Oreshki (nutlet cookies)
Oreshki! (Walnut cookie)These are my favorite little cookie. I love when they are perfectly crunchy and airy with the filling to have actual nut pieces. So time consuming, but so worth it.
As I prepped these little guys I wondered why Russian desserts are so time consuming. As you read on you’ll see that the egg white mixture and the egg yolk mixture get prepped separately and then folded together. The first time I made these cookies I did just that. I only have one mixer so that took some time with the prep. So, the second time making them I didn’t separate the eggs, I did it all together, I’m telling you, it was different. The cookie was denser, not as airy as the cookie that had the separation of the egg process. Any ways, I’ll be posting the original recipe here.
What you’ll need:
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
250 grams butter (2 sticks and 2 Tbs)
2 ¾ cups flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the Filling
One can cooked condensed milk
2 cups walnuts – chopped
Optional – ½ cup of the left over cookie that will be broke off the molds after they bake, you’ll need to crush them of pulse in a food processor real quick.
To cook the condensed milk – peel of the label off the can. Put in a pot of water and boil for 1.5 hours, adding water to the pot as the water evaporates. I always cook an extra can just in case I’ll be baking something that requires a cooked can; it usually does in Russian desserts.
Sift flour and set aside.
Using a mixer, beat butter with ¼ cups of sugar and add an egg yolk one at a time. Whip the butter and yoke/sugar mixture for about 3 min, measure out ¼ tsp of baking soda and put that on a table spoon keeping the spoon over the mixture, pour the tsp of apple cider vinegar onto the baking soda, allowing them to fizz (as you see on the picture) into the batter, fold in 1 ¾ cups of flour. Set this aside.
In another bowl, whip the egg white and the remaining ¼ sugar until peaks form, add vanilla extract. Fold in 1 cup flour. Then fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture.
Refrigerate for an hour.
Then using a 1/2 tsp measurer, make little ball shaped heaps to place in an oreshki maker.
They will be golden brown when done, and will be able to remove easy from the molds. Let the shells cool completely. I always break off the access cookie from the shell, keep that if you want to add about ¼-1/2 cup of the left over pieces to the filling.
I gotta mention that my little sister, Natasha, is a pro at Oreshki making so I’ll tell you what she does and then what I did.
Natasha always uses the left over cookie bits in her filling, about ½ cup. She takes the can of condensed milk and spoons it into a bowl, adds the walnuts and the cookie bits that have been broken off the shells. She mixes all that together and stuffs the nut shell halves. I like a smoother consistency of the filling so I whipped the condensed milk with a mixer a little and then added just the nuts. The filling ran a little in mine the first time, so I put about ¼ cup of the cookie pieces in, the second time around and they were amazing.
My mom bought the electric Oreshki maker at the Russian store, I have seen them on Ebay and the non eclectic ones on Amazon ( those are a bit cheaper )
These are the best! I know, I don't add butter into the filling like most people do, but I just don't like the flavor it adds, or takes away form the condensed milk.