TRADITIONAL SICILIAN ALMOND COOKIES

The almond cookies are “a must” of the Sicilian culinary tradition. They are prepared with the Almond paste, called “pasta reale” in Sicily (King’s paste). The legend wants that the recipe was created in the XII century in the convent of the “Martorana” in Palermo and that his name is due to his goodness (worthy of a King!). These delicious cookies are as good as easy to do! Accompany them with a good tea, coffee or a glass of Marsala, the typical Sicilian sweet wine.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups + 2 tbsp (200 gr) almond flour
• 1 cup + 10 tbsp (200 gr) powdered sugar
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/2 orange
• 1/2 lemon
• 10 Maraschino cherries
• 3 drops pure vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS
PREPARE THE ALMOND PASTE

• First of all, sift the powdered sugar, then mix the sugar with the almond flour in a large bowl. After that, add the grated zests of half lemon and half orange into the bowl, 3 drops of vanilla extract. Finally, mix all the ingredients with the whites of 3 large eggs lightly beaten.

EGG WHITE

• Work the dough until it is compact and homogeneous, then pour it into a pastry bag provided with a large decorating tip. Place the pastry bag into the refrigerator 20 minutes.

MAKING THE ALMOND COOKIES

1. Line a drip pan with parchment paper. With the pastry bag, form cookies about 2 inches wide right on the parchment paper, add half Maraschino Cherry on the top of each cookie then put the drip pan in the fridge for at least 8 hours (it’s easy to prepare the almond cookies the night before for the following day!). The rest in the fridge is critical because the cookies don’t sag while cooking.
2. .....................................

For full instructions please see : philosokitchen.com

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