As chair of the Knox County Board of Education, Susan Horn spends plenty of time visiting schools, leading board meetings and shaping policy for the school district.
But when she needs to unwind, Horn sometimes turns to a different kind of work. “I’m not the best cook in the world, but I can bake. It’s kind of a nice stress reliever. You have the science of baking and you end up with pretty predictable results, which I like.”
Susan Horn says that nothing she bakes looks perfect, but “you can hide a lot of sins with a little bit of icing.”
In preparation for the holidays, Hall Pass asked Horn to share one of her favorite recipes: Glazed Raspberry Almond Shortbread Cookies.
She said the recipe is a favorite of her mother-in-law, who makes the cookies for Christmas.
“I love the almond flavoring. … Anything that I bake, it never looks perfect,” Horn said. “So I love that these have the icing, because you can hide a lot of sins with a little bit of icing.”
Ingredients
Cookies
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup butter
½ tsp. almond extract
2 cups all purpose flour
½ cup raspberry jam
Glaze
1 cup confectioner sugar
½ tsp. almond extract
2-3 tsp. water
Directions
Cookies
Combine sugar, butter and almond extract.
Beat at medium speed until creamy (2-3 minutes).
Reduce speed to low and add flour.
Beat until well mixed.
Cover and chill at least one hour.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls.
Place balls on cookie sheet 2-inches apart.
Make an indentation in center of each cookie.
Fill with about 1/8 tsp. jam.
Bake at 350 for 14-18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let cookies cool completely.
Glaze
Stir ingredients together with whisk.
Drizzle over cookies.
Makes about 3½ dozen
Josh Flory is a multi-media specialist with Knox County Schools and writes this blog, Hall Pass, for the KCS website.