Belgian Christmas Cookies

A thin rolled almond cookie with brown sugar as the only sweetener. The dough is stiff and needs real chilling before it will roll cleanly at a quarter inch.

• OvenThe recipe gives no temperature. "Hot oven" in books of this period is usually reckoned at about 400-425F. Quarter-inch cookies at that heat should brown in well under ten minutes, so check early; the sugar is all brown sugar and goes from browned to burnt quickly.
• ShorteningOne cup of shortening is reckoned at 8 oz, and would have meant hydrogenated vegetable shortening or lard rather than butter. Butter can be substituted, but the dough will spread a little more and needs a longer chill.
• The almonds are unspecifiedHalf a pound of blanched almonds is a large amount and the recipe does not say whether to chop them, sliver them, or press whole ones onto the tops. Coarsely chopped or sliced almonds folded into the dough is the usual reading for a rolled cookie of this type; whole nuts make the sheet impossible to cut.
• Chilling is not optionalWith 3 1/2 cups flour to one cup fat, the dough is short and crumbly warm. Wrap it and give it at least two hours, or overnight, then roll firmly between sheets of paper.
• The boiling waterA single tablespoon of liquid in a very stiff dough. It is listed before the flour and soda, so add it with the eggs rather than at the end, and do not increase it.
• No saltThe recipe calls for none. A half teaspoon sifted with the flour brings the almond and brown sugar forward.
• YieldSixty 2 1/2-inch cookies, as stated, which means two or three sheets' worth in batches. They crisp as they cool and keep well in a tin for a couple of weeks.