Joyeux Noel!

Just found a minute to escape from the Christmas preparations to wish you a happy and delicious Christmas with all your loved ones!

Got a little present for you… these lovely mini snowball shaped Moroccan almond cookies, that will be ready in under an hour. The recipe is from the Morrocan pastry book ‘Patisserie Marocaine’ by Rachida Amhaouchi. I made these cute snowballs thinking of the very dear girlfriend who offered that book to me some time ago.

Joyeux Noel! m.

Ghribas, Moroccan almond cookies
Ghribas, petits gateaux marocains aux amandes

makes ~25.
prep: 20 min. cook: 20 min
Oven temp: 170 deg C/340 deg F

Ingredients:
~ For the dough:
250 g ground almonds or almond meal*;
100 g icing sugar;
2 large eggs ( reserve 1 egg white for shaping);
20 g butter at room temperature;
1/2 tsp baking powder;
1 Tsp grated lemon zest;
pinch of ground gum arabic, a.k.a. acacia gum [optional];
pinch of salt.

~ For shaping:
icing sugar;
1 egg white;
sunflower or peanut oil.

Prepare the dough: Mix together the almonds, baking powder, salt, gum arabic, butter, lemon zest, 100g icing sugar, 1 whole egg, 1 yolk (reserve the last egg white for shaping) until homogeneous.

Preheat the oven at 170 deg C/340 deg F. Oil your hands and shape small balls of dough (about the size of a small walnut). Dip each ball successively in the egg white and icing sugar. Set the cookies on an oiled baking tray and bake at 170 deg C/340 deg F for 20 to 25 min until the cookies just start to crack a bit at the surface.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely. Store in an hermetic cookie tin.

Bon appétit!

 
* If you can’t find ground almonds or almond meal, use whole almonds blanched in boiling water for a couple of minutes. Drain and peel the almonds. Dry them well in a towel. Ground the almonds preferably small amounts at a time in a food processor or grinder.