Rondo's | A Dutch Treat

Rondo's are little Dutch treats that are kind of a cross between a pie and a cookie.... and maybe even cake. They are so amazingly tasty. The flavor pretty much blew me away.

The crust part is a cross between a pie crust and shortbread, and totally flakey. It is filled with a lemony almond paste that is mixed with an egg. The rondos are ridiculously tasty. Once I cut into one of them for "quality control," I could not stop eating it.

They are usually baked in a special ring that is about 2.8 inches in diameter. While the Rondo rings aren't readily available here in the U.S., you could probably use cookie cutters of the same size to make the traditional Rondo.

If you don't have the rings or cookie cutters, you can make these in a muffin tin as demonstrated in this video in Dutch. I love how it is referred to as a cupcakevorm. I ended up making mine in a muffin tin (or cupcakevorm) and this recipe yielded 8 Rondos.

As much as I love baking toys, acquiring ten 2.8 inch rings was not in my future. Even Amazon did not have Rondo rings. Thank goodness. I'm a little out of control.

Now that I think of it, I live in an area with a large Dutch heritage and a Dutch specialty market..... hmmm.

The Avid Baker's Challenge bakers are baking from The Weekend Bakery this year. The Weekend Bakery is a Netherlands based blog with amazing bread recipes and lots of helpful baking information.

Which brings me to the apostrophe. While researching the recipe, I kept seeing Rondo's. Every self respecting member of the apostrophe police would have me thrown into grammar jail if I used it. What should I do? I finally checked with a couple of my Dutch baker friends, and evidently an apostrophe is used for the plural. Who knew? It's amazing what you can learn through baking!

Rondo's Recipe

Adapted from Weekend Bakery. The versions from the Avid Bakers are featured here. You can also check out my friend Lien's version with cherries. 

Ingredients

Almond Paste

75 grams almond flour

75 grams granulated sugar

zest of 1/2 lemon

A bit of water

1/2 to 1 whole egg 

Rondos

200 grams pastry flour

5 grams (about 1 1/4 tsp) baking powder 

Pinch of salt

150 grams (5 1/4 ounces) unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes

100 grams light brown sugar
Water as needed

All of the almond paste

8 almonds

Instructions

To make the Almond Paste:

1. Whir the almond flour and sugar together in a mini food processor. Add the lemon zest and pulse. 
2. Add water until you have a very thick paste. 
3. Refrigerate the paste overnight. 
4. Add the egg by tablespoons and mix until you have a mixture that is soft but not runny. I used about 3/4 of the egg. 

To make the Rondos

1. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the pastry flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Add the butter and pulse a few times until you have a crumbly mixture.
3. Add the brown sugar and pulse. 
4. If the mixture is too dry and does not come together, add water, one teaspoon at a time, and pulse until you have a cohesive dough. Do not over mix. Stop when the dough just comes together. 
5. Divide the dough into two pieces, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for one hour. 
6. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
7. Spray a muffin tin with spray oil. 
8. Roll the dough pieces out between two pieces of wax paper to about 1/8th inch thick. Cut out eight 4-inch circles and 8 2 3/4-inch circles. 
9. Line the bottom and sides of the cavities of a muffin tin with the four inch circles of dough to form "cups." Evenly distribute the almond paste among the eight cavities. Top with the smaller circles and press lightly to seal. Brush the tops with egg wash and place an almond in the center (If it's concave, don't worry, it will puff up). 
10. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. 
11. Let cool in the pan for five minutes, and then gently remove the rondo's from the pan and continue cooling on a wire rack.