Vanilla Almond Orange Cloud Cookies

November is a month that always makes my head spin.  I feel like I’m barreling full force into the holidays, into the end of the year, into planning my life for the next year, into trying to keep my act together and my sore throat at bay.

I only wish November came with a tally of the year… just a little list that could tell me what has gone down in my year so far.

I don’t need an update on my New Year’s Resolutions for 2012… we all know those were shot to hell somewhere around January 18, 2012.  I want a tally more along the lines of:  How many times I used the word ‘bonkers’.  How many cookies I stress ate in my car.  How many times I’ve walked around town with either a pound of butter, or a bag of brown sugar in my purse.  How many times I’ve Googled the same word to spell check it.  You know… the important things.  The things that really tell you how you’re living in your everyday.  Quirky, cosmopolitan, and resourceful… right?

The November days are ticking away quickly. December will come and go in a blur of cranberries and Mariah Carey Christmas CDs.  Before we know it we’ll be pushing someone in the frigid pool at the New Year’s Eve party.

For now… while we have this simple and quiet November 13th… let’s just enjoy these (or really any) cookies, close our eyes and tally the year’s ridiculousness.

When it comes to these (gluten-free!!) Vanilla Almond Orange Cloud Cookies, I feel like I have some explaining to do.

Some explaining beyond an enthusiastic ‘they’re amazing!’ (which they totally are).

These cookies are made with almond paste.  Almond paste is a thick mixture of ground almonds, sugar, and almond flavoring.  It’s an all-almond situation.  Because almond paste is the main ingredient of these cookies, we’re talking about an intensely almond extravaganza.

Almond flavor is paired with orange zest and vanilla bean.  I think the three are pretty, fragrant, and well deserving of one another.

We’ll need two egg whites.

And we’ll need to beat those egg whites until they’re a bit frothy.

The almond paste is beaten with the fragrant orange and vanilla sugar.

It’s crumbly and that’s totally cool.  The egg whites will be mixed in, and smooth out our cookie world.

No flour.  No butter.  No baking powder or baking soda.  Just almond, lovely sugar, and eggs (ok… there’s salt and almond extract too).

It’s like being on the almond flavor train.

The flavor train is dusted generously with powdered sugar.

Three finger indentations are made in each cookie and they’re off to meet the oven.

These are among the most dreamy cookies imaginable.  Taste and texture are supreme!  The cookies bake up with a lightly golden, crisp exterior.  They’re covered in powdered sugar so there’s no mouth breathing while ingesting.  The inside is impossibly soft and tender… and so beautifully flavored with almond, orange, and vanilla, your brain will find its happy place.  Chewy meets crunchy.  Pavlova meets macaroon (minus the coconut) meets edible cloud.

This recipe is inspired by a cookie I enjoyed at King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont this weekend.  I need to tell you more about that trip!  Suffice it to say, I made a ton of pie, I baked with some lovely (and super talented) students, and I was genuinely surrounded by people who love good flour and respect good baguette as much as I do.  Basically… heaven.