The recent post on preserving citrus got me thinking about sharing this recipe. I made salt preserved lemons over the weekend, and of course creating the necessary lemon juice for filling the jar leaves a lot of empty rinds behind. This recipe only uses a fraction of them, but it's tasty, relatively nutritious and heart healthy (cough) for a cookie, and it's great for those on a gluten free diet.
Almendrados are a flourless Spanish cookie, flavored with lemon zest and cinnamon. Because the ingredients are so simple, it's really worth it to use fresh ground cinnamon in this recipe.
2 cups whole blanched almonds*
2/3 cup sugar
5 tsp grated lemon rind
dash of salt
1 large egg
1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
24 whole blanched almonds
Preheat oven to 350F.
Place 2 cups almonds in a food processor; process until very finely ground. Add the 2/3 cup sugar, lemon rind and salt. Pulse to mix well. Add egg, and pulse until dough forms a ball.
Shape dough into 24 balls. Place 1 inch apart on a baking sheet lightly coated with oil or butter (I got a silicon baking mat for Christmas, so I use that instead with no added fat, and it's perfect. If I didn't have it, I'd probably put parchment down before the oil or butter because these little fellas are kind of sticky). Flatten the balls lightly with the palm of your hand.
Mix together the cinnamon and the 1 tsp sugar. Sprinkle evenly over the cookies. Gently press one whole almond into the top of each cookie.
Bake for 16 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Cool 5 minutes on pan, then remove to a wire rack to complete cooling.
*If you can't find blanched almonds, it's very easy to do yourself. Just heat some water to boiling, and pour over the almonds to cover. Let sit for 2 minutes. Drain well, and rinse with cool water. The skins should slip right off.
(Slightly modified from an original recipe in Cooking Light magazine.)
Replies
Sounds really good. I am going to have to save this - Deane's son is gluten intolerant and I try to find desserts to make when he visits - p.s. I developed a gluten-free biscotti recipe that even the non-GIs love. This recipe also reminds me of a sesame/sunflower cracker recipe I tried awhile back also gluten free - grinding up the seeds as the almonds are.