Amazing Swiss Hazelnut Christmas Cookies
Christmas is my favorite time of year, it's the time to bake those sweet smelling cookies. Using lemon, Cinnamon and hazelnuts you'll be dancing around the room.
Ingredients
- 12 hazelnuts, roasted, skins removed, and finely ground
- 12 blanched almonds, finely ground
- 1 sugar
- 3 1/2 mixed peel, finely minced
- 1 ts cinnamon
- grated rind of one lemon
- 2 tb apricot jam
- 4 egg whites, lightly beaten
Instructions
- Recommended equipment: carved wooden molds, or, if unavailable, decorative cookie cutters.
- Combine the ground hazelnuts and almonds with the other ingredients in a mixing bowl.
- Mix together well.
- The dough will be very moist and soft but should gold together.
- Wrap in plastic cling film / Saran wrap and leave at room temperature overnight.
- The next day, roll out the dough 3/8 inch thick on a board sprinkled lightly with granulated sugar.
- Dust a decorative wooden mold and the sough lightly with icing sugar / confectioner's sugar.
- Press the mold repeatedly into the dough.
- Brush off the excess sugar.
- Separate the cookies with a sharp knife.
- If using cookie cutters, cut out decorative shapes as desired.
- Place on a buttered and floured baking sheet.
- Allow to dry at room temperature for several hours.
- Preheat the oven to 300 F / 160 C. Bake, one sheet at a time, in the middle of the oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden and relatively dry.
- Loosen the cookies from the baking sheet with a metal spatula as soon as you have taken them out of the oven.
- Allow to cool on the baking sheet for several minutes before removing them to a wire rack. When cool, store in airtight tins.
