Finnish Bread

Well, they are called Finnish bread, but actually they are cookies - and I don't even know if they really come from Finland. Foods have a funny tendency to get names that imply origins that may not be true. Think of Danish pastries - in Denmark they are known as bread from Vienna.

Finnish bread are considered one of the traditional Christmas cookies, and we decided they should be the one of the two kinds of cookies we'd bake this holiday season.

Ingredients:
- 375 g (13 oz) flour
- 85 g (3 oz) sugar
- 250 g (9 oz) butter
- 2 eggs
- 50 g (2 oz) almonds
- 2 tbsp washed raw sugar [1]

The flour and sugar was mixed in a bowl, then the butter was cut in smaller pieces and worked ("crumbled") into the flour/sugar mixture using fingers. Then 1 of the eggs was added and a firm dough was made using hands. The dough was rolled into rods approximately the thickness of a finger, which were then pressed flat and cut into small rods. The small rods were placed on baking plates with baking paper and allowed to stand in the fridge for at least one 1 hour.

After taking the cookies out of the fridge they were brushed with the other egg, and on top was sprinkled a mixture of raw sugar and finely cut almonds.

The cookies were baked in the bottom of the oven at 200 C (400 F) until golden (12-15 minutes).

This made us about 50 cookies, but they could probably have been cut into thinner rods.

[1] This doesn't have to be raw sugar - any kind of sugar that comes in relatively large crystals would do.