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1
Sift flour and salt together. Cut the butter into large cubes and let is rest in a warm place to soften slightly.
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2
Boil two eggs until just hardboiled (10 min). Peel and remove the yolks. Mash yolkes into the sugar with a fork until well mixed. (If you're like me, you'll snack on the leftover whites while you ).mix the dough. Separate the yolks and whites of the 2 raw eggs. Save the whites for later. Mix the raw yolkes into the yolk/sugar batter.
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3
Work the butter until soft. I prefer to use a wooden spoon to beat and mash it, but you could use a mixer at a low setting. The butter should still be slightly cool - not melted, just pliable and creamy.
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4
Mix 1/3 of the flour into the egg yolk batter then mix in 1/3 of the softened butter. Continue adding the rest of the flour and butter in batches, alternating between them. Mix thoroughly until there is no visible butter left in the dough.
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5
Divide the dough into four equal sized balls and let them rest for about 2 hours in the fridge. You can rest the dough over night, but that does make it a bit more difficult to roll out afterwards.
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6
Dust the kitchen counter lightly with flour. Remove one ball of dough form the fridge. Using your hands, gently roll it into a long sausage about as thick as your little finger. Cut into pieces about 10 cm long (4 inches). Shape each piece into a circle with slightly overlapping ends. Let the wreaths firm up in the fridge, while you roll out and shape the three other balls of dough. If the dough gets to soft to work with return it to the fridge for a few min. to rest.
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7
Heat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Place the (raw) egg white in a flat plate and the sparkling sugar in another. Dip one side of the wreaths in the egg white and then into the sparkling sugar. Place on a sheet pan covered with baking paper. They only spread a little.
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8
Bake for approx. 10 min. A hundred years ago, my great grandmother would have considered it a badge of good housekeeping, that the cookies came out of the oven with no browning. But I actually like them with just a bit of colour on the bottom.
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9
Let the cookies sit for a few min. on the sheet to firm up, then carefully move them to a wire rack to cool. Keep them in a tightly sealed cookie jar - they're even better after a week, and they will keep for at least a month.
