Cake Boss Butter Cookies

By ctozzi

This recipe makes 24 plain cookies and 24 chocolate cookies. You can make them all chocolate (double cocoa powder) or all plain (leave out cocoa powder)

Ingredients

• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cups almond paste
• 4 eggs whites
• 3 1/2 cups cake flour (no substitutes)
• 1 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (if making chocolate butter cookies)

Details

Servings 48

Preparation

Step 1

Position a rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter, sugar, and almond paste in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (you can use a hand mixer if you allow buttr to soften at room temperature before beginning) Starting on low speed, and increasing to medium after 2 minutes, paddle the ingredients until uniformly smooth with a mashed potatoe consistency, about 5 minutes.

Lower the mixer speed to low and pour in about one quarter of the egg whites, again paddling for 1 minute, then stop to scrape again. Repeat until all egg whites have been added, paddling for 1 minute extra at the end to ensure the dough is smooth.

Add the flour and paddle just until it is absorbed into the dough nd the dough is smooth again. (the dough may be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 1 week, or frozen for up to 1 month; let it come to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe.)

Transfer half the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a #7 star tip.

Working on the one or two nonstick cookie sheets, pipe the dough into 2 1/2 inch circles, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between circles, and create four staggered rows of three circles each.

Bake the cookies in batches for about 12 minutes or until the bottoms are ringed golden-brown (lift very gently with a spatula to check underneath if necessary) and the star-tip ridges have dropped into a shallow, wavy pattern. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven. As soon as the cookies can be moved, use a spatula to transfer them to a rack and let them cool. (Be sure to let the pans cool completely before piping the chocolate cookies on to them.)

Meanwhile, add the cocoa powder to the remaining dough and paddle just until blended. Squeeze out any remaining plain dough from the pastry bag then spoon the cocoa dough into the bag. Repeat last 2 steps with the cocoa dough.

The cookies may be store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.