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Van de Kamp's Almond Ice Box Cookies

 
On 7/11/2018 9:26 PM, Mary wrote:

 I found your site years ago, looking for Van de Kamp's Dutch Girl Cookies! 
I tried your recipe and, although it was very time-consuming, the cookies 
turned out nearly perfect! So the other cookie I used to love was the Almond 
Ice Box cookie. I decided last year that I would not rest until I had mastered 
them. So I did! And I wanted to share with your readers what I found out, since 
that is a cookie you haven't added to your site yet.

 I started with an online recipe for Dutch Almond Cookies. I tried the recipe 
and found it to be very close to the Van De Kamp's taste. The magic part was 
using ALMOND PASTE in the dough! But the recipe was not spicy enough, so in 
one half of the dough I added more cinnamon and nutmeg and I have to say...they 
were PERFECT! I probably ate about a hundred boxes of those cookies when I was 
growing up in Southern California. So I am very happy to share with you the 
final product to add to your collection:

 Van de Kamp's Almond Ice Box Cookies

 1 cup butter
 1/2 cup white sugar
 1/4 cup brown sugar
 2 large eggs
 1/2 cup toasted almonds, finely chopped
 1 1/2 cup flour
 3/4 teaspoon soda
 1 cup almond paste (NOT almond "filling"), finely chopped
 1/2 teaspoon EACH, nutmeg and cinnamon

Cream butter and sugars together. Beat in the eggs. Sift flour and soda together 
and add to mixture. Blend in the chopped almond paste. Add a few drops of water 
if the dough gets too stiff. Mix in the chopped nuts and spices. Form dough into 
square loaf/roll and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate overnite. Heat oven to 350 
degrees. Slice cookies very thin (1/8 inch) and bake on ungreased cookie sheet 
at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on rack.

The dough is soft, so you may have to keep it in the refrigerator as you work. 
The Van De Kamp's cookies were about 2 1/2 inches square and had kind of a 
wrinkly top side, probably from the slicing action. They may have kept the 
dough frozen to get that look. They do spread out as they bake, so don't make 
the slices too big. I used a log/roll about 1 1/2 inches square to give the 
right shape and size. I don't know how many the recipe makes, because I started 
eating them as soon as they cooled. Keep tightly covered or they get stale. 
Good Luck!

Mary 

Hi Mary,

Great! Thanks for sending this.

Phaed