. Have all your ingredients and equipment ready and remember you can reduce the heat a little or remove the pan from the heat (but keep stirring!) if you ever feel rushed and need a pause to reassess.

• If you’ve ever made a batch of cookies and had one or two come out looking a little goofy, it’s likely because the bowl of your mixer wasn’t properly scrapped down with a spatula between adding ingredients. An unevenly mixed dough yields uneven results due to some scoops that have more of one ingredient than the others. Be thorough when scrapping down your bowl and remember that when you are finished mixing your cookies you can always transfer your dough to a new larger bowl to really ensure the mixing was done properly.

• Salted egg yolks can be found in mooncakes, steamed custard buns, and one of my favorite dim sum items, lo mai gai. In this recipe, they add a delicious salty custardy element. The result is like caramel popcorn without the un-popped kernels hiding in wait. You can find these at asian grocers or online and they last forever stored in a sealed container in the fridge. Long enough to make many more batches of this cookie!

Honey Almond Brittle

Makes roughly double what you need for one batch of cookies

190g white sugar