Almond meringue cookies

These are really good Christmastime cookies.  I'm not sure why I am posting this now, but there you go.  They are very tasty and delicious and stay fresh for quite a while in an air-tight container.  Maybe you can even save them for Christmas!  (Not recommended, though.)

These cookies are also flour-less, which is neat as well as useful for people who have gluten intolerance.

Just a baker's warning, these cookies take a little bit of patience to make and might even be more at the "advanced" level of baking because the dough can be annoying to work with.  Just stay calm and add more powdered sugar if the dough starts to stick to everything.

1. Mix almond flour with zest, cinnamon.

2. Whip up the egg whites into soft peaks and then add confectioners' sugar slowly until the mixture is creamy and stiff.

3. Fold the dry mixture into the meringue.

4. Prepare a rolling and cutting area and cover liberally with a layer of powdered sugar.  Also prepare parchment paper on baking sheets.

5. Take half of the sticky dough and dust the rolling pin with sugar as well as the top of the dough.  Roll out the dough until it is about less than 10mm or 1/4 inch thick.  Cut your shapes out and place them on the parchment.

6. Continue with the rest of the dough.  Don't be afraid to combine the scraps and roll them out again to get more cookies.

7. Bake at 250F for 30 minutes.  Let cool.  If desired, dust with powdered sugar.

8. Melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler.  Fill a pastry bag (or a makeshift one of a rolled up pieced of parchment) with the chocolate and drizzle over the cookies as you like.  Let the chocolate cool and dry before storing in an air tight container.