‘Arnhemse Meisjes’ (Girls from the city of Arnhem) are my absolute favourite traditional Dutch cookies in the world. They are flaky, caramel crispy light with a sweet crunch.. These cookies look like they are made from some kind of puff pastry but that’s not the case. Some people make them with ready made puff pastry, but believe me, that is a bit of a lame short cut.

For the absolute original ‘Arnhemse Meisjes’ you need to make this bread-like dough with a drop of lemon juice. It’s fun to make these cookies. Especially the rolling the dough through the sugar part. This is also the way my grandfather, who was a baker, used to make them. The original recipe comes from a bakery named Van Zalinghe by a master baker called Hagdorn around 1829.

The recipe was a big secret for a long time, until a certain writer came along by the name of Dahl. This is also his favourite cookie by the way. Roald Dahl had the power to persuade the baker to give up his recipe. He ‘shamelessly’ published it in his cookbook. After that, everybody copied it, so I won’t feel too bad when I tell you how it goes:

This is how you make the Arnhemse Meisjes
Day 1: make the dough by sifting the flour and salt. Stir yeast in with the milk until dissolved. Mix this with the flour and lemon juice. With a mixer, beat in the butter, bit by bit, in stages. Put the dough in a plastic bag (yes it’s sticky, that’s how it’s supposed to be) and leave it overnight in the fridge.

Day 2: Take the dough from the fridge and shape it into a sausage. Cut the roll into pieces and shape into little balls, the size of a walnut. Put in the fridge to firm up again. Preheat the oven at 165°C.(conventional oven). Coat the balls in sugar. Sprinkle sugar over your work surface. Roll out the balls with a rolling pin in the sugar into an oval shape of approx 15 cm. Place them on a buttered tray or on baking paper. Sprinkle with some more sugar. Bake for approx. 25 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool on a wired rack. Enjoy!