Almond Cookies

By now you're wondering how many favorite Christmas cookies and candies my family has, right? This was one of my dad's favorite Christmas cookies, although I'm not sure who can resist the buttery nutty flavor of these cookies. If you have ground pecans instead, those will work as well. These cookies taste best chilled, in my opinion.

Almond Cookies
1 lb. butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 1/2 cups ground almonds (1 lb)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. lemon extract
3 cups flour
Additional powdered sugar to coat

Cream butter and sugar together. Add vanilla, lemon extract, almonds and flour, blending well. Chill dough at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Form dough into small crescents, and place on buttered cookie sheets. Bake 15 minutes or until edges are starting to brown. Carefully remove cookies from sheet, and gently roll in powdered sugar to coat. The trick is to get the cookies coated while they are still warm enough that the sugar sticks without breaking the fragile cookies. Do not place cookies touching each other, or they will stick together.

Cool completely on wax paper.