Mother's delicious cookies (Jewish merber kuchen)

Take ten boiled eggs and two raw ones, one pound of best butter, half a pound of almonds, one lemon, some cinnamon one wineglass of brandy, one pound of pulverized sugar and about one pound and a half of flour. This quantity makes one hundred cookies, and like fruit cake, age improves them, in other words, the older the better. Now to begin with: Set a dish of boiling water on the stove, when it boils hard, break the eggs carefully, one at a time, dropping the whites in a deep porcelain dish, and set away in a cool place. Take each yolk as you break the egg and
put it in a half shell, and lay it in the boiling water until you have ten boiling. When boiled hard take them up and lay them on a plate to cool. In the meantime, cream the butter with a pound of pulverized sugar, add the grated peel of a lemon, a teaspoon of cinnamon and half of the almonds, which have been blanched and pounded or grated (reserve the other half for the top of the cookies, which should not be grated, but pounded). Add the hard-boiled yolks, which must be grated, and the
two raw eggs, sift in the flour, and add the brandy. Beat up the whites of the twelve eggs very stiff, add half to the dough, reserving the other half, but do not make the dough stiff, as it should be so rich that you can hardly handle it. Flour the baking-board well, roll out about an eighth of an inch thick. Now spread with the reserved whites of eggs, reserving half again, as you will have to roll out at least twice on a large baking-board. Sprinkle well with the pounded almonds after
you have spread the beaten whites of the eggs on top, also sugar and cinnamon. Cut with a cookie-cutter. Have at least five large pans greased ready to receive them. See that you have a good fire. Time to bake, five to ten minutes. Pack them away when cold in a stone jar or tin cake-box. These cookies will keep a long time.