Today I won’t bother you with ‘no snow in the Alps and it’s so depressing’ situation as there is nothing we can do about it. This little town doesn’t do well with the high temperatures, no snow and no tourists. We are all still hoping that soon the temperatures will drop and the snow will come and until than let’s be happy, look forward to Christmas and holidays, little gifts under the tree and let’s bake some more cookies!!! 🙂 That usually helps to fix almost everything, the smell of freshly baked cookies, dipping them into hot cocoa or a cup of tea and sharing them with the people you love. Those are the little things that make me happy!
As I always mention here on this little blog of mine, I believe in balance and that’s why even if most of the recipes here are made with healthy ingredients, that doesn’t mean that from time to time we cannot have a real decadent chocolate cake or delicious cookies with butter. I just like to keep those for special occasions and Christmas is definitely one of those! So today I have for you these yummy Almonds & chocolate cookies that I found many years ago in one of those Christmas baking magazines and have been baking them ever since. They are not only delicious but they also look cute and festive! 🙂
The ingredient that makes these cookies extra special and gives this beautiful delicate flavor to dough is grated lemon peel so make sure you don’t skip that as it’s really important. Just make sure you are using organic lemons. So, let’s see what we need to make them…
- For dough:
- 200 g (1 and ¾ cup) all-purpose flour
- 100 g (1 cup) ground almonds (almond meal)
- 1 egg
- pinch of salt
- 150 g (2/3 cup) butter (I used lactose-free)
- 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar
- 1 tsp grated lemon zest
- For topping:
- 100 g (3/4 cup) milk chocolate + 100 g (3/4 cup) dark chocolate
- sprinkles for decoration
- Note: For topping you can use all dark or all milk chocolate if you prefer.
- In a large mixing bowl combine all dough ingredients and work with your hands, kneading until the smooth dough is formed.
- Wrap the dough in a transparent kitchen foil and put it in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 190 C (375 F). Prepare the large baking tray and line it with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough in a long shape, cut small slices and form the cookies. You can also just take smaller pieces of dough from the dough ball and form long shaped cookies by rolling them with your hands.
- Place the cookies on a tray and bake them for 10-12 minutes until just slightly golden.
- They will be soft when you remove them from the oven but don't worry, they will harden as they cool down.
- While the cookies are cooling down, prepare the chocolate for the topping by melting it over the steam (bain marie) of boiling water.
- Dip each cookie into the melted chocolate and sprinkle them with colorful sprinkles for decoration.
- Leave the cookies on the tray until the chocolate topping dries and than store them in the metal box / airtight container.
Not only do these look festive, they taste amazing, I’m sure. The addition of lemon is a very nice touch! I reckon I’d polish off that entire tray in one sitting!
Ha, ha, they are really good and gone quite fast in our house! 🙂 Thank you!