My recipe is almost the same only no soft ball stage. QUICK CHOCOLATE DROPS 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup butter or margarine 1/2 cup of milk 6 tablespoons cocoa Bring to a full boil over med. heat. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup coconut 2 cups rolled oats. Stir well Drop by teaspoonsful on to buttered wax paper. Work quickly before they cool. Let cool and place in a container with wax paper between layers. Store in a covered container in the fridge or a cool place. I have added peanut butter to these

A lot of Italian families have Biscotti with their breakfast coffee: Sobe Biscotti Makes 32 biscotti Source: Burt Wolf's Local Flavors, Miami, Florida The Miami Beach restaurant Nemo serves these biscotti with an assortment of fruit sorbets. Pastry chef Hedy Goldsmith suggests an easy way to line the loaf pan with foil. "Invert the loaf pan and mold the foil around the outside. Turn the pan over and place the molded foil right in the pan." 4 ounces (1 1/2 cups) thinly-sliced almonds Butter or Pam vegetable spray 4 eggs, separated 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice 3/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon salt Grated zest of 1 lemon, finely grated 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 1/2 cup dried sour cherries 1/2 cup dried cranberries Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the almonds out on a baking sheet and toast for 10 minutes, until golden brown. Set aside to cool. Line a 5 x 9 1/2-inch loaf pan with foil on all sides. Butter or spray Pam all over the inside of the pan and set aside. TO PREPARE THE BATTER: Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat the egg whites with the lemon juice until they just begin to hold stiff peaks. Gradually add 1/4 cup of the sugar to the whites and continue to beat on high until they hold firm, stiff peaks. Transfer the beaten whites to a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks, vanilla, and salt together until the mixture becomes thick and then add the lemon zest. With a wide blade rubber spatula, fold this egg yolk mixture into the beaten whites, once it is incorporated, gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Then fold in the sifted flour and then the toasted almonds, cherries and cranberries. Turn the batter out into the prepared loaf pan. Use the back of a spoon, dipped in water, to smooth out the top. Place the loaf pan into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, cover the loaf pan with a piece of foil. This will prevent the top of the loaf from becoming too brown. Return the loaf to the oven and continue to bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Remove the loaf from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Invert the loaf onto a plate, remove the foil, and immediately wrap with a fresh piece of foil. Allow to cool to room temperature and then place into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight. FOR THE SECOND BAKING: Place the two oven racks on the top third and the bottom third of the oven to create two tiers and preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Unwrap the loaf and using a serrated knife, cut the loaf into 1/4-inch thick slices. Place the slices on a baking sheet and bake two sheets at a time until the cookies are lightly golden: this should take about 30 minutes. You want the cookies to be dry and crisp, but not too dark in color. Halfway during the baking, reverse the baking sheets to ensure that they cook evenly. Once the cookies are dry and crisp, place them on a cooling rack to cool completely and then serve. Store in an airtight container. Recipe courtesy of Pastry chef Hedy Goldsmith, Nemo, Miami Beach, Florida

At the risk of being tagged a "troll", here's my two cents on this old thread. I've had an empty box of Jules Destrooper's Almond Thins on my computer desk for several months to remind me to look again to see if anyone has developed a recipe and put it online. (I tried it a couple of times myself at first but the results were, well, disappointing.) I found this thread on today's Google search. I don't know anything about Trader Joe's similar cookies, as we don't have that supermarket chain in the New Orleans area, but the list of ingredients in the Destrooper butter almond cookie is clearly different from the "Destrooper" recipe linked above at Yahoo! Answers: INGREDIENTS: WHEAT FLOUR, BROWN SUGAR, BUTTER, ALMONDS, SALT. (Listed in that order.) Of note: no egg, no vanilla. The only sources of moisture in the genuine Destrooper's are the brown sugar and the butter and I'm guessing I could try a dozen more times before I figured out the proportions and baking technique that would work. (I'm an OK cook but not that much of a baker.) Perhaps "WHEAT FLOUR" is how folks in Belgium refer to "whole wheat flour" but I'm not thinking this is the critical difference, at least vis-a-vis Destrooper's (versus Trader Joe's). I'm thinking that adding egg and vanilla and omitting the molasses flavor of the brown sugar would tend to make a very different cookie, regardless of the proportions of other ingredients and the baking technique. I'll let you know if I ever figure it out...

Why not start with one chile, taste the dough, and then if you feel courageous, add a second one. I bought some hatch chiles recently at Whole Foods. They had a bin of mild and a bin of hot. I bought some of both, and used a twist tie on the bag of mild chiles, and no tie on the bag of hot chiles. When I started working with them, I tasted the both. Wow, they were both quite hot to me, and I can usually deal with hot. I don't know if they got the bins mixed up, or what happened, but I couldn't tell a difference. I can't imagine them in cookies, but I do occasionally like a pinch of cayenne in chocolate. Go figure. Sally