Almond Butter Cutouts

These are non-dairy almond butter cookie-cutter cookies I made for a solstice/Armageddon party. I cut them out with a sun-shaped cookie cutter from Tags. I started with the Peanut Butter Cutouts recipe from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion because I meant to make peanut butter cookies, but my jar of peanut butter was crunchy and the almond butter was smooth. I had the non-dairy almond cream hanging around. I tried to make the Vanilla Glaze from the cookie book using almond cream as well, but it came out too runny.

Ingredients

• ½ c. Crisco (shortening) + 1 T. water
• ½ c. smooth almond butter
• 1 c. sugar
• ¾ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. almond extract
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup almond cream
• 3 T. cornstarch
• 3 c. all-purpose flour

Directions

Beat together first seven ingredients (up to the egg). Beat in egg. Beat in cornstarch, half the flour, and half the cream. Mix in remaining cream and flour. Divide dough and refrigerate 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°. Roll dough out between two sheets of parchment paper to ¼ to ⅛ inches thickness, depending on desired crunchiness. Cut out a dozen cookies and place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a rack. Repeat as necessary. Taste for almondy goodness and frost with almond-extract flavored icing if needed.