Buttery Almond Christmas Logs.         

Nothing can explain the feeling of being a young man exploring in the woods with your best friend, my dog.  The Robinson Caruso in all young people who go out hiking in a fresh fallen snow.  Wandering, looking for new and exciting things to see.   Stopping periodically to clean my best friends paws so that he could further lead the exploration. 

These Christmas cookies remind me of the fresh fallen snow on tree limbs and logs that we used to trample on in the woods.  The fond memories of my youth with my best a collie named Robi.              

In these delicious cookies fresh roasted almonds are finely ground and then creamed with Vanilla,  sugar and sweet creamery butter.  After blending in all the other ingredients in log shapes are rolled by hand. The logs are  slowly baked to perfection.  They are lightly dusted with powdered sugar like the fresh fallen snow.                                    

Ingredients:  
Butter- 3/4 cup. 
Sugar-1/3 cup. 
Ground Roasted Almonds- 2/3 cup. 
Pure Vanilla Extract-2 teaspoons. 
Flour-1 3/4 cups. 
Salt- 1/4 teaspoon. 
Confectioners
Sugar-to dust. 
Nutmeg-1/4 teaspoon. 
Cold Water-2 teaspoons.           

Instructions-  Roast the almonds in a preheated 350F degree oven for 12 minutes.  Cool.  Finely chop them in a food processor of coffee grinder.  Set aside.  In a large mixing bowl cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the chopped almonds and mix until well blended.  Add in all the other ingredients excluding the confectioners sugar.  Shape a teaspoon full of dough in to a log shape about 3 inches long.  Place on a grease cookie sheet.  Bake at 300F degrees for 25 minutes.  Allow to cool.  Sprinkle with the confectioners sugar.  Enjoy this memorable treat