Almond Cookies and Vanilla Pudding

So, I meant to do this entry a week ago, but my mother insisted that I wait until this weekend so that she could learn how to bake (she's a typical Asian mother...really no reason to use the oven other than to store pans and such...). Of course, once I started, she didn't care to watch as her favorite TV show was on. Figures.

Anywho, so she had requested that I make an almond based cookie, as those are her favorite, without it being too sweet. As I later decided, vanilla pudding would go really well with these cookies to make up for the lack of sweetness (dipping the cookies worked especially well) and it helped with taking care of the yolks leftover from the cookie recipe (which called for egg whites). As you'll come to learn, I really hate wasting food and resources in general...

So, I Googled almond cookies and dug up this Hazelnut and Almond Cookie recipe. I altered the recipe in several ways. First off, since I'm at home where my mother only has one cookie sheet, I changed the serving to 15 cookies. Then, since I didn't have hazelnuts, I just replaced the hazelnuts with, you guessed it, more almonds. Even though the recipe called for chopped almonds, I just smashed them around in my mortar and pestle set until they became somewhat grainy, not to the point of powder. I also added one extra egg white as I was using medium eggs and it didn't look like enough. Also I kind of changed my methods. So the recipe became:

Almond Cookies - Yields about 15 servings

Ingredients:

3 medium egg whites (separated using the hand to hand method...saved yolks for pudding)

1/4 cup and 3 tbsp of white sugar

~1 cup of crushed/chopped/smashed almonds

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F and coat cookie sheet with grease, oil, or margarine.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Add sugar and beat until mixture is thick and white. Stir in vanilla extract and then almonds.
3. Pour mixture into a saucepan over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon for about 10 minutes, or until it becomes thicker and more beige. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.

4. Bake about 16-19 minutes, until cookies are dry to the touch. Cool on a wire rack.

While the cookies were in the oven, I decided to start working on the pudding. Mind you, set a timer for the cookies, because I got distracted and left the cookies in a minute too long (still turned out well as indicated by my parents eating about half of them in 5 minutes, lol).

I found this Old-Fashioned Vanilla Pudding recipe online as well, and altered it to make it nonlethal to us lactose intolerant folks out there. Also changed the serving size as I had three yolks to use up:

Vanilla Pudding - Yields 6 servings.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup and 2 tbsp of white sugar

3 tbsp of cornstarch

1/4 tsp of salt

3 cups of Vanilla almond milk

3 egg yolks, lightly beaten in a heat safe bowl

1 tbsp and 1 tsp of margarine or butter

1.5 tsp of vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in the almond milk until solids are evenly dispersed. Stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat and stir for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat.

2. Stir a small amount of hot filling into egg yolk then return all to pan. Return to heat and bring to a boil while stirring, making sure to scrape bottom (reason why I use a wooden spoon!)

3. Leaving pan on stove, turn off heat and stir for another minute or two. Then remove from heat and gently stir in the butter and vanilla.

4. Cool for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to dessert dishes, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

I think this first endeavor of the year was a success...seeing as how my mother was scraping the saucepan clean of pudding with a cookie when she she asked me when I could make more -__-