Mostaccioli-Italian Christmas Spice Cookies

Mostaccioli - Italian Christmas spice cookies are made with ground almonds and scented with orange zest, and the warm spices clove and cinnamon. Festive with icing and sprinkles, this cookie is the perfect addition to your Christmas baking tray.

Prep Time10

Cook Time15

Total Time25

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: Christmas, Cookies

Servings:

Calories: 100kcal

Author: Lora

Equipment

baking sheet

Ingredients

Cookies
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons cocoa powder
⅔ cup granulated sugar
1 cup finely ground almonds I used unblanched slivers
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
grated zest 1 large orange
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick cold unsalted butter
4 large eggs
⅓ cup sweet wine or vino cotto You could also use water or dry red wine. I used ⅓ cup Martini Rossi Vermouth.
Icing
One 1 pound box confectioners’ sugar
¼ cup water
¼ cup orange juice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Into the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, pulse the almonds and sugar until the almonds are finely ground. Add the orange zest, flour cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, and cloves and pulse several times to mix. Cut the butter into 12 pieces and add to the work bowl. Pulse until the butter is mixed in (about 20-25 times).
Ad the eggs and wine; pulse until the dough is evenly moistened, tough it probably will form one ball. Allow to stand for 1 minute to absorb the liquid, then refrigerate for 30 minutes. *I could not fit all the ingredients in my food processor. See recipe note above.
Scrape the dough onto an oiled work surface and roll into a log, 12 inches long. Cut the log into six pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a 12-inch cylinder, flatten slightly the palm of your hand, then cut each 12-inch cylinder diagonally into ten or eleven pieces and place the pieces on pans about 1 inch apart. Place the pans in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 300 degrees. Bake the cookies about 10-14 minutes, or until firm and light golden.
Icing:
Whisk the confectioners’ sugar with the water and orange juice. Add the water a little at a time. If it is too thick, add a little more water a tablespoon at a time.
Transfer the cookies to a rack and drizzle on the icing. I did two coats of the icing drizzle. The original recipe says to dunk the cookies in the icing. I wanted to see a little bit of the cookie color. Add some sprinkles.

Notes

Use your processor wisely. If your food processor is small, grind the almonds and sugar first, then pulse in part of the flour with the butter. Transfer everything to a large bowl and finish mixing with a pastry cutter. You keep the dough tender this way.
Let the dough rest. The dough absorbs the wine flavor as it sits. Thirty minutes in the fridge works, but an overnight rest deepens the aroma and gives you a richer cookie.
Do not worry if the dough looks soft. After mixing, the dough may seem sticky. Give it one minute to absorb the liquid before refrigerating. It firms up fast.
Roll on an oiled surface. A light film of oil keeps the dough from sticking and helps you shape clean, even logs.

Recipe Note: The dough was very easy to make. I could not fit the entire recipe in my food processor. I ground the almonds and sugar. I added some of the flour and pulsed the butter into it. I then transferred it into a huge bowl and mixed the rest of the ingredients by hand with a pastry cutter. The dough could sit overnight to absorb the wine flavor. I had 7 kids waiting for some cookie samples. I didn’t wait and the cookies turned out AMAZING! Next time I will let it wait in fridge for the next day and taste the difference.

Nutrition