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Bohemian Christmas Cookies
Yolks of 2 hard-cooked eggs 1/3 cup butter or shortening 1/3 cup sugar Yolk of 1 egg 1 tablespoon milk Flour to stiffen for rolling 3 tablespoons finely chopped blanched almonds Put the hard-cooked yolks of eggs through a ricer or sieve and cream with the butter or shortening. Add the sugar, cream again, then stir in the uncooked egg-yolk, the milk, and sifted flour. The dough should be stiff enough to roll. Cut into small round shapes with cooky-cutters, brush these with beaten egg-white and sprinkle with finely chopped almonds. Bake in a slow oven (300 degrees F.).
A sieved hard-cooked yolk dough, the Central European trick for a cookie that stays short and sandy rather than crisp. The original leaves both flour quantity and baking time to the cook's judgment, so a little calibration helps.
- The hinge: sieve the yolks properlyThe cooked yolks must go through a fine sieve or ricer until they are powder, with no lumps at all. Any pea-sized piece stays as a dry speck in the baked cookie, and the dough will not cream smoothly with the butter.
- How much flour"Flour to stiffen for rolling" works out to roughly 1 to 1 1/4 cups all-purpose. Add it in stages and stop as soon as the dough holds together and no longer sticks to the fingers; excess flour makes these tough, which defeats the point of the yolk.
- Chill before rollingThe dough is soft when mixed. An hour in the refrigerator, wrapped, makes it roll cleanly at about 1/4 inch and keeps the cut rounds from distorting on the way to the sheet.
- Slow oven, and why300F is correct and deliberate. These are meant to dry out and set pale, not to brown; a hotter oven colors the almonds before the centers are done.
- Baking timeNo time is given. At 300F, 1/4-inch rounds need about 18 to 25 minutes, until the undersides are just faintly gold and the tops still look uncolored. They firm as they cool.
- Egg-white washBeat the white only until loosened and slightly frothy, not to peaks, and brush thinly. A heavy coat pools around the edges and bakes to a glassy rim.
- AlmondsBlanched almonds chopped fine, near to a coarse meal, adhere far better than slivers. Press them lightly into the wash so they do not shed in the tin.
- YieldYield depends on how thin the dough is rolled; expect several dozen small rounds from a 1 1/2-inch cutter. They keep well for a week or more in a tight tin, which is what makes them a Christmas baking-ahead cookie.
Doughs built on sieved hard-cooked egg yolk run through the baking of Bohemia, Austria and Hungary, and turn up in English-language books under names like Vienna or Bohemian cookies. The cooked yolk does not develop gluten, so it produces a crumb that is short and almost powdery. Recipes of this kind reached American magazine kitchens through Central European immigrant communities. The almond topping and the deliberately slow oven both suit a cookie meant for keeping, stored in tins for the holidays.