Oreshki -Ukrainian Walnut Shaped Cookies

They are the football looking, walnut looking cookie. They are sharing the photo with Plum Kiffle and Almond Wreaths.

These are made in an iron that makes two halves of a shell that you ‘glue’ together with boiled sweetened condensed milk. 

The shells, the trimming bits and the iron.

Plan ahead as it takes 2-3 hours of boiling the sweetened condensed milk to make it caramelize and become something adjacent to dulce de leche. 

This recipe is more about the technique than anything. My research shows there are many, many recipes out there. Some have mayonnaise and some have leavening. I looked at ratios and landed on this: 

1 15 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk cooked in boiling water for 2-3 hours. Make sure the cans are always submerged in water when boiling them  

228g butter, room temperature

100g powdered sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1 teaspoon vanilla 

300g flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream the butter and sugar. Mix in the egg, then add the mayonnaise and vanilla. Scrape the bowl. Add the flour and baking soda. Mix to combine. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Portion into ½ teaspoon sized nubbins. -I put my dough in a piping bag and portion the nubbins onto a cooking sheet, then roll into a ball.

Heat your walnut shaped griddle, spray with cooking spray. Deposit a portion of dough per walnut half. Close and flip. Cook about 2 minutes per side. 

When golden in color knock the shells out of the maker. 

Trim the edges of each half and reserve the trimmings to add to the filling. 

For the filling, chop the bits of cookie trimmings and pieces of cookie that aren’t pretty. Mix it into the cooked sweetened condensed milk and put it into a piping bag, cut the tip large, to accommodate the chopped up trimmings.

Fill both halves of the cookie and press two together. 

Chill, being careful to keep them setting upright and not rolling on their side or the filling will ooze out.

A pile of shells. You can see some of the colors are inconsistent. That’s user error. :)

Keep chilled and bring to room temperatures before serving.

~Note: Let me be clear that no one showed me how to make this cookie. I was searching for “cookie iron cookies” and came across this cookie iron and ordered one online. I make stroopwafle, and krumkakes and pizzelles and on a whim went lookin for cousins. I make no claims on authenticity.