Almond Snowflake Cookies Recipes

Steps:

• Pulse the almonds and sugar in a food processor until very finely ground. Add the butter and process until smooth, about 1 minute. Scrape the dough off the inside of the bowl, if needed. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and pulse to combine. Add the flour and salt and pulse to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a large piece of waxed paper and roll into a log about 15 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Cut the chilled dough into 1/2-inch pieces and roll by hand into balls. Space the cookies evenly on the prepared baking sheets and bake until slightly golden, rotating the sheets once, 15 to 20 minutes. Put the confectioners' sugar in a pie plate. Briefly cool the cookies on a rack, then gently toss in the confectioners' sugar until evenly coated. Return to rack, cool to room temperature, and then toss again in the confectioners' sugar.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• In a mixing bowl, combine the cookie dough, almond extract, and ground almonds and mix to combine. Shape the dough into 1/2-inch balls. Place the balls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Gently press 1 whole blanched almond into the center of each ball. Transfer to the oven and bake for 13 minutes, or until golden.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Combine flour and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. , Divide dough into fourths. Cover and refrigerate 1-2 hours or until easy to handle., Preheat oven to 375°. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one portion to 1/8-in. thickness. (Refrigerate other portions until ready to use.) Using a variety of sizes of floured snowflake cookie cutters, cut out snowflakes. , Carefully place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Using small decorating cutters, cut out desired shapes to create designs in some of the snowflakes. Use a toothpick to help remove the cutouts. With a plastic straw, poke a hole in the top of each small cookie. , Bake medium and large snowflakes 6-1/2-7 minutes and small snowflakes 6 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Repeat with remaining dough., For royal icing, in a large bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and meringue powder. Add warm water; beat on low speed 1 minute. Beat on high 4-5 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Tint half blue. Leave remaining icing white; cover and set aside., With blue icing and a round tip, outline half of the cookies; fill in centers with blue icing and let dry completely. With white icing and a round tip, outline each blue-colored cookie and create snowflake designs. Let dry completely., On the remaining cookies, repeat process using white icing on white frosted cookies. Thread a ribbon through the hole in each small snowflake and through the cutout in each medium and large snowflake.