With cherry on top

It was rainy, warm and gloomy day- just the way I love the most. All my way back home was accompanied by rain and intensively rain-scented air and I just couldn't be happier. All around me there were leaves growing, rain was rustling and until I got home I was soaked. And it all called for a little celebration. 
'So what would it be?'- I asked myself drying my hair and bowing to the fridge searching for an appropriate flavor combination, and there could be only one good choice to complete the mood: Cherry almond vanilla cookies for the five'o'clock cup of tea.

Would you like to make your rainy afternoons complete and cosy too? This is how...

Cherry almond vanilla cookies

65 g unsalted butter

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup grounded almonds

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 jar of cherries in syrup

Beat the softened butter with sugar. Add the 'wet' ingredients (egg yolk, lemon juice and vanilla extract) and beat them together until the dough is homogeneous. Add the remaining dry ingredients (almonds, flour and salt) and beat them well. When you're done with beating, knead the dough manually and form a compact block. Preheat the oven to 180 C and in the meantime form little cookies and place them on the baking paper. Make a dimple in the middle of each cookie (with your thumb or a spoon) to make a place for the cherry filling that will be added after baking. That is how I chose to shape my cookie batch.

Put the cookies in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until they start changing their color to golden. Having that fulfilled here comes an extremely important part of the recipe. Sit down, relax and listen to this piece of music:

Mumford&Sons- Little Lion

Of course it might not be your cup of tea, but you don't have to become a fan. It's purely for the sake of experience, but I secretly hope that you will enjoy the heart-warming combination of Mumford&Sons with the smell of almond vanilla cookies in your home.

After the cookies are done remove them from the oven and add the cherry on top by placing it in the dimple. You can also add some cherry syrup, but try to limit it to one teaspoon. This is because its sugary feeling may dominate almond and vanilla tastes so they would become less intense and that's definitely not the effect we are after. 

Put the cookies with cherries to the oven for another 3-4 minutes and afterwards allow them to cool down. In the meantime brew the tea in a teapot, my choice was a strongly scented Earl Grey which perfectly matched this flavor mixture. I enjoyed my cookies in the company of Mumford&Sons, strong tea and heavy rain drumming against my window. Do you already know how you will enjoy yours?