Almond Butter Cookies
with cookie stamp or prosphora seal
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A good number of Episcopal churches in California use traditional Orthodox bread seals to make large, special, icon image cookies for Saint Nicholas Day. These are made with a cookie stamp or smaller prosphora bread seal.
The top cookies are made with a Polish cookie stamp. It's a lovely, detailed wooden stamp that makes really nice cookies, about 2 1/2 inches. The stamp is available from and the Polish Art Center.
The lower cookies are made with a Ukrainian prosphora bread seal. It is beautifully carved with deep detail. The seal has a 2 3/8-inch diameter and is available from Etsy. The detail is fine and a little lost on the cookies. I hope to try the seal with speculaas and springerle dough and see if the results are more detailed. It does make a nice sized cookie, about 3-inches, not as big as with larger seals.
1 cup butter
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
Cream butter and sugar. Add extract and salt. Add flour and mix well. Chill dough, but no longer than an hour if using butter (otherwise it becomes rock hard). Form 1-inch balls for the wooden stamp or 2-inch balls for the prosphora seal. See tips below for preparing wooden stamps and seals. Stamp each ball with seal immediately. Bake at 350° 15 to 18 minutes, or until beginning to brown. Makes about 1½ dozen cookies.
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Store in sealed container to retain crispness. To distribute, wrap each cookie in plastic wrap or put in a bag, tie with a ribbon and a card telling about St. Nicholas.
Cookie stamp tips: Brush cooking oil on the wooden stamp before starting to make the cookies. Repeat several times while you are making the cookie dough, as the oil absorbs quickly. When ready to stamp a cookie, dip the stamp in flour, and then knock the flour off (the same as done with the larger cookie boards). Repeat the flour before stamping each cookie.
Prosphora Seal available from WorkShopUA - Etsy
Polish Cookie Stamp available from Polish Art Center