Vanilla - Almond Fruit Tart / pie

I adapted this recipe from kraft.com.   Looks impressive, but so easy to make! 

To save time I used a pre-made graham cracker crust, but you could make your own as well!  You can also put the sliced fruits in dishes and let your guests top their own slices of pie. 

Ingredients

• 1 (3.4 ounce) package Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
• 1 cup cold milk
• 1 cup thawed Whipped Topping like Cool Whip
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup mixed fresh fruit (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, halved strawberries, sliced kiwi)

Directions

1. Beat pudding mix and milk with whisk 2 min. Stir in whipped topping and almond extract. Spoon into crust.
2. Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm. Top with fruit and reserved nuts just before serving.

Almond Cookies

Tomorrow is the Lunar New Year! Happy Year of the Rabbit! I thought I’d share a recipe for Almond Cookies.

I like these cookies because they are not too sweet.

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup sliced almonds
  

Directions

1. Coarsely chop the almonds. You can do this by putting them in a bag and crushing the almond slices with your fingers or a rolling pin. The pieces should be about the size of a red pepper flake.
2. Sift flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together into a bowl. Add the almond pieces and mix well.
3. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal and there are no large chunks of butter left.
4. Scramble the egg lightly and mix in the almond extract.
5. Add egg mixture to the dough and mix well.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 325 F.
7. Roll dough into 1 inch balls.
   
   NOTE: The dough may be a little dry so you may need to squeeze the dough into balls.
   
8. Set the dough balls 1 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
9. Bake in oven for 15-18 minutes. Cool on rack.
   
   NOTE: These cookies do not brown while baking. If they make a ‘sizzling’ noise when you pull them out of the oven, they need another minute.
   

Variation

'Restaurant' cookies
I know that some people do not like crushed nuts in their cookies. You can omit the crushed almonds and if you like, use whole almonds instead. In step 2, after rolling the dough into balls, press a whole almond (or sliced almond) into the top of each ball.

‘Rabbit’ cookies
In honor of the year of the rabbit you could also omit the crushed almonds and instead, use the sliced almonds as ‘rabbit ears’ in the cookies. Since these cookies do not brown much, their pale ivory color does remind me of a cute little bunny.