Five days of holiday baking: Day 5 - Vanilla-almond balls

This recipe is a variation on last year's brown butter and toasted almond cookies (here). These are a little more crumbly and dry (though nowhere near a biscotti), and very flavourful, so I recommend serving them with tea or coffee. I got the idea to combine almond and vanilla flavours after seeing a package of soy milk that did just that!

xx

Prepare 1/2 cup of browned butter, then refrigerate until cooled. 

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat 1/2 cup browned butter, 3T almond butter, 3T almond paste and 3/4 cup brown sugar on medium-high for a couple of minutes. Scrape the seeds from 1 vanilla bean into 1/2 cup milk and add to mixture. Add 1T almond extract. Gradually mix in 1-3/4 cups of all-purpose flour. If the mixture is too dry, add extra milk. Stir in chopped vanilla-flavoured almonds. 

Taking care to handle the dough as little as possible, roll dough into 1" balls and space out on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes.