Spicy Wheat Cookies

We're not quite sure why they call these spicy.  They were more of a cross between a sugar cookie and a Russian Tea Cake.  We enjoyed them even though ours didn't turn out exactly as the recipe indicated.

Ingredients:

1/2 c butter
1/3 c sugar

3 egg yolks
2/3 c all purpose flour
2/3 c Joseph's Grainery Soft White Wheat whole wheat flour (we ground the wheat berries in our blender on the liquefy setting for two minutes to get flour)

Topping:

3 egg whites, room temperature
1 1/4 c sugar

1 c finely chopped almonds
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel

Directions:  Cream butter and 1/3 c sugar; beat in egg yolks.  Gradually stir in flour until dough almost cleans side of bowl.  Shape dough into ball.  Refrigerate until cold. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Form dough into balls and flatten.  Place on cookie sheet.

Beat egg whites in a small bowl until foamy.  Gradually beat in 1 1/4 c sugar; beat until stiff and glossy.  Fold in almonds, cinnamon and lemon peel.  Spoon mixture into ziploc bag and cut off the tip, pipe a rosette onto the center of cookie (this is where we had troubles...see picture below).  Bake until tops are light brown 12 to 14 minutes.

Although the cookies tasted delicious, they looked a little funny when they came out of the oven.  I'm not sure how they expected you to "pipe a rosette", this topping was pretty runny.  So if you're looking for uniform and pretty cookies...this probably isn't your recipe!

Let us know if you try this recipe and it works for you!

Recipe from Whole Wheat Cookery by Howard and Anna Ruth Beck