Grandma Zaccari's Chocolate Almond Cookies

Baking is fun when you have time to enjoy it... The pressure is on to find the time.

My recipe called for something to be zested, chopped, and a cookie sheet to be lined. What are the chances that I just so happened to ask for all 3 items for Christmas and got them!

Today I learned a few things that I have not done before. First off (Crisco), growing up in the 70's my mother had a container or 2 of crisco and as I remember used it for everything. Being a wife of 13 years I think I might have only purchased at the most maybe 2. Anyway my recipe called for it and was easy to use however I 'm still not sure what it is or what it really might do to my arteries. The second was zesting, I have never done this but always thought it would be fun. I have seen Giada on her cooking show use it effortlessly and it seems to make everything just that much better! I agree. The third is chopping my own almonds in lieu of purchasing them from the store. Thanks to the nutty tip on page 13, I was well on my way to the perfect finely chopped almond or so I thought. I pulled out my new processor and decided to hit the pulse button a few times so as not to over chop, inadvertently making almond puree. This went well for the first 10 pulses or so then I started to worry. I see finely chopped almonds in the processor but I also see a large amount of stubborn just chopped almonds not wanting to become finely chopped. I had to intervene. I took out my serrated ladle and started to sift them apart. As you can see in the picture there is a significance difference. Issue averted.

My favorite part of this recipe book is the easy to follow ingredients guide. Go straight down the list and read to the right. You really can not mess up unless the phone rings, your kids interrupt you 10x or more, the door bells rings, or you just second guess what you put in even if you were not interrupted. Or lastly you do have to go to the store because a standard item is just not where you thought it was.

On to assembly, everything was going smoothly until I started to roll out the dough into long ropes. See pict. what does it look like? My thoughts exactly. The major difference is that the taste by far out ways the rolled up humor I got from it. Once I cut the pieces into 2" lengths then I wondered do I pat them to give them a flatter look or just let it roll. I tried the pat method and it did help.

Glazing the cookie? I ended up using the basting brush because my first 2 dozen took almost 4 hours to dry, apparently I took the coating concept in the bowl a little to far. Even after hours of drying time my cookies were sticky is this normal? I need the professional inside tip whether or not I should have worried about this.

My photo is not like the pros but for the first time and not much insight on the correct techniques I think they came out pretty okay. As for Fat Tues... Jack my husband, would rather enjoy many of Grandma Zaccari's Chocolate Almond Cookies than paczki.

Thanks for sharing this recipe....