Italian Almond with Lemon Cookies

5 from 2 votes

Italian Almond with Lemon Cookies

These are a classic Italian delight. I love the dusting of powdered sugar on top of these soft and buttery lemon enhanced almond cookies.

Prep Time20

Total Bake Time14

Chill1

Total Time1 34

Course: Cookies, Nuts

Cuisine: Italian

Difficulty: Medium

Servings: cookies

Calories: 104kcal

Ingredients

1 cup (125 g) Almonds blanched ground to flour consistency
2 cups (250 g) All-purpose flour
1 cup (227 g) Butter unsalted room temperature
1 Tablespoon (1 Tablespoon) Lemon zest
½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Lemon juice
2 (2) Egg yolk
½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Vanilla Extract
½ cup (100 g) Sugar white
¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) Kosher Salt
⅓ cup (40 g) Powdered sugar For topping

Instructions

Weigh or measure the flour into a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, weigh or measure the white sugar. Weigh or measure the almonds (saving enough to put one on each cookie).
In a food processor, add the almonds. Pulse until they are very small pieces, or like flour in consistency. If you measured make sure you still have a cup of the ground almonds. Add the ground almonds back to the food processor.
Cube the butter and add it to the food processor bowl. Next, add the sugar, flour, salt, vanilla extract, lemon zest, lemon juice, egg yolks, and put the lid on the processor. Using the pulse button, pulse about 7-9 times, just until the dough starts to come together.
I took the cookie dough out of the food processor bowl and onto a pastry mat and kneaded it until it comes together. Flatten the dough and wrap with plastic wrap. I do a loose shaped square since it will be cut into quarters. Refrigerate for an hour. Taking the dough out of the fridge, cut the dough into quarters and place one quarter on a floured surface or pastry mat. Using ¼ inch rolling pin bands on my rolling pin, roll out the cookie dough. The bands will ensure an even ¼ inch thick cookie dough.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C or 180°C) and line 2 cookie pans with parchment paper.
Using a square 2 ¼ inch cookie cutter, cut out as many squares as you can from the first rolled out dough. Continue rolling out the leftover dough until that quarter has been used. Then start a new quarter. I got 15 cutout cookies on a prepared pan. Taking a blanched almond slice, I press one lightly on the top of each cookie before putting them into the oven. Bake at 350°F (175°C or 180°C) for 6-8 minutes. Just don't let them get brown or they are over baked.
After taking them out of the oven, leave them on the pan for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. After they have completely cooled, heavily dust them with the powdered sugar.

Notes

I reserved enough blanched almond slivers to put one on top of every cookie before it baked in the oven. If you decide to add almond extract instead of vanilla extract remember that almond extract is potent, I suggest cutting the amount at least in half.

Nutrition