Description: Imagine these delicious light cookies being served with fresh fruit on a spring evening in Imladris.
Submitted by: admin on 2004-09-03 10:05:46
Serves: ~70 cookies
Prep Time: 1-2 hours
Difficulty: Intermediate
Ingredients
Dough:175 g butter
125 g powdered sugar (icing sugar)
1 pinch salt
Grated peel from 1 orange
2 1/2 tbsp orange juice
2-3 tbsp almond puree
350 g flour
Icing:
150 g powdered sugar
2 tbsp orange juice
1/2-1 tbsp Grand Marnier or Cointreau
Optional: Poppy seeds
Instructions
Stir butter until soft. Add sugar and salt and stir until sugar dissolves. Add orange peel and juice and almond puree. Stir well, then add flour and stir until dough forms.Place dough in the refrigerator for 45 minutes.
Take portion after portion, roll to 4-5 mm thickness, cut out cookies with a tree-shaped cookie cutter. Put them on a greased sheet and bake cookies in 180°C oven until lightly golden (7-15 minutes).
Brush them with icing while still warm. (Looks especially nice if you only brush the crown)
Sprinkle iced parts with poppy seeds (optional).
Note: The dough is very soft and sticky. Do not add too much flour. Take only one portion of dough out of the fridge, roll it on a lightly floured surface, cut out trees and knead the rest lightly together, then put dough back into the fridge and take out another part until the portions get too small, then knead them together to cut out the last of the cookies.
If this sounds like too much work you can also form two rolls of the dough and cut them into thin slices. But the trees look so nice it really is worth the effort.
Serve them with fruit, compote or ice-cream.