Toffee Almond Sandies (Cookie Contest Winner)
A huge thank you to all who participated in my Le Creuset Cookie Contest! I received hundreds of wonderful and cherished family recipes, and the ones I tried were all delicious. To pick a winner, I packed up the cookies and brought them to a dinner party of twelve close friends. For dessert, we did a cookie tasting, which—in addition to being great fun—seemed like the fairest way to pick a winner. These Toffee Almond Sandies, submitted by Kelly from Virginia, were the favorite, which was surprising because the others looked far more interesting. But that’s what I love about these cookies: they look plain but when you bite into them, you discover a buttery and sweet shortbread studded with melted toffee bits and crunchy almonds—they’re just wonderfully good. They’re also incredibly easy to make and keep well, making them—in my mind, at least—the perfect holiday cookie. Congrats to Kelly and thanks, everyone, for sharing your wonderful recipes!
Toffee Almond Sandies
Ingredients
- 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling the cookies
- 1 cup Confectioners' sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups chopped almonds
- 6 ounces (or 1 heaping cup) English toffee bits
Instructions
- Set racks in middle of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Combine all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt in a medium bowl; mix well.
- In the bowl of a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter, granulated sugar and Confectioners’ sugar until well combined, about 1-2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula, then add oil, eggs and almond extract; mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix slowly to combine. Stir in almonds and toffee bits.
- Shape dough into 1-inch balls, roll in sugar, then place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets and flatten with a fork. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through cooking, for 14-17 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container.
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Fabulous delicious cookies keep for 2 weeks wrapped in a tin! I used King Arthur White Whole Wheat for the whole wheat flour and readily available Heath Toffee Bits. The marvelous sandy texture and delightful flavor makes these special.
Thanks Jenn 😊
Highly recommend this cookie recipe. It’s a hit in this household.
This cookie is guaranteed to please – I’ve been asked for this recipe numerous times! The comments about them being hard leads me to believe that they were left in the oven too long, or the oven runs hot. I only let them stay in till they are slightly darker than when I put them in. I also process sliced almonds and keep them in the freezer for later use.
These are my new favorite shortbread-style cookie. Toasted nuts add to the flavor.
I made these and they are delicious. The one modification I made since we are strict vegetarians and do not eat eggs is I omitted the eggs and replaced them with grounded flax seed powder and they were a knockout.
I highly recommend these
These are my favorite cookies. The texture is wonderful. I substitute pecans for the almonds and use vanilla instead of amond extract. Really great!
Almonds and toffee bits. Can’t get any better than that.
I made these at Christmas and they were a big hit! The only problem is I had to give most of them away or I would have eaten them all! It makes a very large batch.
These are outstanding. Flaky, delicious and keep very well (at least 3 weeks). I gained a couple pounds over Christmas munching on these goodies. Couldn’t keep my hand out of the cookie jar! My whole family, as well as friends at work, loved them!!
I followed this recipe exactly and these little cookies are perfectly delicious!!! I ran out of time baking them and had to pause the process so I rolled the dough into logs and wrapped it in waxed paper. I refrigerated two logs and froze the third. The next day I sliced the dough into 1/4″ thick circles, sprinkled with sugar, and baked at 350 degrees for 11 minutes. It worked beautifully- even easier than rolling dough in sugar and flattening. Just thought I’d pass on what I discovered out of necessity. Thank you for a beautiful recipe which will become a permanent favorite.
Disappointed considering how many positive things are said. I filled this recipe to the T. Are they supposed to be incredibly crunchy? I did not burn them…they look great. Taste is fine, but can’t get past how hard they are. And yes, they’ve been in an air tight container.
Hi Erin, They do have a little crunch due to the toffee and almond pieces, but the cookies themselves should not be hard. They should have more of a shortbread consistency. Sorry you had a problem with them!
