Cookies "New Year" sugar

Nicely crumbly, with a lemon aroma, with pieces of nuts and crispy icing - this cookie has long become a favorite for me and my family. It is an indispensable attribute of our New Year's sweet table. I always bake it a few days before New Years and we enjoy it all winter holidays. P.S. 1. Such cookies are well stored: they can be made a few days before serving, and the leftovers can be kept for about a week or more in a closed tin box lined with parchment at room temperature. 2. To make the biscuits even healthier, a portion (50 grams) of the entire norm of ordinary flour for the dough can be replaced with the same amount of fine whole wheat flour. 3. Use quality butter for cookies, 82.5% fat, made only from natural cream.

Ingredients

• 1. For the test:
• 1 medium egg (weighing about 65 gr.)
• granulated sugar 125 gr.
• butter 82.5% fat 125 gr.
• grated zest of 1 medium lemon (weighing about 130-150 g.)
• wheat flour of the highest grade 275 gr.
• baking powder 1 teaspoon flat
• almond kernels peeled from dark skin or peeled walnuts 100 gr.
• light rum (e.g. Bacardi rum) 1 tbsp spoon (10 ml)
• lemon juice 1 tsp (5 ml)
• 2. For sprinkling workpieces (optional):
• coarse granulated sugar for decorating confectionery 40-50 gr.
• 3. For glaze (optional):
• ready-made icing sugar 100 gr.
• 2 tbsp. spoons (20-25 ml) of lemon or orange juice (+ a little of their zest - about ⅓-½ tsp); or a similar amount of light rum; or a mixture of the above juices and rum in equal proportions

Directions

1. If you bought an unpeeled almond, you can peel it yourself. To do this, you need to throw it into boiling water and boil for 1-2 minutes, then put it in a colander and immediately pour cold water. After this temperature contrast, you can easily remove the shell of each nut with your fingers, simply by squeezing its core out of it (while still unpeeled kernels from the water, do not remove the shell so that the shell does not stick back to them). Then spread the almonds in one layer on a paper napkin, let them dry (preferably at least 1-2 hours), then use them as directed (see p. 3).
2. Soften butter
3. In advance (1-2 hours before cooking the cookies), remove the amount of butter required for it according to the recipe from the refrigerator so that it becomes very soft, creamy, or soften it in the microwave just before cooking.
4. Grind the almonds, wash the lemon with soap
5. Wash the lemon with soap, pour over boiling water to remove the layer of preservatives from its surface, and pat dry with a paper towel. Grind the nuts in a blender into fine grains or grate them on a fine grater.
6. Measure out granulated sugar and flour with baking powder in different containers
7. Start making the dough. To do this, measure out the amount of granulated sugar and wheat flour with baking powder required for it according to the recipe in separate containers.
8. Beat the egg with sugar, add butter, zest, pour in lemon juice and rum, add nuts
9. In a large bowl, beat the egg with a mixer, adding the previously measured granulated sugar until a fluffy white foam. Then put the softened butter there, mix, then grate the zest from the lemon on a fine grater, pour in the lemon juice and rum, mix again, moving the whisk of the mixer in one direction. Add ground or grated nuts. Mix again.
10. Sift flour into the resulting mass, knead the dough
11. Sift about 80 grams into the resulting mixture. (about ⅓ of the whole norm) wheat flour with baking powder, mix with a mixer. Then add the remaining flour into the dough, also sifting, and quickly knead it with your hands so that it begins to lag behind them and the walls of the dishes. It is acceptable if the dough sticks to them a little. Remove the bowl with the finished dough, without covering, for 10 minutes in the freezer.
12. Divide the dough into two parts, make sausages out of them, roll in coarse sugar, put in the refrigerator
13. Then (preferably using a scale) divide the dough into two equal parts and roll each in the form of a sausage about Ø 5 cm and about 22 cm long (the sausages should come out without voids inside, for which, during the molding process, periodically compact the blanks, knocking them with your palms from the sides towards the center). After that, place a piece of cling film on the table, sprinkle it with ½ the amount of coarse sugar for decorating pastry (if you use it in the recipe) and put one of the resulting sausages on it. Roll it back and forth so that the sugar covers its entire surface, then wrap it in the same film, wrap it a little with your hands to correct its shape, and twist the ends of the film. Do the same with the other sausage. Place both wrapped sausages on a flat surface (for example, a cutting board) and refrigerate until they solidify, at a temperature of 0-5 ºС - leave them there for several hours or overnight.
14. When the dough has cooled, turn on the oven and heat it to 3.1-3.2 (about 170-175 ° C).
15. Line a large aluminum baking sheet (21 × 32 cm, 5 cm high) or any other similar or larger area with non-stick baking paper (you do not need to grease it).
16. Cut sausages into circles, bake
17. Take one of the sausages out of the refrigerator (leave the second there for now), roll it lightly on the table so that it is most neat, free it from the film and cut with a sharp knife with a serrated edge (with sawing movements so as not to damage the structure of the dough, because after cooling can be slightly crumbly) into circles about 0.8-1 cm thick.Roll each circle a little between your palms, giving it a perfectly round shape (in the process, it is very desirable to turn it over to the other side 1-2 times so that the surface of the future cookies is as large as possible even). Then lay out the cookie blanks on a baking sheet at a distance from each other, because they will increase in volume during the baking process (I have 12 pieces on the previously indicated baking sheet). Place the baking sheet with the blanks in the preheated oven and bake at 3.1-3.2 (about 170-175 ° C) for 15-18 minutes until the bottom of the cookies is slightly golden or according to the recommendations in the instructions for your oven for baking shortbread cookies ... 10 minutes after the start of baking, the baking sheet can be turned upside down to ensure the most even heating. Be careful not to overexpose the cookies in the oven, otherwise they will turn out denser and drier than necessary.
18. Cool sugar cookies completely
19. Remove the finished cookies from the baking sheet with a spatula, put on a levelsurface in one layer and cool completely. With the rest of the dough, proceed in the same way, as indicated in paragraph 10 (in this case, while one batch of cookies is baking, you can prepare the next one).
20. Prepare the icing with powdered sugar, lemon or orange juice or rum, cool the cookies completely
21. When all the cookies are completely cool, you can start making the icing. To do this, pour the amount of lemon or orange juice indicated in the recipe into the icing sugar (grate a little of their zest into it on a fine grater) or light rum (or a mixture of them in equal proportions), then stir and whisk everything with a whisk to get a viscous homogeneous mass ... Cover the cooled cookies with a thin layer with a spoon, let the glaze dry thoroughly. If you made the icing on rum, and it begins to set quickly during use, add a little more (about 5 ml) rum to it. If the glaze layer seems thin to you, you can re-glaze the cookies after 30 minutes, making it additionally according to the above method.
22. Cover the "New Year" sugar cookies with glaze
23. Leave the cookies covered with glaze at room temperature for 12-24 hours until the glaze has completely hardened, spreading it out on a flat surface in one layer, then you can serve it to the table or put it away before use in a sealed container (for example, a tin box, laying its bottom as well as each layer of cookies with baking parchment paper). There it can be stored for about a week. Note: These cookies do not need to be coated with icing, they are very tasty without it, and they should also be stored in a tin box.