Reviving nostalgia: Make traditional Eastern European walnut cookies
Holiday cookies shaped like walnuts were popular in Eastern Europe. These shell-shaped cookies, made from crumbly pastry dough, are typically prepared using a special cookie maker. If you don't have this equipment, don't worry. You can bake walnut cookies using an alternative method.
With this approach, sweet walnut cookies aren't limited to those with a special cookie maker. Anyone can make them using a regular oven. You'll need molds shaped like walnuts, which can be filled with any cream, such as walnut or pistachio cream.
A homemade idea for walnut-shaped cookie molds
Before preparing walnut cookies without a cookie maker, you need to make the molds. To do this, you'll need: 1 cleaned half walnut shell, parchment paper, and aluminum foil.
Cut rectangles from the parchment paper and aluminum foil. The paper should be larger—about 13 x 20 cm—and the aluminum foil smaller—about 13 x 8 cm. Crumple the paper into a ball and wrap it halfway with aluminum foil. Then place it in the walnut shell. Wrap the foil to the end and press the mold into shape. Carefully remove it. Make 30 cookie molds this way.
Recipe for walnut cookies
With the given proportions, you can prepare about 30 cookies filled with walnut cream.
Ingredients:
- 2 eggs,
- 500 mL of flour,
- 325 mL of butter,
- 250 mL of powdered sugar,
- 15 mL of sour cream,
- 2 mL of baking soda,
- 5 mL of vinegar,
- 160 mL of dulce de leche,
- 160 mL of ground walnuts,
- 60 mL of milk.
Instructions:
- Melt 60 mL of butter in a saucepan.
- In a bowl, add the flour, 30 mL of powdered sugar, the melted and cooled butter, 2 eggs, and sour cream.
- In a separate dish, combine the baking soda with vinegar; it should foam. Add this to the dough and mix the ingredients with a spoon.
- Knead the dough by hand and form it into a ball.
- Scoop small portions of the dough with a teaspoon and shape them into balls. Press them onto the prepared cookie molds on the convex side.
- Place the filled molds in a preheated oven at 180°C for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool after baking.
- Pour hot milk over the ground walnuts and let them cool. They must be cold to prevent curdling the cream.
- Using a mixer, beat 250 mL of butter into a fluffy cream. Add 60 mL of powdered sugar and 45 mL of dulce de leche. Mix, and then combine with the walnuts.
- Spoon the cream into both halves of the cookies, then combine them into walnut shapes.
Other ideas for cream fillings for walnut cookies
Inside these sweet shells, you can also use a delicious chocolate-hazelnut cream. You can make this homemade Nutella with hazelnuts, dark chocolate, and condensed milk. Another idea for filling is pistachio cream, made from roasted pistachios, white chocolate, and cream.
