Sweet and Salty Almond Clusters
Ahhhh Autumn is almost here. The crisp fresh breeze brushes our faces with gentle happiness. Time to cozy up to the fireplace (or radiator) with a warm cup of tea and some sweets. And by sweets I mean cookies. I was happy to finally come up with this recipe. It’s something between a macaroon and a Payday (only with almonds). It’s very quick and easy to make and healthy! Sweetened with honey, kissed with salt. Crispy, chewy and oh so good. 
Sweet and Salty Almond Clusters
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups almond slivers
1/4 cup & 2 tablespoons of honey (1 tablespoon for drizzling,optional)
2 egg whites
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room temperature salted butter or ghee
sea salt to taste
Method: Preheat oven to 350˚. Mix the butter, 1/4 cup & 1 tablespoon honey, and egg whites together. After it is blended completely, fold in the almonds. Be sure to cover every single almond sliver. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place about 1 tablespoon of batter for each cookie. The batter will run, that’s ok. Make sure not to stack the almond pile too high! Spread them out a little if you can. Use the remaining tablespoon of honey to drizzle on top of the cookies and sprinkle the salt before you put them in the oven. Using large crystals sea salt (as opposed to table salt) is important, do not skip this step! The sea salt is easy to measure, so you don’t use too much. You’ll need just a pinch of crystals. The salt adds the special zing that makes the cookie complete. Keep stirring the batter as you spoon the cookies to make sure the all the almonds are thoroughly covered. The butter, egg and honey mixture will bind the nuts together. Bake for 12 minutes or until edges are a dark brown. Do not remove them until the cookies are cool. They hotter the cookies, the more fragile they will be, so you don’t want them to fall apart as you remove them from the pan. This recipes makes about 18-20 yummy cookies.
These were sooo good!!! I’m going to make some this weekend.
Yay! Glad you liked them. Let me know how they turn out!
Nomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnom
These look great – and really simple. I wanted to ask – to you store them in the fridge to keep them hard? I make these: http://foxyolive.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/crunchy-bites/ They are great, but I do have to keep them in the fridge otherwise they fall apart (but I don’t use ghee or egg whites – so maybe that’s the trick?)
Hi Foxy, thanks for reading! And, your recipe looks delightful! I kept mine on the counter uncovered, they only lasted a day because I ate them. The egg white helps fuse everything together, the butter is mostly for taste in this case. It looks to me that you don’t actually bake the mixture in your recipe, only the almonds. I might suggest mixing everything with honey and baking at 350 for about 15min. The honey should harden after it cools. Usually sugars thicken/harden after heat is applied and it cools. Be sure to let them cool before you remove from the tray. That’s the trick! For example- in caramel corn…it’s heated sugar that makes the crunchy caramel. Let me know how it turns out if you try it! Good luck!
Great – thanks for the tip! You’re right – I don’t bake it. I will try that on my next round and let you know how it turns out 🙂 I would love to be able to take it to work with me!
Foxy- You are welcome! Also, try baking a cupcake size portion to test it…that will give you an idea of how long to bake, what it tastes like baked, how it holds together etc.
I missed this comment before – thank you! I will!
Would be worth trying with cane syrup instead of honey.
Yes, I think you can definitely try these with cane syrup.
These look so good! I’m going to have my sister make them for me!!!!!!!!!!