German Cookies

This is a finishing method rather than a full formula — it assumes you have already mixed one of the German cookie doughs printed alongside it in the book. What it does give you is a topping technique worth knowing.

• "Either of the mixtures"The instruction points back to two cookie mixtures given elsewhere in the book; the recipe itself does not describe them. Any firm cookie dough that holds its shape will take this treatment.
• Gravel sugarThe book defines it as the small lumps from crushed sugar sifted through a colander. Modern pearl sugar, nib sugar or Belgian coarse sugar is the nearest equivalent; sanding sugar is finer and will dissolve into the egg wash rather than stay as visible grains.
• Egging overWhole egg beaten with a pinch of salt, brushed thin. Too heavy a coat pools at the edges and browns hard before the cookie is baked through, which fights the pale colour the recipe calls for.
• Order of workEgg wash, then almonds and sugar together while the wash is still wet — the wash is the only glue holding the topping on. Press the topping down lightly with the flat of the hand so it does not shed in the oven.
• "Bake light colored"The recipe gives no temperature; a moderate oven, in the region of 350F, is a reasonable modern reading. Pull them while the surface is still blond and only the edges have taken any colour -- chopped almonds scorch and turn bitter well before a cookie looks dark.
• TimingThin rolled cookies at this temperature run roughly 8 to 12 minutes depending on thickness. Go by colour, not the clock, since the whole point of the instruction is restraint.
• AlmondsBlanched almonds chopped by hand to about the size of the sugar grains. Pre-sliced almonds work but sit flat and slide off more readily than chopped pieces.