Mkhabez are fancy cookies, mainly made of almond and glazed with royal icing. I have used an eggless icing in this recipe.
Mkhabez is supposed to be thick but I made my cookies thinner ( I did not stick to the rule, sorry 😊).
The preparation time in this recipe didn’t include the chilling time of the dough and the time needed to let the icing dry.
It takes usually 2 hours minimum for the dough to chill in the fridge and 1 hour minimum for the icing to dry.
Some recipes don’t require the chilling time but I do recommend it as it makes it easy to work with the dough (I use less flour to roll out the dough).
🇩🇿 Algerian Glazed Almond Cookies – Mkhabez
Ingredients
Dough
- 3 cups almond flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- Zests of 2 lemons
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup flour for rolling the dough
Icing
- 1/4 cup milk (any type)
- 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1/4 cup rose water or orange blossom water
- Powdered sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Food coloring of your choice
- Metallic food coloring or edible dust (color of your choice)
Garnish
- Decorative flower bouquet for cookies.
Instructions
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In a large bowl, mix the almond flour, sugar, and the lemon zests. Set aside.
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Beat the 2 eggs in a small bowl and pour little by little on the almond flour mixture and mix with your hand until the sugar is dissolved and you obtain a soft combined mixture (sticky mixture). You may not need to use all the eggs ( depends of the size of your eggs). I have used 2 medium eggs in this recipe.
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Gather the dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap.
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Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
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Flour your working board and roll out the dough to your desired thickness. Mkhabez comes usually thick ( about 1 inch or a little less).
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Use a cookie cutter of your choice to cut out the dough.
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Place the cut out cookies (dough) in a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.
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Bake in a 350 °F preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
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Let cool completely.
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Prepare the icing by mixing with a wooden spoon the milk, oil and rose water in a bowl.
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Add the sifted powdered sugar, little by little while continuously mixing until obtain a nice consistency( thick and pourable).
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Add the lemon juice and mix it well.
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Add the food coloring at this step and mix it well.
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Dip each cookie in the bowl of icing and put on a cooling rack, placed on a tray (to catch the drips of icing).
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Put some of the icing in a piping bag or a ziploc bag. Set aside.
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Let the iced cookies dry for a bit then decorate with the icing left in a ziploc bag ( cut a corner of the bag, just a little bit).
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Let the cookies dry completely.
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Use a knife to clean out the cookies from excess icing in the bottom and edges.
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Dust the cookies with the metallic food coloring or edible dust ( color of your choice), using a small brush. This will give the cookies a glossy finish.
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Place a decorative flower for cookies on each cookie(anywhere you like it). Make sure to cut a part of the stem first before placing it.
Recipe Notes
- If your icing is too thick, add rose water. If it is thin add powdered sugar until you obtain a thick, pourable consistency.
- The number of cookies you obtain depends on the size of the cookie cutter you have used and the thickness of your cookies.
- I use US cups in my recipes.
- You can use vanilla powder instead of vanilla extract.
- The almond dough in this recipe is the same as Makrut Ellouz dough.
- I recommend chilling the dough to allow sugar to dissolve but If you are in a hurry, you can skip the chilling of the dough.Â
- You can make your cookies thicker.
Making this now…you don’t give an amount of powdered sugar for the icing…how much should I use?
You add powdered sugar to make the icing, little by little while continuously mixing until obtain a nice consistency(thick and pourable).I can’t give the exact amount of powdered sugar, just expect to use a lot. Hope this can help.
Hi can we skip lemon juice in the icing?
Sure!