Liqueur Cookies

This recipe originally called for red wine, it's a German cookie recipe that I found somewhere on the 'Net. Inspiration hit me, and I thought that I would change the recipe, to make it into a liqueur cookie. Frangelico is the famous Italian hazelnut liqueur, while limoncello is a liqueur made from lemons, it is also Italian in origin. Both of these liqueurs are ones that I had read about and wanted to try, the Frangelico for obvious reasons, and the Limoncello because I like lemon, too. I thought that I would marry the lemon flavour with vanilla, while the Frangelico would go good with hazelnuts and chocolate. These turned out quite well. To make 1/2 egg, put the whole egg in a bowl, scramble with a whisk or fork, then divide in half. Or just double the recipe to use a whole egg.

Liqueur Cookies
250 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
125 g sugar
1/2 egg
140 g butter, at room temperature
Variation 1:
1/2 cup hazelnuts, ground finely
1 Tbsp cocoa
3 Tbsp Frangelico Liqueur
Variation 2:
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp Limoncello

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour onto clean surface. Form a well with the flour. Add the sugar, baking powder, egg, butter and liqueur to the flour, then either the vanilla or the cocoa and hazelnuts. Mix all the ingredients by hand to form a dough. Let rest for a few minutes.

On a clean surface sprinkled with flour, roll out dough to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Using cookie cutters, cut the dough into shapes and place on the parchment paper.

Bake for 15-16 minutes, until the cookies are firm and slightly golden. Let rest on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.

Decorate with icing, if desired.

Makes 50-60 medium-sized cookies.

Limoncello Icing:
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 Tbsp limoncello

Mix ingredients together to make a thick icing. Add more limoncello or water if too thick, more icing sugar if too thin.