These cookies were okay. There was nothing particularly wrong with them or the recipe, but they weren’t special and I wouldn’t put them near my top 20 cookies. The texture was fine for sandies, but the taste was lacking. I’m not sure how to improve the taste – the almond extract was nice and the almonds added a little crunch, but the toffee flavor didn’t really shine through. I’ve made a variety of recipes from this website and have loved every other one, but I’m sorry to say that I won’t make this one again.
Hi Jenn, Do you roast the almonds? Are the skins left on? Thanks!
Hi Cathy, I use slivered almonds, which are blanched (and I don’t toast them for this recipe – but you could). 🙂
Thank you! I’m making them tomorrow for a wine and cheese party.
I did roast the almonds for 4 minutes in my toaster oven and then chopped them. These cookies are so yummy, my new favourite. Took them to a wine & cheese and they disappeared.
I’m making these as soon as I get some toffee bits, Jenn! I noticed in your notes that they keep quite a while, and am wondering how many days that means (in general). Am trying to put together a few ideas for cookies to ship for Christmas, so specific shelf life would be really helpful. Thanks!
Hi Jenn,
Can these cookies be made without the almonds? We don’t like nuts in our cookies.
Thank you,
Sure! Hope you enjoy. 🙂
Hi Jenn. If you have time, could you do the metric conversion. I’m spoilt for choice with your Christmas recipes! We don’t have the toffee bits in Australia, I don’t think, but I’ve found a simple recipe to make them. Thanks again. Anita
Hi Anita, I just added the metric conversions. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
I tried out this recipe and was so happy with the results. I didn’t change a thing. The recipe makes a ton of cookies so I gave some away as gifts (which they loved) and kept a few for myself….delicious!
What do you use for the toffee bits?
Hi Corinne, Heath makes toffee bits – you can usually find them around holiday time in the supermarket near the chocolate chips.
Hello,
I follow the recipe exactly, but mine was really spread out, it was not thick and small like the picture. It’s still tasty, but I like that small round look. What did I miss?
Hi Rosalina, Is there any possibility that you measured incorrectly? Or is your baking soda really old?
I forgot to mention that I used vanilla instead of almond extract (since I used pecans instead of almonds).
My family and I loved these cookies! I used pecans instead of almonds, but other than that, I followed the directions to the letter. So easy and tasty! I’m glad that this recipe makes a TON of cookies. These babies will definitely be on my Christmas cookie tray this year!
Do I really need to add the whole wheat flour? If it’s going to make a big difference I will definitely buy some. Thanks
No Cindy, you can use all-purpose for all the flour if you prefer. Hope you enjoy!
I’ve been eyeing these for a while now and I finally made them today. So very good is all I can say. Love the almond flavor and the nuts. They are not to sweet and the texture is nice and light. I’ll definitely be making these again. Thanks Jenn for the recipe.
These look wonderful! My Granny used to make a cookie like this and I’m going to make them with my kids on her birthday to remember her.
Trisha Yearwood makes a wonderful chocolate orange cake. Perhaps you could work your majic on it?
Hi Jodi, Thanks for the suggestion as I’m always looking for new inspiration! I’ll add it to my list of recipes to potentially develop.
Hi Jenn, I just made a comment about the Toffee Almond Sandies and forgot to mention the cook time is 12-14 minutes.
I hosted my first cookie swap in December and was looking for an easy, big batch kind of cookie. When I came across this recipe, I knew I had found what I was looking for. They even had a holiday sparkle! I altered the recipe slightly as follows. The granulated sugar was replaced with 200 grams of pure maple sugar(about 1-1/2 to 1-3/3 cups). The almonds were replaced with 2 cups of chopped pecans and in place of the almond extract, used vanilla extract as I couldn’t find pure maple extract. I did roll then in granulated sugar before baking as the original recipe indicated. I lowered the oven temperature to 325F. These are beautiful and absolutely delicious cookies with the subtle maple flavour and the bonus is they are so easy to whip up.
King Arthur Flour has pure Maple Extract.
