Spanish Shortbread

Description
Very lovely with a cup of tea just before bed. These cookies are called Mantecados, and are a favorite amoung young spanish children.



Ingredients

 * 3 1/3 	cups all-purpose flour
 * 1 	teaspoon ground cinnamon
 * 1/8 	teaspoon salt
 * 1 	cup lard (softened)
 * 1 1/4 	cups granulated sugar
 * 2 	large egg yolks
 * 1 	lemon (grated zest&,juice)
 * 2 1/2 	cups finely ground almonds

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 (160F), and grease four cookie sheets. Sift flour, and salt into a large bowl. Beat the lard and Sugar into a second large bowl with an electric at high speed until creamy. Add the egg yolks, beating until nicely blended. Then mix in the dry ingredients and lemon zest. Stir in the ground almonds and lemon juice until blended well. Turn out onto a lightly floured countertop and knead to form a smooth dough. Cover with parchment paper, and roll out the dough about 1 cm thick.Remove paper, and using a 6 cm cookie cutter, cut out 40 cookies. Use a spatula and transfer to prepared cookie sheets, placing them 2.5 cm apart. Bake, one batch at a time for 2o minutes. Lower the tempreature to 350 and bake for 5–10 minutes, or until lightly golden. Cool on cookie sheets for about 1 minute, and transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely and enjoy! Keeps 8 days.