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Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Harvest Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookie Acorns

Back in 2013, I made these little Sugar Cookie Kiss “Acorns” and somehow was reminded of that over the weekend, so I updated the recipe and here we go again. It’s a simple, and not too time consuming way to make little treats for autumn and might be cute for Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving. I used the Hershey’s Special Dark Kisses, but you could also use the Almond or Caramel Filled ones!

A note about the photo: before anyone gets all pedantic on me, I know that “acorns” don’t come from maple trees, but maple leaves are prettier than oak leaves, so deal with it! πŸ™‚

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Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Varenyky-style Dumpling Cookies

The Ukraine’s “national dish”, I have been told, are Varenyky. Varenyky are very very similar to Polish Pierogies. Like almost identical. The one thing that I did find unique is that in some places, and in some cases, there are also sweet dumplings in the style of Varenyky, however, they are filled with jam fillings and baked. That is what these are: Varenyky-style Dumpling Cookies, filled with black currant, peach and tart cherry jams. The dough itself isn’t sweet at all (barely any sugar) however once dusted with a bit of powdered sugar and the jam of course, they are lovely. Very flaky dough. I happen to have a ravioli press that I used to form these, but you can also just use a round cookie cutter and the tines of a fork to seal them.

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Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Ukrainian-Style Walnut Ring Cookies, with Chocolate (волоський Π³ΠΎΡ€Ρ–Ρ… ΠΏΠ΅Ρ‡ΠΈΠ²ΠΎ)

Here’s another Ukrainian/Eastern-European-inspired cookie recipe: Ukrainian-Style Walnut Ring Cookies, with Chocolate. In my research, I saw these both with chocolate like this, or with just walnuts held on with an egg wash and sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. I guess it was how fancy one was being. Or what ingredients are on hand. The cookie dough is quite nice — mostly whole wheat flour (a little unusual for a cookie) and a touch of dark, buckwheat flour honey. As with many of the cookies that I am making, these are mostly made at Christmas time, so it feels a little strange to be making them in the run up to Easter, but oh well. They are yummy no matter what time of year.

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Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Summer Fruit Kolacky

In my research into Ukrainian food, I am finding one very consistent thing: the items and the flavor profiles of many central European foods, as well as Germany and Russia, are pretty similar. There are nuances of course — the further south (i.e. Hungary), the spicier the food, and there are some hyper-regional nuances (i.e. a Lviv-style cheesecake is from Lviv), but in general, there is a whole lot of overlap in Ukrainian, Polish, Slovak, Romanian, Hungarian, Russian and German food. Case in point: this style of cookie is found in Poland, Chechia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia. I chose fruit, but you can also use almond paste or even a sweet cream cheese filling. These are apricot and tart cherry. Yummy.

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Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Honey Plum Linzer Cookies

Lots going on in the world right now, and I am really feeling it. As long long time friends and followers will know, I get very emotionally invested in current events — in a very unhealthy manner, I must admit. I try to now channel pain and anger into learning — try to learn the language, learn about the people, the culture, the food. This could be anything, not just the current situation in the Ukraine, but conflicts in other parts of the world, or natural disasters, or extreme economic situations. But back to now: I tried to come up with a few recipes, this being the first of which, that form every day cuisine in the Ukraine. And I tried not to be too prototypical. Like, I don’t know if they would actually make Honey Plum Linzer cookies like these, but I do know that honey and plum preserves are common. So I made these. Quite lovely in fact.

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