Question about cookies that involve almonds?!
Answers: I am making some cookies for xmas called almond crescents. The only almonds that I could find in the store at the time are the whole roasted salted almonds and not the baking almonds. What can I do with these almonds so that they would work with the cookie? Could I let them soak in water so that most of the salt would wash out of them?
Did you look in the baking aisle? Are there other stores you can check?
If not, the best I can offer is to wipe as much salt off as you can, do not put them in water. Grind them up and use them, if your recipe calls for salt, omit it. All you can do is try.
Additional
Grinding them up, I didn't say pulverize into a flour. For those who obviously can't read I'll make it simple, "gently chop the almonds you wish to use".
Pastry chef, huh? Where, cause I'm a thinking a grocery store bakery doesn't cut it.
The beauty and joy of cooking, (and some of us don't have to crow about where or when we have) is that you experiment and try things new, sometimes you are in a pinch and must do with what you have (as seems to be the case here). Baking, of course, being a much more exact science than cooking, however something like having the wrong type of almonds is not going to ruin your cookies, they may not turn out exactly as you want, but hey, you may invent something new that you like just as well.
you really should not use them in the almond crescents recipe. they will not give you the result you want.
you can use the almonds you have in other baked goods - hold onto them for addition to a coffee cake (sweet and salty, yum) or something else.
the crescent cookies are very delicate - the weight of the whole almonds will alter the end result. additionally, the salt (you can't soak it out) will change the ratio for the mechanical leavening (what makes them rise.)
look for sliced almonds in the baking aisle. your store was probably out of them - lots of baking going on, ya know. wink.
EDIT: grinding the almonds will make an almond flour - you could chop them with a food processor, but don't take them too fine or too far.