Recipe: Almond Sweets

Recipe Source: Darling, Jennifer Dorland.  Cookies for Christmas.  Meredith Books, Des Moines, 1999 p. 114.

It's that time of year again.... "Authorities" seem to be of two minds about Christmas cookies.  Some seem to believe that the making of Christmas cookies is an important family tradition that ought to be maintained and cherished in this country.  Others scream shrilly about rising obesity rates, diabetes, celiac disease and how irresponsible it is to encourage people to make things so unhealthy as cookies.  Guess which camp I fall in?  I do remember making Christmas cookies with my mom and my sister and sometimes my mom's friend.  Mom often had a real block about baking, which is no shame on her.  Lots of good cooks have a hard time with baking.  At Christmas time, though, it was like something broke through that block.  There were always cookies.  They were always good.  They were always great.  And we always enjoyed decorating them and helping to make them.  (We never, ever pitched hissy fits about how we'd rather be out with our friends, or reading a book, or doing anything but hanging around with our horrible big/little sister ((depending on who was distinctly not pitching a fit.))) 

These cookies are not part of that tradition.  I do remember them coming to my parents' annual Christmas Eve party, though.  They came on elaborate trays brought from a proper Italian bakery, usually brought by someone's grandma.  I had always assumed that the bakery was their natural point of origin, possibly an original recipe that would be lost when the bakery got devoured by the latest strip mall and big-box store.  My husband recently suggested that perhaps I ought to throw a few Christmas cookie recipes up on the site, so I turned to this book for inspiration. 

These cookies aren't exactly the cookies I remember, but they're pretty darned close.  I did make one change: I used almond extract instead of vanilla for the cookies.  After all, they're called almond sweets, right?  Where the recipe says "cooking oil," I used olive oil.  That's what I keep on hand.  To be honest, I was pretty proud of these.  Maybe someday I'll be the little old Italian grandma bringing these to a party, and someone else's daughter will be inspired to try to find the recipe when she gets older. 

Almond Sweets (makes 60 cookies; approx. $0.04/cookie.  Can't beat that!)

3 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 tablespoons milk

Red and green food coloring, if desired

Equipment:

• 2 mixing bowls
• 2 small bowls, if using food coloring
• 1 stand mixer
• 2 baking sheets
• Melon baller

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lubricate your cookie sheets with whatever you see fit.  I used cooking spray.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl.
4. In the bowl of the stand mixer, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and 1 teaspoon almond extract. 
5. Add in the flour mixture.  Beat well.
6. Use the melon baller to measure out sixty rounded cookies.  Divide them between the two baking sheets. 
7. Bake 12 minutes or until golden.  Allow to cool.  A wire rack is best for this purpose, but you can probably get away without it if you don't already have one.
8. In the second mixing bowl, combine the powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract and 2 tablespoons milk.  Mix until smooth.
9. If you want to have red and green icing, dole out 1/3 of the mixture into each of the two smaller bowls.  Put enough of the food coloring into each bowl to get your desired shade of red or green.  If you just want white cookies, skip to the next step.
10. When the cookies are cooled, dip the top of each cookie into the icing color of your choice. 
11. Serve!