Jan Hagel (yan HAH-ghle) cookies are a traditional Dutch holiday sweet. They are very thin, light and flaky. They are also known as Hollanders, Janhagels, Janhagel Cookies, Dutch Almond Cookies or Sugar Hail Cookies.
Jan Hagel - Johnny Hail - is Dutch for ‘an unruly mob’ or ‘rabble,’ with hagel in the sense of ‘multitude’ or ‘swarm.’ In the cookie, the rock sugar resembles hail.
Jan Hagels
10-1/2 oz Flour
6 oz. butter
5 oz. sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
5 oz. rock sugar (or sanding sugar)
2 egg whites
Chopped nuts (optional)
Mix the softened butter with the sugar, cinnamon, salt and the white of one egg until the mixture is creamy. Sift the flour on a board or countertop and put the butter mixture in small dabs all over the flour. Knead it into a smooth ball. Let the dough cool in the refrigerator for 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Jan Hagel - Johnny Hail - is Dutch for ‘an unruly mob’ or ‘rabble,’ with hagel in the sense of ‘multitude’ or ‘swarm.’ In the cookie, the rock sugar resembles hail.
Jan Hagels
10-1/2 oz Flour
6 oz. butter5 oz. sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
5 oz. rock sugar (or sanding sugar)
2 egg whites
Chopped nuts (optional)
Mix the softened butter with the sugar, cinnamon, salt and the white of one egg until the mixture is creamy. Sift the flour on a board or countertop and put the butter mixture in small dabs all over the flour. Knead it into a smooth ball. Let the dough cool in the refrigerator for 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Put the rock sugar (kandij) in a tea towel and pound it until it is about the size of rice grains.Grease a cookie sheet and put the dough on it, rolling it out into a thin layer. Brush it with the remaining egg white and sprinkle it with the rock sugar. You can also sprinkle chopped nuts if desired. Cut - but do not separate - the dough in strips of approx. 1-1/2 inches wide and 3-1/2 inches long.
Bake for 20 minutes. Let the baked cookie cool off and then break at pre-cuts for individual cookies.
Yield: Approximately 50 cookies
Recipe courtesy of goDutch.com.
This recipe in no way resembles the Jan Hagels my dutch grandmother baked for me as a child in NJ, nor anything like unto the similarly named cookies available at our local dutch bakery in Paterson NJ.
ReplyDeleteSome more research is needed for this article.
I am Dutch and these cookies resemble the real thing actually quite spot on so no more research is needed in my opinion.
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