Almond Paste Cookies with Icing (Paste Reali)

Almond Paste Cookies with Icing (Paste Reali) are originally from the Puglia region of Italy and made either for Easter or Christmas. These festive cookies flavored with lemon zest and covered with icing couldn't be any easier to make with only 4 ingredients and are gluten free!

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Italian almond paste cookies, almond paste cookies with icing

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 12

Total Time 42

Servings cookies

Calories 109kcal

Author Nadia Fazio

Ingredients

For the cookies

3 cups whole almonds unroasted
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 lemon, zested

For the icing

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp. plus 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
few drops of food coloring of your choice

Instructions

Prepare the almonds:

Blanch the almonds in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain and place on a dish towel to absorb excess water and cool.
Pinch each almond between your thumb and index finger to easily slip off the peel. Let cool and completely dry.
Process the blanched almonds in the food processor for a few seconds to obtain a course texture. Avoid processing the almonds for too long or they will turn into almond butter!

Assemble the cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Once you have ground your almonds, pour sugar over the almonds and pulse a few times until the sugar is incorporated. This step can also be done in a bowl with a spoon.
Add eggs and lemon zest and pulse a few times until mixed in. This step is traditionally prepared by hand. If you use a food processor as I chose to do, avoid processing the mixture for too long as you want to maintain a grainier texture to the almonds.
Transfer the almond mixture to a bowl (unless you have already mixed it in a bowl). Shape into roughly 1 tbsp. sized balls either by hand. I conveniently used a 1 tbsp. cookie scoop to scoop the dough directly onto the prepared baking sheets.
Bake for about 12 minutes until lightly browned underneath. The cookies will appear to be under baked but will become more firm as they cool. Avoid handling them immediately out of the oven as they will lose their shape.

Ice the cookies

While the cookies cool, prepare the icing. In a bowl combine powdered sugar and lemon juice. Whisk until completely smooth. For a thicker icing, reduce the amount of lemon juice. I prefer a thinner icing and therefore added 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp lemon juice.
To cover cookies with different colored icing, divide the mixture into 3 bowls. Add a drop or two of food coloring to each bowl and stir to obtain desired color. I used green, yellow and red (for the pink icing).
Dip each cooled cookie in the icing and place on parchment paper to set. Once the icing has hardened the cookies may be served or stored in airtight containers.

Notes

If you prefer to make these cookies without the icing, they can be rolled in powdered sugar and topped with a whole almond or maraschino cherry before baking just as in my amaretti cookie recipe.
If serving during the Christmas holidays change the color of the icing to red and green.
The lemon juice in the icing may be replaced with milk if you prefer.
These cookies keep well stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.
They can also be frozen in a container separating layers of cookies with parchment paper for up to 3 months. They defrost very quickly (within an hour) at room temperature.

Nutrition