1 cup flour
1 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 3/4 cups almonds (without skin), ground
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup honey
5 tablespoons weak American coffee (liquid)

For frosting
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 egg white
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Make some weak American-style coffee (about 1 cup water to 1 tablespoon ground coffee beans). Cool. Reserve 5 tablespoons.

Grind the almonds.

In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, clove and cinnamon together.

Mix the honey and ground almonds together and then add 5 tablespoons American coffee.

Incorporate the honey mixture with the flour mixture and work into a dough (If it's too soft, add a touch more flour, if it's too hard, add a touch more American coffee).

Roll out the dough on a floured pastry board to the thickness of about 1/2 inch.

Using cookie cutters, cut into shapes of diamonds, animals stars or dolls.

Place the cookies on well-greased cookie sheet or one lined with parchment paper.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until done -- about 12 minutes.

Cool.

To make the lemon-flavored icing sugar, beat the egg white then add the lemon juice to it and mix well.

Using a double-boiler gradually add the icing sugar, stirring constantly so that the mixture becomes thick and smooth.

Spread the icing over the cookies.

Let the cookies dry uncovered before storing (a few hours).

Keep in the fridge until needed.

The following text was taken from Italian Wikipedia (Machine google translation): "Mustazzoli From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Mostacciuoli, mastazzola, Mustazzueli, 'Nnasprati, mustazzoli' Nnsparati, Scagliozzi, Castagnole, Scajzzuli Mustaccioli cocoa Origins Place of origin Italy Regions Puglia Sicily Area of ​​production Province of Foggia; around the Salento , Province of Trapani Details Category sweet Recognition PAT Area Fresh pastries and bakery products, biscuits, cakes, pastry and confectionery.... The mustazzoli are typical desserts of Salento ( Puglia southern Italy) and Sicily west, based on flour, sugar, almonds, lemon, cinnamon, honey and other flavorings. Sometimes they are covered by a light glaze based chocolate. It is among the traditional Sicilian food products recognized by the Ministry of Agricultural Resources. The term derives from the Latin language. Not from the Latin mustum (must) as it was thought in the beginning, but by mustace, that laurel. Originally it was preparing mustaceum, a cake for the wedding, a cake wrapped in leaves mustace (laurel) which gave flavor during cooking. Hence the proverb loreolam in mustace quaerere , namely: search in vain focaccia bay leaves that had burned in the oven. The mustazzoli are also known as: mustaccioli, filthy (because of the chocolate icing on the surface), mostaccioli, mustazzueli, bisquetti, pisquetti, mustazzoli 'nnasparati, Scagliozzi, sciezzuli, castanets The mixture of mustazzoli is made ​​up of mulled wine, syrup or dried figs that has nothing in common with the product that bears the same name but obtained from cooked grape must, citrus peel, almonds, honey, cinnamon, sometimes quince, hazelnuts, chocolate, candied fruit. The ingredients must rest for several hours before being processed in the form of small irregular ups and cookies and then cooked in the oven, the product is then covered with icing sugar and cocoa. The mustazzoli have the characteristic of being very crisp, only with the addition of butter, margarine or lard in the dough, you get a much more soft and crumbly but who departs from the traditional recipe. The typical local sweets: they mustazzoli have mustazzoli Arab origin and in fact as in the custom of this civilization also these cookies, such as Arabic bread, no leavened. It was a typical habit, still alive, cook and eat these sweets during celebrations and sacred festivals. According to tradition, these particular cookies could be modeled in various forms: the Christian tradition forms of fish and bird, for that pagan forms of woman, snake or letters. In Sicily from the eighteenth century and until a few decades ago it was a typical product of the nuns of the convents of cloistered. Many regions claim paternity of this cookie, it is used a lot in Puglia , in Sardinia , in Calabria, in Sicily, in Lazio, in Campania and Lombardy .... Photo: Mary Melfi.

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