Almond Squares and Pfaffie talk

I was at an executive planning meeting for our Quilt Guild the other night and Marijke, the hostess, had prepared a really nice Almond Square for the light lunch after the meeting. It was a recipe developed by her Dutch mother. They were not too sweet and so delicious. I was thinking, it must have cost a few bucks to use ground almonds as flour but when I just looked at the recipe, there was no ground almonds at all. All the ingredients are normal stuff that you have in your cupboard anyway. I had the recipe all along in our guild cookbook from the year 2000. I'm going to make some tomorrow. I know some if you will ask, so here is the recipe.

Willy's Dutch Almond Squares.
1/2 cup softened margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1-1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
slivered almonds for decorating the top
Evap milk, egg yolk or a little milk and a sprinkle of sugar on top.

Cream margarine and sugar. Then add egg and almond extract and mix well. Sift together flour and baking powder and stir into the liquids. The dough will be stiff and may need to be blended by hand at the end. Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan. Press dough into pan, brush the top with evap milk or egg yolk or milk and sprinkle a bit of sugar on top. This makes a golden brown top. Decorate with almonds on the top. Bake 35 - 40 minutes at 350F. Cool and cut into 25 squares.

This afternoon, I'm going to visit my Pfaffie friend Jane. (Pfaffie is what Pfaff owners call themselves) She has new big hoop accessory for her Pfaff embroidery machine (same as mine) and I'm going to see how they work. This accessory might be helpful in doing embroidery on the entire bodice for Baby A's baptism dress. It should be a fun afternoon.