They ARE, Jabber. And pretty easy to make, too.

As background, I have an almond cookie recipe that I make at Christmas time. It is a family heirloom, and I have never seen it anywhere, in any published cookbook, even those that have sections on ethic Christmas cookies.

This family Christmas cookie is probably from Germany. It's called "Mondel Schnitzen," and basically it is a sugar cookie base, topped with chopped blanched almonds, and then topped again with a butter crumb mixture, which is essentially the cookie base, minus the eggs. For a bit of color and extra flavor, my mother altered the recipe to sprinkle nutmeg on top of all.

These are fabulous cookies and everyone who tries them (assuming they like almonds) loves them. But, honestly, they take all day to make, so I only make them once a year.

Happily, my "almond snickerdoodle" recipe pretty much duplicates the taste of the family heirloom - and yet didn't take much more than an hour to mix up and bake.

So, as I said, I'm pretty happy with my experiment...