EASTER RECIPES | RUSSIAN WALNUT COOKIES

There are many traditional Slavic cookies around the world, but there is no better cookie than Oreshki. They are shaped into mini walnuts and they taste so good. Oreshki are very well known as  beautiful, walnut shaped Russian cookies. They are so popular in Latvia and many other Slavic countries. 

 They are very iconic Russian treats, especially we eat them during many holidays like Christmas, Ligo, Easter and other special occasions. I love these cookies so much, I used to eat Oreshki every holiday! Cookies are very golden, crispy and come out so well with this recipe. 

The filling is so creamy and caramely. It really is a favorite among everyone, but especially children, it is my childhood treat of all time. Oreshki are made of two components that are absolutely awesome together – short crust cookies and caramel. I can remember watching my grandmother making them and couldn’t wait to eat them all.

Oreshki often require a special skillet, but I used a waffle maker with cookie attachment.  This is a more modern way of making these cookies and I think much easier and faster. Slavic people love using cooked condensed milk in lots of desserts. Y Unfortunately it is pretty hard to find the molds for the traditional walnut shaped cookies if you live anywhere outside Russia or Latvia. But I bought a waffle maker with 3 different shapes and one of them was the walnut cookie shape, I'm sure you can find the mould online. This recipe makes around 120 shells, so around 50-60 cookies.

Ingredients 

2 eggs

200 gr of unsalted butter

150 gr of sugar

360 gr + 60 gr extra if needed of plain white flour 

0,5 tbsp of baking soda

1 tsp of vinegar

1 can of caramel ( or you can use condensed milk and boil it for 3 hours)

Directions 

Step 1 : In a bowl add eggs, sugar and mix everything with a whisk. Then add melted butter, make sure its not hot, and mix everything again. Add a little bit of plain flour and mix that in, then add more flour and mix. 

Step 2 : Take baking soda and add vinegar, leave it to bubble up and then add to your mixture and fold it all together. Then keep adding a little bit of flour at a time, mixing that in and adding more flour until your dough comes together. The dough needs to be soft and elastic, so you might need to add more or less flour. 

Step 3 : I am using shop bough caramel ( you can also use dulche de leche or boil one can of condensed milk for 3 hours and it becomes caramel)

Step 4 : Pinch a tiny bit of a dough and roll a small ball. It should be smaller size than a walnut. I like to roll out mine before in advance, so its easier to cook them one after another. I am using a waffle maker called Silver Crest that I bought here in my local store Lidl which had the cookie shape attachment but you can use any mould that you have or can find online. I cook them for 2-3 min until they are done, and you will see beautiful half of the cookie will come out.

Step 5:  You would need to repeat the process with all the cookies, until all of them are done. Some will have edges that you will need to trim. Leave cookies to cool down completely.  Add half a tsp of caramel inside each half and glue them together. Set the aside to set completely and enjoy!! They don’t last long time, trust me!