The Christmas almond orange and cinnamon shortcrust pastry is a variation of the classic shortcrust pastry characterized by the presence of almond flour, orange zest, and ground cinnamon that will give your cookies a decidedly Christmas flavor.
To prepare it, you need almond flour; if you don’t have it, you can easily make it at home following my tutorial “how to make almond flour at home”; for a stronger flavor, you can use toasted almonds.
The shortcrust I propose today is made with the sablé method, so it is very fine and crumbly, perfect for making cookies, and also ideal for pies and tartlets.
The combination of orange and cinnamon is fantastic; if you wish, you can further enrich the dough with other spices like ginger or cloves to obtain an even more aromatic dough.
Try the other variants as well:
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: for 590 g of shortcrust pastry
- Cooking methods: No Cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Christmas, All Seasons
- Energy 439.69 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 48.93 (g) of which sugars 19.24 (g)
- Proteins 7.35 (g)
- Fat 24.39 (g) of which saturated 11.82 (g)of which unsaturated 6.64 (g)
- Fibers 2.51 (g)
- Sodium 84.11 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/4 cup eggs (whole, about one medium egg but weigh it!)
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp orange zest (grated, equivalent to the zest of a small orange)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/3 vanilla bean
- 1/4 tsp salt
Tools
- 1 Stand Mixer
- 1 Scale
- 1 Grater
- Plastic Wrap
Procedure
Place the flour, almond flour, and butter cut into small cubes (should be cold but not too much, around 50°F) in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle. Mix at medium speed until you get many small crumbs.
Turn off the mixer, add the powdered sugar, salt, orange zest, ground cinnamon, and the seeds from the vanilla bean, mix, then add the egg, and quickly knead the whole thing just until the ingredients are combined.
Transfer the mixture to the work surface and work it quickly until you get a smooth dough.
Wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to rest for 1 hour; if possible, prepare it in the evening for the morning, as the overnight rest will make it more aromatic and elastic.The Christmas shortcrust pastry is ready.
Handmade dough
If kneading the dough by hand, be careful with the sablage because your hands will warm the butter quickly, so you will need to work the all-purpose flour, almond flour, and butter quickly.
Follow the exact same steps by kneading the dough in a large bowl.If you do the overnight rest, take the dough and knead it on the countertop or in the stand mixer for 1 minute, this operation will help to get a homogenous and plastic dough perfect for your recipes.
If you let it rest for just 1 hour, you can roll it out immediately and use it for your recipes.
The shortcrust pastry can be used to prepare cookies, tartlets, and pies; each preparation will have a different baking time depending on the thickness.
How to prepare Christmas cookies
Roll the well-chilled dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch and cut out the desired shapes. Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, chill well in the fridge, and bake in a preheated static oven for about 12/15 minutes, depending on the power of your oven.
If you want to make paired cookies like the coconut and Nutella cookies, roll the dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch and bake them a few minutes less.
Tips
Storage
The Christmas almond orange and cinnamon shortcrust pastry can be stored in the refrigerator, well sealed, for 15 days if you have used fresh butter and eggs.
It can be frozen for 2 months.
***********************
For tips on making the recipes, contact me on FACEBOOK and, if you like, follow me on INSTAGRAM
Send me your photos, and I will be happy to publish them on my social media
