Gevulde Koeken: Almond Filled Cookies with Homemade Almond Paste

This almond paste recipe yields approximately twice as much as you'll need for the gevulde koeken. You'll be able to freeze the leftovers. \n \nZest the lemon.

Add the almonds, sugar, and lemon zest into your food processor. \n \nPulse until you see no more big pieces of almond; it should look like almond-meal. Do not over process it, it can turn into almond butter.

Add the egg, and keep pulsing until everything is fully combined.

Remove it from the food processor, and form it into a ball. Wrap it with cling film, and let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour, but preferably a day or two; that way the flavor can really develop. \n \nIf you do not have a day or two, you can also add a few drops of almond extract into the food processor when you add the egg, to intensify the flavor, without having to wait for it to happen in the fridge.

Zest the lemon.

With a mixer, cream the butter, sugar, lemon rind, and salt together until fully combined.

Add the milk and egg, and mix it through thoroughly.

Add the flour and baking powder, and knead until it's combined into a dough. You do not want to overwork it, which is why I do this by hand. You'll know it's done when the dough doesn't stick to your hands anymore.

Wrap the dough in cling film, and store in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Break the almond paste into small pieces, add the egg yolk, and water. Using a mixer, mix it until everything is fully incorporated. It will be sticky!

Divide the filling into 12 even pieces.

When the dough is almost done resting, turn on the oven to 220ºC (430F) in non-convection mode.

Cut the dough from the fridge into two equal pieces. Leave one of them in the fridge (covered), and knead it on your board, to soften it a little bit.

Flour your surface, and roll out the dough until it's 3mm (1/8") thick.

Using a 10cm (4") round cookie cutter, cut out circles. Put these on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. \n \nRoll the scraps back into a ball, and then roll it out, and cut out more circles. \n \nYou should get between 10-12 circles out of this. \n \nCover them and put them in the fridge.

Repeat these steps for the second part of the dough. \n \nLeave the sheets in the fridge for 10 minutes or so.

Take the sheets out of the fridge, and put the almond paste on half of the circles. Spread it out until it's 1.25cm (0.5") from the edge. \n \nI wet my fingers just a little bit to make it easier to spread the almond paste.

Take the remaining circles without almond paste, and place them over the circles with the almond paste on it. Use a fork to crimp the edges.

Push one blanched almond into the center of each cookie.

Make an egg wash by beating egg together with water, and brush all the gevulde koeken, including the almonds with it.

Since this is baked at a high temperature, if your oven heats from the bottom, I'd recommend putting an empty cookie sheet on the rack below the cookies, to prevent the bottom of the cookies to get too dark.

Bake the gevulde koeken for 13-18 minutes. \n \nRotate the cookie sheet after approximately 8 minutes, and start checking at 13 minutes. They are done when they're nice and golden-brown.

Let them cool on a rack before eating.