Dutch Frangipane-Filled Cookies ("Gevulde Koeken")

Our Avid Baker's Challenge ("ABC") group is in full swing. For our March challenge, the chosen theme is "COOKIES". Any kind of cookies! Due to the global pandemic, I haven't been able to travel to The Netherlands to visit my family. Although we talk often, I miss hanging out with them. I also miss the baked goods.

If I can't go to The Netherlands, I'll bring The Netherlands to me. And so became my baking journey to make "Gevulde Koeken" for the very first time. These buttery and melt-in-mouth cookies (I'd call them pastries, really!) are filled with a soft and creamy almond paste filling. I love eating them the day they're baked. That's when the buttery outer "cookie" shell is still crisply. When you bite into it, it crumbles into your mouth!

Freshly baked Gevulde Koeken, golden brown and delicious!

ABC - July 2019: Mixed Berry Ginger Crumb Cake

This month's recipe for the ABC bakers is the Mixed Berry Ginger Crumb Cake from The Brown Eyed Baker's blog. I almost didn't bake this because it was like a million degrees in my kitchen (aka 90s F). Then I came up with the following plan:

• Be done as quickly as possible, so I
• Skipped the fruit marinade which didn't make sense to me anyway.
• Skipped the crumb topping because in my experience, the crumb topping is only crunchy and delicious on the day you bake it, and I was going to take it to work the next day.
• Substitute coarse cornmeal with almond flour because I only had fine cornmeal.
• Use a different fruit combo so I can save myself a trip to the grocery store.
• Substitute a mixture of sour cream and plain yogurt for the milk, and adjust the leavening accordingly.
• Ground ginger and candied ginger are yummy, but I wanted to give it more so I added some ground cardamom to the cake as well.
• Finally, bake the cake in the toaster oven, which is big enough to hold a 9" x 9" cake pan.

The cake was fragrant, tender and very flavorful. Bon Appetit! :)

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog or visit us on Facebook for more information.