Christmas almond cookies

These Christmas almond cookies attracted me for its decoration when I saw them in a Martha Stewart Living magazine. I saved the recipe for Christmas.

While deciding with my friend Emanuela which cookies prepare for Christmas, we were directed toward another already-known recipe, as during the holidays we usually have short time and we couldn’t fail a recipe. But, I don’t know why, something pushed us towards this recipe and thanks God we did it! We began to ate these almond cookies right out of the oven ;-). We began commenting “this one is too dark, so we can eat it”, “so as this one”…then her husband came in and asked: “is there any other over baked one for me?”.

They are really delicious. You can already understand it from the raw dough (that we ate too 😉 ). At first I was afraid they could be too spicy but no, almonds and cinnamon match perfectly. I increased the cinnamon quantity by mistake but we liked it that way and it became our version of this recipe.

How to prepare the Christmas almond cookies:

Ingredients:

1 cup toasted almonds

1 1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour + more for dusting

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp coarse salt

1 stick butter at room temperature

1 egg

2 Tbsp Marsala

for decoration:

2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

3 Tbsp water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp orange zest

gold pearlized sugar

Preparazione:

Toast almonds in a non-adherent pan.

Pulse almonds with 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor until finely ground.

In a bowl put together butter and sugar and beat with a mixer in medium speed. until fluffy. Beat in egg and Marsala until combined. Slow down the speed and add almond and flour mixtures just until well combined.

Divide dough in two and wrap each half in plastic wrap and keep in fridge for 2 hours or overnight.

Turn on the oven 375°F / 180°C.

Let dough stand at room temperature until pliable.

Take the first disk of dough and roll it on a floured surface to 1/4 in thick.

Cut the stars with cookie cutters and place them 2 inches apart on a baking tray covered with parchment paper.

Bake until edges are golden (10-12 min). With a spatula transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

To decorate: with mixer on medium speed, beat confectioner’s sugar, water, vanilla, and orange zest until smooth.

Transfer icing to a sac a poche with a small hole and decorate the almond cookies as you desire and sprinkle pearlized sugar. Let set until icing dries.

Buon appetito and Merry Christmas!