Cinnamon Almond Cookies

BATTER:
1 1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated
3 cups all-purpose flour

TOPPING:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup finely chopped almonds
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg yolks.  Gradually add flour and mix well.  Using cookie press fitted with bar disk, press dough one inch apart into long strips onto ungreased cookie sheet.  In small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; brush over dough.  Combine all topping; sprinkle over stripes.  Cut each strip into 2 inch pieces.  Do not seperate pieces.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until edges are firm.  Do not brown!  Remove to wire racks to cool.


*Next time I make these there are going to be a few changes from the recipe.  The only almond flavor in these cookies is the almonds on top and I feel that only gives them crunch.  I couldn't taste much almond at all.  I'm going to add some almond flavoring to the batter.   
*Another change I will make, the topping made WAY to much so I will cut it in half next time. 
*I do not have a cookie press so I split the dough into fours and rolled each forth into a long "snake".  I then just flatted each "snake" a bit to make it look like a used a cookie press.
*I do not think I baked them long enough.  When I moved them from the pan to the cooling rack they all fell through (except the few you see in the picture) and looked really doughy.  Luckily I had set a cookie sheet under the cooling racks before moving the cookies over so they fell through onto the cookie sheet.  I did get a lot of compliments about the flavor and texture even though they didn't look that great.