Just what I needed

Ahh, a few minutes to sit down. The car is mostly packed and I’m waiting on my dh to get home from class so we can get our road trip started. The past few days have been a blur of concentrated effort, I think I used up all of my remaining free brain cells to get organized. I’m now trying to decide if it was worth it. Is the stress of a week of obsessively writing everything down and planning out my days down to the minute better than just waiting until the last minute and having one supremely stressful day while I throw everything into the car? I’m going to have to think about that.

The good news is that I did get to make one batch of Jan hagel, and now I finally have pictures (I think I said I would post pictures last year to go with the recipe but never got to it).

This particular photo makes me feel like a lousy food stylist for DeRuijter, but it was a terribly rainy day here on Wednesday, and I’m still mastering the art of using the flash well. My dh managed to get our Photoshop working again, so one of my goals for this year is to learn how to use it. Every other photo you see of mine is largely unedited, save for some cropping.

Most of the Jan hagel went to the dutchkid’s preschool teachers, but we managed to eat a fair amount ourselves

If you look closely you can see her stitches on her chin. We had them removed yesterday, I was so proud of her for being a brave girl.

Jan Hagel

Today I hope to get my last batch of Jan Hagel baked. I meant to take pictures of the last batch I did earlier in the week but it was scarfed down, pronto. Since I mentioned it before, I keep getting hits from people looking for a recipe (and you asked for it as well, Beth) so I thought I would post it. It really is nothing more than a bar type sugar cookie. Without further ado:

Jan Hagel Cookies

• 1c. butter
• 1c. sugar
• 1 egg, separated
• 2c. flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• hagel, coconut, chopped nuts to sprinkle on top

Cream butter, sugar and egg yolk. Add flour, cinnamon and baking powder. Mix thoroughly. Pat down in cookie sheets until THIN. This is the key to good Jan Hagel, it should be thin enough to almost see through. Brush with egg white. Sprinkle with toppings. Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes. Watch it very carefully, you don’t want it to be too brown.

I usually do some with only chocolate hagel on top (Dutch chocolate sprinkles) and then some with coconut and nuts, which is my dh’s favorite. I suppose you could order hagel online. I have my mother send it to me because while you can find it everywhere in my hometown, it’s hard to come by here. This recipe came from my mother’s oldest sister.

Merry Christmas!