I made 14 dozen of these cookies as Christmas gifts and another 6 dozen for my family and myself. I followed the recipe exactly, except that in the first batch I did not use almond extract because I’d run out of it. I substituted vanilla. For the second batch I used almond extract. The almond flavoring makes a world of difference, so delicious. The vanilla was good too but the cookies were more bland. Also, I found that using a half tablespoon measuring spoon worked perfectly to scoop just the right amount of dough. I’ll make this again!
These cookies are my husband’s all time favorite! Melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness in every bite.
Thanks for such a great recipe (all of you recipes are wonderful)!
Every recipe I’ve made from your web is 5Star. just want to know if l can add sunflower seeds. I can’t find a recipe for sunflower seed cookies. Does whole wheat flour make a difference instead of all white flour? Thanks for sharing your recipes. All of us in BC Canada love you. Thanks
Hi Violet, So glad you enjoy the recipes! I do think you could add sunflower seeds to these, and regarding the flour, you could try these with white whole wheat flour (I like King Arthur brand) but the taste will definitely be different. I’d love to hear how they turn out with these changes!
This was such an easy cookie to make with a wonderful crisp cookie. I made this cookie last weekend with my sisters. We all gave it 5 stars!
how do you chop/process the toffee bits? Should I use a food processer?
Hi Patty, I buy the toffee bits packaged but, yes, a few pulses in a food processor should work. Enjoy!
Can i crush heath bars to replace the toffee nibs?
Hi Sara, I think it would work but the chocolate will change the flavor the bit.
These are really delicious, I wish I had cut the recipe in half I would make them again but not so many Thanks
These are AMAZING! Made half the batch, and froze the rest of the dough for another time. The cookies were light, crispy and so delicious! I substituted almond flour for the chopped almonds, and put some sliced almonds on top before baking. Outstanding! Thank you!
These are delicious!
Just found this website a few days ago so this is one of the first things I have made from it. I have one thing to say, YUM! I’m glad I cut the recipe in half because my pants would never fit after eating 9 dozen cookies
I’m not a baker but I made these toffee almond sandies for the holidays. Wow! They were incredibly good!!
Excellent cookie. Thanks for another fantastic recipe.
I need the almond toffee Sandies and they were delicious and so delicious fresh out of the oven but then the cookies got hard within an hour how do you prevent them from getting so hard?
Hi Bea, Did you store them in an airtight container as soon as they were fully cooled?
Just wondering whether the chopped almonds in the Toffee Almond Sandies cookies are skin on, or does it matter?Thank you!
Hi Del, I used slivered almonds for this recipe (with no skin). While I think you could get away with using almonds with the skin, for best results I would recommend the slivered ones instead.
These cookies are amazing! A delicate,crumbly,texture,having the crunchy toffee bits to balance them. Good for holiday gifting or any time of the year when, (heaven forbid!), just not feelin the standard chocolate chip cookie!
Jenn,
Please tell me how many cookies (approximately) this Toffee Almond Cookie recipe makes. I want to make them for an office cookie swap and I am pretty sure we will need to make at least 12 dozen. If you have a better idea for this please advise. Thanks!!
Deb Bay
Hi Deb, the recipe makes about 9 dozen cookies, so you may want to make 1 1/2 times the recipe. Hope everyone enjoys them!
Are the toffee almond sandies ok to freeze
Hi Karen, Yes definitely 🙂
Would love to try these and make a double batch, but am wondering, could these be frozen? Then popped in the oven within a few months to bake?
Hi Anna, Yes, that would work fine.
This is a great recipe to use as a base for Pecan Sandies. I changed to gluten free and sugar free by replacing flours with a gluten free blend and replacing the sugar with Swerve. It came out great. I used pecans of course and omitted the toffee as they are not sugar free. There are some great recipes on this site. I will try converting the chocolate chip pecan blondies next.
I’ve just gone gluten free and was wondering which flour you used, and whether you’ve tried and been successful with other recipes on this site using gluten free substitutes. Thanks!
These are wonderful!! I halved the recipe, very easy to do. Thanks!!
