Boterkoek, a Dutch treat

I already talked about boterkoek in my first post when I tried using a recipe from the internet that failed spectacularly. The recipe I tried afterwards was the one that's been in my family ever since I can remember. It works a charm, but if you're on a diet you might want to give it a pass anyway, because it's so delicious, you're bound to eat unhealthy amounts of it.

Yield: 8-10 slices

Materials

• A 20 cm/8 inch round baking tin

Ingredients

• 200 grams all-purpose flour, sieved (1.5 cups, sieved and leveled)
• 175 grams unsalted butter (3/4 cups)
• 125 grams white soft sugar (10 tablespoons)
• 8 grams of vanilla sugar or vanillin sugar (3 teaspoons)
• salt, a pinch
• About 1 tablespoon of milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 200-220°C (400-430°F) and line the baking tin with baking spray.
2. In a bowl, mix the sieved flour with the sugar, vanilla sugar and salt.
3. Cut the butter into small pieces with two knifes and knead the butter pieces into the dough with cool hands until the dough looks uniform. Wash your hands with cold water beforehand if necessary.
4. Press the dough into an 8 inch baking tin and, with a fork, make a checkered pattern on the top of the dough.
5. With a brush, coat the top of the dough lightly with milk.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Take out of the oven and let it rest on a cooling rack until it has almost cooled down. Then remove the koek from the tin for further cooling on the rack. If you let it cool down too much, the butter will solidify which will cause the whole thing to stick to the tin. If that happens, heat briefly and remove from tin immediately.

Tip: Baking is a precise affair. I urge you to use the metric measurements from the original recipe to ensure the best possible result.

Approximate nutritional content per serving:
310 kCal, 35 grams carbohydrate, 3.5 grams protein, 17.5 grams fat.