Nick Malgieri
Breads Cakes Cookies, Bars, and Biscotti Frozen Desserts Pastries Preserves, Jams. and Relishes Quick Breads Salads, Sandwiches, and Soups Savory Baked Specialties Sweet Tarts and Pies SWISS Trifles, Puddings, Mousses, and Compotes Yeast-risen Specialties, Sweet and Savory
Nick Malgieri

Jan Hagel

All resemblance between the name of these cookies and American industrially-made ones is purely coincidental. This is a real Dutch recipe for easy-to-prepare and delicious cookies.

Makes about thirty-five 2-inch cookies

Dough

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 12 pieces

Topping

1 tablespoon water for brushing the dough
1 cup (about 4 ounces) blanched sliced almonds
1/4 cup sugar

One 10 x 15-inch jellyroll pan, buttered and bottom and sides lined with parchment or foil

  1. Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
  2. Place the dry ingredients into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse several times to mix. Add the butter and pulse repeatedly until the mixture is reduced to fine crumbs and looks like coarse cornmeal.
  3. Evenly scatter the dough mixture in the pan and use the palm of your hand to press it down evenly and to make it adhere together.
  4. Paint the dough with water and evenly scatter the almonds and sugar on it, gently pressing them in.
  5. Bake the cookies for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until they are a deep golden color, the almonds have toasted, and the cookies are firm.
  6. Immediately pull the paper with the cookie slab on it from the pan to a cutting board. Immediately use a sharp, serrated knife to cut the baked cookie into 2-inch squares. Use a spatula to transfer them to racks to finish cooling.

Storage: Keep the cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting cover.