Here is a thing about me — I LOVE Christmas cookies. I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but making Christmas cookies is one of my favorite yearly traditions. Every year, I make and decorate cut-out sugar cookies with my family (we throw in some dinosaurs and cats with the usual Santas and snowmen), but I also like to try something new every year. Luckily, there are endless Christmas cookies around the world and I’m so glad I found these little Finnish Cakes.

This recipe comes from my copy of Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook, which was my grandma’s, and then my mom’s, and now mine. It’s one of my prized possessions and it holds an esteemed place of honor in my kitchen. (Highest shelf, top right, next to a portrait of Julia Child.) It’s the ninth printing of the 1950 edition and definitely shows some wear and tear but that’s just because it’s been well-loved and well-used — those tatters are well-earned. While I’ve been making Chocolate Chip Cookies from this book for years, I decided it was high time to start cooking my way through the rest of it.

These cookies come specifically from the “Christmas Cookies” section of the Cookie chapter, with the inscription “Decorate favorites from lands afar” written across the top of the page. They’re described as “nut-studded butter strips from Finland,” which is very accurate!

To make them, you are supposed to mix together butter, sugar, almond extract, and flour with your hands before chilling the dough and rolling it out. I don’t know where I went wrong, but the dough was VERY crumbly and almost impossible to roll out. Eventually, I managed to cobble together enough dough to make it work. From there, you slice the dough into rectangles, brush it with a little water (we couldn’t find our pastry brush!), and then sprinkle the top with a mixture of chopped almonds and sugar.

And how were they were? They were delicious. They’re very much like a shortbread, but a very thin and delicate one. The sweet nut topping gives a little extra crunch and flavor. I loved them and I’ll absolutely be making them again!