2 cups brown sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) butter) or � butter and � vegetable shortening
3 eggs, slightly beaten
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup finely chopped almonds
Preheat oven to 375�F.
Beat together brown sugar and butter; stir in eggs and mix until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Combine milk and vanilla.
Stir 1/2 of flour mixture into sugar, butter and eggs mixture (no need to measure-just approximate).
Add 1/2 of the milk, then the remaining flour; finally add remaining
liquid ingredients. Stir until combined.
At this point, stir in the almonds.
Drop onto a parchment lined baking sheet by tablespoons about 2 inches apart. (If cookies tend to spread too much, add a little more flour don't add more than a few tablespoons or the cookies will be dry and heavy.)
Bake 7-12 minutes or until cookies are golden around edges. Remove to cooling racks.
It is better to slightly underbake the cookies than overbake.
Traditionally, the Amish used no electric mixers in preparing these cookies. It's important not to overmix the cookie dough when the recipe is prepared using a food processor or electric mixer. Also, the Amish used lard. You, therefore, may want to
use shortening in place of the butter.