My favorite of our family's holiday traditions is Christmas Baking. We make all kinds of delicious, sweet, spicy, and nutty carbohydrate concoctions. These items come from the recipe box of Christine's and my ethnic backgrounds. Christine's Norwegian heritage has the most food based holiday traditions of the two of us, but my Dutch and Irish heritage contribute a bit to the mix. Tonight the girls are heading up to North Jersey to gather with the aunts and female cousins of my wife's clan to make all sorts of Norwegian cookies. I will share some of the recipes and pictures of the tasty treats over the next few days. Last night however, the girls launched the baking extravaganza by making a cookie tin full of Holland Butter Cookies.I have no idea where this recipe came from. It is has been in my family a long time. The cookies are very simple. The main flavoring comes from brown sugar and almond extract. It is essential that you stick to the proportions of butter and margarine. I am not a margarine fan, but the proportions in this recipe yield a thin and crispy cookie. Even though the recipe seems so simple, please give it a try. Once you do they just might become one your favorite cookies.
Holland Butter Cookies
1 stick butter
2 sticks margarine
1 t vanilla
1 t almond extract3 & 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 & 1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
2/3 c. brown sugar
2/3 c. white sugar
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream butter, sugar & extracts together. Add dry ingredients. Mix well. Press through a cookie press or roll cookies into small balls and press flat with the tines of a fork or a cookie stamp. Bak 20-30 minutes.
As the original recipe notes--always double or triple the recipe!
Enjoy!
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