Italian Almond-Iced Christmas Cookies

I got this recipe from "Holiday Cooking with American Chefs" but made my own adjustments mostly to improvise for the ingredients I didn't have. These are the cookies I made for a cookie exchange this year.

Cookies: 3 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tbsp. of baking powder, ½ tsp. of salt, 3 eggs, ½ cup sugar, ½ cup of vegetable oil, 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract, and ½ tsp. of pure almond extract. Icing: 2 tbsp. of milk, 1 tbsp. of egg white, 1 ¼ cups icing sugar, ¼ tsp. of pure almond extract.

Heat oven to 350 deg. Butter 2 sheet pans. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Then mix eggs and sugar in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until pale yellow and fluffy. With the mixer running, drizzle in the oil, vanilla, and almond extract, and mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Using your hands, form into logs 1 inch in diameter. Working in batches if necessary, cut into ¾ inch slices and arrange the cookies on the sheets pans. Bake until light golden brown, 12-15 minutes. Let cool on wire racks. To make the icing: Whisk the milk, egg white, icing sugar, and almond extract together until smooth. When the cookies are cool, dip the tops into the white icing. ****My cookies looked boring, so I decided to toast some almonds and mix a chocolate concoction of chocolate chips, a little oil, and some balsamic vinegar and melted it in the microwave. I piped the chocolate onto the cookies and pressed the toasted almonds onto them while the chocolate was gooey and let dry. I also decorated a few cookies topped with "edible blossoms." Very attractive.