Gevulde Koeken

by Kelly J. Larson

I’m an American girl who’s in love with a Dutch cookie. Gevulde Koeken are my favorite sweet memories from my time living in The Netherlands from 1984 to 1985. These plump, almond paste filled Dutch cookies are known for their shiny, golden, round shapes, topped with usually one to three almonds, and are forever at the top of my list for must-have Dutch treats.

The best gevulde koeken were always from the bakery (bakerij) and made with the freshest ingredients. Grocery stores sell packaged gevulde koeken, but they aren’t nearly as good. Any time someone asks if I want something food wise from Holland, I usually decline, knowing that the best gevulde koeken should be eaten within a day or two.

Who knows why it has taken me so long to make these, but here I am now with some incredibly lekker Dutch gevulde koeken from my own kitchen. My daughter dropped one off at my Dutch neighbor’s house and it put a big smile on his face. They are legitimately the real deal. Ik ben zo blij!

Gevulde means filled — and koeken means cookies. My heart and tastebuds are completely filled now that these lekker (meaning delicious) goodies have made a comeback into my mouth and vision. My kids went crazy over them and I’m simply gazing in awe like a proud new mommy as I enjoy each and every bite. Here’s how to make these babies.

Gevulde Koeken

Start off by making the almond paste then the cookie dough, which is actually more like a pie crust consistency, then cut out shapes, fill, then bake.

Almond Paste

6 ounces whole almonds
2/3 cup sugar
zest from 1 lemon
1-1/2 eggs
1/8 teaspoon salt
splash of water to get a piping consistency for the paste

Bring a pan of water to boil to blanch the almonds. Add almonds to boiling water until they rise to the top. Scoop out the almonds and spread them onto a paper towel.

Remove the outside skins from the nuts.

Set aside a dozen blanched almonds for the tops.

You’ll end up with about 150 grams of blanched almonds to create the paste for the filling.

Add all the almond paste ingredients to food processor and pulse until it starts to clump up somewhat, for approximately 1 minute. You may want to add a few drops of water to this if it seems necessary to be able to form the balls of filling.

Out dated method: With a medium sized stainless steel scoop, form a dozen balls with the almond paste and press to flatten them slightly.

New method: The images shown above are slightly too dry. Adding water helps (plus slightly more egg to get a piping consistency. The recipe previously called for 1 egg, rather than 1.5. Rather than scoop out flat discs of almond paste, pipe them onto dough circles.

Cookie Dough

2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
14 tablespoons cold butter, cut up
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wash and towel dry the food processor to be able to use it to mix the dough.

Pulse the above ingredients until the butter and dry ingredients are crumbled finely.

Divide the crumbled dough into two bowls. Use a scale to get it evenly split in half. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate dough for an hour.

After chilling dough, remove one of the halves and crumble apart into food processor bowl. Prepare for cutting the dough and assembling the cookies, plus whisk 1 egg into a bowl to brush over the tops prior to baking.

Next, fill a teacup with ice and water to make ice water. While pulsing dough with the food processor, add 3 tablespoons ice water and mix together until the dough starts to form into a large ball. Turn dough onto a floured surface.

Roll out to 1/6-inch thickness. Using a 2.75-inch to 3.25-inch round or fluted cutter, cut out 12 circles. I used the smaller size.

Place dough cutouts on a Silpat lined baking sheet.

Add discs of filling to each cookie round.

With remaining dough in the refrigerator, crumble it apart into the food processor and add another 3 tablespoons of ice water to this second half of dough. Turn onto a floured surface and cut 12 additional circles using the same size cutter as the bottoms. Dip finger into ice water for each cookie, to dampen the edges to seal the two cookie dough layers together. Press one almond into the top of each cookie.