Baci di Dama

Sometimes sitting in waiting rooms yields unexpected surprises. And sometimes they're even pleasant ones! While waiting for some maintenance to be done on our car, I flipped through some magazines and found a delicious-looking recipe (in the Jan/Feb 2018 issue of Martha Stewart Living) that will help use the almond flour sitting in the pantry. Can't wait to try it!

Baci di Dama, 
or Lady's Kisses

1/2 cup butter, divided
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
2/3 cup almond flour
3/4 cup flour
pinch of salt
1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Beat 7 tablespoons of the butter with the sugar until light. Add the vanilla and zest, then both flours and salt. Knead until it forms a firm dough. Roll into balls (using about 1 teaspoon of dough each), place on a cookie sheet and freeze for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°. Bake cookies until domed, about 16 minutes. Then cool completely, about 45 minutes.

In the meantime, melt the chocolate and remaining 1 tablespoon butter, then let cool for about 20 minutes, until spreadable.

Spread 1/2 teaspoon chocolate on the flat side of one cookie, and attach to another. Let the chocolate harden before serving. Store at room temperature for 3 days.

Makes 32

A Bishop's Youth Discussion at our home gave me an excuse to try these. Since this was a small batch, I pulled some snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies out of the freezer and also baked a quick batch of plain brownies. Surprisingly the familiar cookies disappeared first, but that's okay because I really liked these new ones and that allowed me to have some later in the week.