Lemon almond cookies: a ray of sunshine on the Christmas plate

Crumble the almond paste into small pieces with your fingers and place them in a large bowl. This way it will blend much more easily with the other ingredients later. Then add the icing sugar, the almond flour, the lemon juice and two pinches of lemon zest. If you have a fresh organic lemon on hand, you can also finely grate its peel, but only the yellow part, as the white underneath tastes bitter.

Knead everything with the hand mixer and dough hook, or in a stand mixer, until the mixture is moist and crumbly. At first it may look as if it will never become a dough, but don't worry! Press the crumbs together with your hands now, the warmth of your hands helps. If the dough doesn't hold together at all, add a few drops of lemon juice. Only a few, otherwise it becomes sticky and is hard to roll out.

Shape the dough into a flat, rectangular block. Flat, because this way it chills faster and more evenly in the fridge, and later you can almost roll it out in the right shape. Wrap the block in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour. In the meantime, line the baking tray with baking paper and get the cookie cutter ready.

Preheat the oven to 190 °C convection. Take the dough out of the fridge and knead it briefly so it becomes pliable again. Sprinkle some crystal sugar on the work surface and place a Dough stick on the left and right of the dough. For 8 mm, lay a 5 mm and a 3 mm stick on top of each other. Roll out the dough between the sticks until the Rolling pin rests on both sides. The sugar keeps everything from sticking and gives the lemon almond cookies a fine, crispy underside. Thanks to the sticks, the dough is the same thickness everywhere, so all the cookies bake evenly.

Cut out small moons with the half moon Cookie cutter and place them on the prepared baking sheet with some space between them. If you briefly dip the cutter in crystal sugar now and then, the dough releases very easily. Simply knead the dough scraps together again, roll them out once more and keep cutting until all the dough is used up.

Bake the lemon moons for 8 to 10 minutes in the middle of the oven. They should stay nice and light, only taking on the slightest colour at the edges. It's better to take them out a minute early than a minute late, because if they bake too long they turn dry instead of soft. While the moons are in the oven, prepare the icing so you can glaze them while still warm.

Put the icing sugar in a bowl and add the water gradually while stirring with the whisk. Stir until you have a smooth, runny icing without lumps. Our test: dip a spoon into it. If the back of the spoon is evenly and fully coated, the icing is perfect. If it is too thick, add a few drops of water; if it is too thin, add a little icing sugar.

Place a cooling rack right next to the bowl with the icing. After baking, let the Möndli cool only briefly so they don't break. Then take them off the tray one at a time and dip them upside down into the icing until fully submerged. On the still warm biscuits, the icing spreads especially thinly and dries into a delicate, glossy coating. That is exactly what makes it so fine!

Lift each Möndli out of the icing, let it drip briefly and place it on the cooling rack with the glazed side facing up. Baking paper under the cooling rack catches the drips and saves you cleaning. Let the icing dry completely at room temperature before filling the Möndli into the tin. And then you can finally taste them!