In the Netherlands, one special Christmas tradition is apparently to make a big cake in the shape of the first letter of the family’s last name. That got complicated in my family, where my mom’s name is Volk and my father’s is Watson. Instead of making two cakes, I figured cookies would be a better idea. I also got this idea from Saveur, which published a story about the cookies at an Iowa bakery. They’re also more finger food-y, which was convenient for the 6th Annual Volk/Watson Christmas Extravaganza.
Unfortunately, I forgot that I’m a complete nul at stuffing things that aren’t turkey. And each one of these cookies needs to be stuffed with sweetened almond paste.
I didn’t change the recipe much (I didn’t have almond paste so I used almond flour—ground almonds— and combined it with a couple teaspoons of water), but it was a little tricky to figure out what it meant by rolling out the dough, cutting it in specific lengths and twisting it, especially since I wasn’t making the letter ‘S.’ Well, good luck! You can also make them as turnovers and forget about the complicated shapes. Just as delicious. Kind of ugly. But buttery and not too sweet.
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