I made these cookies for a special family party. They were a huge hit. I have been baking cookies from scratch for many years, and these are absolutely the best I have ever made. I followed the recipe exactly and they were perfect. Thank you for posting the recipe!
Not enough stars for this recipe! I rolled then in turbinado sugar before baking. These are perfect!
These are my new favorite cookie!!! of all time. I used kosher salt instead of regular and it made them be even more addictive with a faint salt crumb to add to the sandy texture. The recipe makes a lot but I’ll I’ll be doubling it everytime because they fly off the plate. Yum!!!!
Wow, these are amazing! Light, buttery, just the right amount of everything. These will go to the top of my list along with coconut cranberry chews as our favorite cookie. I’m going to have to give these away to the neighbors or my jeans will be too tight in a matter of days.
Thanks, Jen, for sharing so many delicious recipes with us this year. Happy Holidays to you and your family!
Thinking I would use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil – do you think that would work?
Hi Diane, It should work as long as the coconut oil is in melted form — might impart a slight coconut flavor but that’s not a bad thing 🙂
Can I use all purpose flout for the whole wheat too?
Hi Julie, Yes that’s fine.
I use White Whole Wheat flour, instead of all-purpose or wheat flours. Any ideas on what the total flour measurement would be??
Hi Edi, I would use 3 cups all purpose to 1-1/2 cups white whole wheat flour. Please come back and let me know how they turn out!
Thanks so much for the response, but I think my question wasn’t clear…I was wondering about making them without using all-purpose flour…using only white whole wheat…your thought??
Ahh, sorry, I misunderstood. You can just sub white whole wheat flour cup for cup for all purpose flour but the taste will definitely be different.
How bad can it be?! lol Thanks again!
this is basically the Amish sugar cookie recipe with add ins.
Would really like to try this recipe, just one question…Is it okay to use almond flour instead of the regular flour Somehow I have this bag of flour and is it okay though.
Thank you and hope to hear from you soon
Hi Lillian, I’m sorry almond flour will not work as a substitute for regular flour.
I live in Tasmania, Australia and am unsure what is meant by English toffee bits. Is it crunchy toffee broken into shards? Or small bits of firm caramel, also known as toffee in Britain?
I would like to try the recipe, but can’t find the product you mention in my local stores. We do, however, have a local sweet shop that sells many traditional British sweets (candies) so I think I could make a reasonable adaptation if I had more of an idea of what I am looking for. Thanks.
Hi Marguerite, It is crunchy toffee broken into shards. Hope you are able to find a good substitute…the cookies are delicious!
Hi Marguerite, I’m also in Australia – what did you end up using for the toffee bits? Thank you!
I have made these cookies a few times and they always turn out great! I accidentally bought the chocolate covered toffee bits and used them anyway, and the cookies were still good!!
We added these last year to our annual Christmas cookies to make. They were a hit with everyone who tried them, I wouldn’t change anything!
Delicious…I used unbleached flour since I dint have any whole wheat flour & it worked great. I would love to win the cook wear
my mouth is watering and I love the Twix bars!
These cookies are great. Recipe easy and fast.
Great tasting cookies!!
These are my husband’s absolute favorite cookie! Seems like I can’t make them fast enough sometimes.
I have made these a couple of times and they are great.. I used chocolate covered heath peices on one occaision and they turned out just as good.
I have made these twice to give as gifts and the recipients thought they were great both times. We have enjoyed them also.
Pecan sandies are my favorite store bought cookie. These are even better.
These are the absolute BEST cookies I’ve ever had! They’re super easy to make and I love that they make so many. I’ve taken them to every function I’ve been to since you posted this winner and each time I get multiple requests for the recipe.
I just made this recipe today, and it is a hit with everyone in my family. I find it to be the perfect cookie — perfect texture, taste, and look. It is light and crisp. The almonds make a great taste and texture. (I had sliced almonds on hand and just put those in the chopper to use. Very nice.) The cookies are flavorful — not too sweet and definitely not bland. And they have a perfect, light color and look. I know we’ll be making these again and again. I baked on a Silpat rather than parchment paper. Delicious cookies.
