Thought I’d start off my “cookie year” here in January with something at least semi-healthy with oatmeal cookies. Of course, there is lots of butter, toffee bits, jammie bits and chocolate chips, so that takes away most anything healthy about these, but they are delicious, so there is that. Thin, very crisp, with a bit of a crunch. If you like “thin and crispy” these are definitely for you.
You know me, bars are almost as popular in my world as cookies, whether it be shortbread crumble bars or brownies or in this case, blondies. Very delicious. Just the right amount of spice cut my the vanilla of the white chocolate chips. A great addition to a holiday cookie platter and ready in under and hour, start to finish. Yummy!
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! π
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.
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.