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.
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.
It’s a cookie in bar form! Not brownie but a blondie! In essence, you can use the exact same recipe to make cookies, but I was in the mood to make bars, so here we are. These are easy to make, flavorful and easily substitutable — in other words, don’t like dried cranberries or pistachios or white chocolate, swap out for raisins, walnuts and semi-sweet chips. Lots of options!
Florentine cookies are definitely up there in the favorites department. It’s all about the thin and crispy. And these have more of those Jammy Bits (this time raspberry) from King Arthur Baking that melt into the cookies like little blobs of melted gummibears. So delicious and really really easy to make.