I love this time of year because I get to bake and bake and bake until I can’t bake anymore. So that’s what I did this past weekend. Hung out with friends, baked and ate lots of cookies. Don’t you just love when you get stuck at home doing your all time favorite thing? Among the many many cookies we made this weekend are these adorable walnut cookies. Aren’t they just the cutest? While they are a labor of love, they are totally worth it. Each little walnut cookie is a morsel that should be cherished and thoroughly enjoyed. They’re so good and so perfect. The dough is pretty simple to make, the labor of love starts when you actually have to cook these cookies, because you only make 16 shells at a time, but totally worth it, and really when you look at it, quite simple.
What Are Oreshki?
This is a beloved little Russian sweet treat. We combine a shortbread-esque cookie with a sweet and drool worthy walnut and nutella filling. I bought these adorable little cookie molds that will ensure each and every cookie looks like a walnut – and tastes like one too.
Ingredients
Cookies
Dry ingredients – All purpose flour, salt, and baking soda. Wet ingredients – Milk, unsalted butter, white sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract, lemon juice and zest.
Filling
Walnuts – Ground up fine, you can substitute this ingredient for other nuts if you’d like but the original is certainly something special! Nutella – I love this decadent chocolate hazelnut spread – I mean who doesn’t? You don’t have to go with name brand though if you’d prefer to use something a bit more budget friendly. Cocoa powder – Our filling today is rich and chocolaty, this ingredient will help highlight all those chocolate notes in our Nutella and round out the nuttiness nicely. Sugar – White granulated sugar will do just fine – no need to get fancy with it! Rum extract – This is totally an optional ingredient, but it really does add dimension to our filling which is never a bad thing! Milk – I just went with the same 2% that I used for the cookie dough. Icing sugar – For dusting beautifully over top of our completed little treats.
What Else Can I Fill My Cookies With?
The filling I made it using some of my favorite ingredients, walnuts and Nutella, but really you could fill these babies with anything, jam, dulce de leche, custard, whatever your favorite filling is. The sky is truly the limit!
How To Make Walnut Cookies
Not A Walnut Fan?
Now we may not see eye to eye, but I can accept that not everyone out there drools over these little nuts like I do. So if that’s the case feel free to use pecans, pistachios, almonds, or hazelnuts! If you’re feeling adventurous then combine any of the ones listed above, who knows you might just find a way to improve upon perfection!
Can’t Get A Hold Of The Right Pans?
These pans can be a little tough to get a hold of either in store or online, they just haven’t hit the main stream yet! You can always make these bad boys in little cake pop/doughnut hole pans, just follow the directions listed above just the same!
Leftovers
Be sure to store these in an airtight container at room temperature and your cookies will last for 2 – 3 weeks! This will ensure you keep the cookies soft and will prevent them from turning hard. If you don’t have an airtight container, add a slice of bread which will keep them soft. It works the same way as you do with brown sugar
Freezing
These cookies are perfect for freezing. You can either wrap them individually or place them together in an airtight container. They will last in the freezer for 3 months, just warm them back up in the oven and enjoy.
More Delicious Cookies To Try:
Chocolate Sugar Cookies Classic Shortbread Cookies Red Velvet Kiss Cookies Chocolate Rumballs Snickerdoodle Cookies Lemon Shortbread Cookies Peanut Butter Cookies
