Another wet Saturday! More baking! These could also be called Italian almond-lemon cookies as that is the flavouring. They are another recipe from my American Taste of Home magazine I bought this year in Florida, but you can find the recipe online here.
I made half the quantity because 7.5 dozen cookies is waaaay too many for me. I don’t have a stand mixer so I just rubbed the fats into the flour and icing sugar mixture and used a hand held mixer to beat the eggs. I like the tactility of the rubbing-in method. I have cold hands so I find it quite easy to get the right texture. I have a memory from a long time ago (when I was about 11) in a domestic science class making an apple crumble and rubbing the butter (or more likely margarine) into the flour. The boy next to me ended up with a ball of pastry instead of a crumble topping! He must have had HOT hands 😉
These cookies are light and soft, and very sweet. I suppose all cookies are sweet, but the icing on these doubles the sweetness, even though I only dipped the tops not the whole cookie like the recipe said. I like cookies, but I think I really do prefer cake. Watch out for next recipe – cake. I also really like doughnuts. They involve deep fat frying which is slightly terrifying, but I have done it before… Maybe I will have another go at doughnuts next year. Just a few random side-thoughts about baking plans 🙂
Back to this recipe. I really like the flavours but not everyone likes almond. I read in the comments on the online recipe that anise is another traditional flavour – again not everyone’s favourite but I love anise so maybe next time.
Here’s a little tip for baking cookies – whatever the recipe says about greased or ungreased cookie sheets/trays I find it safest to line the tins with baking parchment. You can re-use this parchment several times so it isn’t too extravagant, and it really does save a whole lot of headache if the cookie is a likely-to-stick variety.
They’re pretty aren’t they? Hope your holiday baking is going well if you are into that kind of thing. If not I hope you are getting plenty of cookies (and maybe mince pies if you are in the UK) to scoff.
Eat Cake And Run 