My daughter and I made these for Christmas. My new favorite for sure! Loved them!
I have made these cookies several times and they are always a big hit.
My girlfriend & I had a bake date, we decided to bake these Toffee Almond Sandies, the recipe was easy to follow and they were absolutely delicious! We sprinkled ground cinnamon on half of the batch, it was a nice touch.
I made this at Christmas and dipped half of each cookie in Chocolate. Soooooo good!
These cookies were a hit with the whole family and did not last long!
Can’t wait to make these! Would love to try the others, will you please post those recipes as well? Thanks!
I made these today. Wonderful. I made half the recipe. Definitely use the parchment paper as they do brown on the bottom. How nice to have a new cookie to add to my Christmas cookie collection. Love your site and your recipes. How about a few more Christmas cookie recipes for this year??
I made these yesterday slightly deviating from the recipe. Instead of almonds and toffee, I went the pecan sandie route as they are the favorite of my boyfriend’s father. I swapped the almond extract for 2 teaspoons of vanilla, added about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and used 2 cups of chopped/toasted pecans. I knew once I tried the batter these cookies were going to be amazing but that first bite was absolute bliss. They blew me, and everyone else, away. Eat your heart out Keebler elves!
These are quite possibly the best cookies I’ve ever eaten! I’m so glad the recipe makes 9 dozen. I may eat most of them myself!
Great ideas, Tom! So funny because as I was baking them, I wondered how they’d be with both pecans and chocolate, but because it was a cookie contest, I had to stick to the recipe. Thank you for letting me know! I’ll definitely experiment a little next time.
Wonderful cookie Jen, I was also curious if you plan on posting the other cookie recipes that were submitted? Always curious to see what other bakers created. As for these Toffee Almond Sandies, I broke mine up in batches and added some ground pecans to one group, toffee speckles (fine ground) to another & chocolate speckles to the third group sprinkling the tops lightly before making any indentations & baking. Another option is rolling them lightly in fine ground pecans or almonds before pressing into a cookie and baking.
Tom,
After making these initially exactly as Jenn wrote the recipe, I’m going to try your variations on my next batches. Pecans are always my favorite kind of nut, so I’m going to try adding them (as well as chocolate to a different batch) and I love your idea of rolling the balls in chopped pecans before pressing with a fork and baking. Great ideas. Thanks.
I love that you made all of these cookies and then did a “taste test” with your friends. Genius. And what lucky friends you have to taste all these goodies! Happy holiday! (p.s. thanks for your recent comment…so great to meet you).
Anne, Toffee Bits of Brickle is the one to use.
Hi All, I don’t think I’ll get the other recipes posted before the holidays but if you’re interested in any of them, email me at [email protected] and I’ll send them to you directly. Thanks!
We loved these cookies! They make A LOT! We’ll be adding this to our Christmas cookie list from now on for sure. Thanks!
Congrats to Kelly! I agree, I would love to see the recipes for the others as well.
Ditto… please share the other recipes. They all look fabulous, especially Rose’s Raspberry Almond Thumbprints… they just LOOK like Christmas!
The Toffee Almond Sandies look delish!
I am honored that you tried the lemon thins!
That was a fun giveaway! I hope you will share the other recipes!
What type of Heath’s Toffee bits did you use? I found Milk Chocolate ones and Bits of Brickle Toffee (which is what I purchased) at a Food Lion. I haven’t made them yet.
Anne
Yes!! Please print the recipes for the other cookies pictured. I am really interested in the lemon thins!!! Thanks,
Courtney
I loved this post. Will you share the other “runners-ups?”
Janise
All of those cookies look delicious! Could you share the recipes for all the pictured ones???
These all look wonderful and I want to try them all…but first will be Toffee Almond Sandies…then Twix bar. Beautiful pictures as usual!
Yum. They all sound and look good. Will you please share recipes for the runners up that are featured? Pretty please!
Would you please post the recipes for the other cookies pictured in this post? They look amazing as well! Thanks!