The old proverb that one man’s trash is another’s treasure applies to kitchen tools and holiday cookies, too. Several years ago, on one of my occasional wanderings through a Kyiv flea market, I spotted an unusual artifact amid a jumble of old kitchen utensils spread out on a blanket on the ground. What attracted my attention to this old cast aluminum mold was its nine uniquely cast indented wells, its long handle that suggested something about how it was to be used over a stove or a fire and its hinged aluminum cover stamped with “CCCP,” the Cyrillic acronym for “USSR,” and its original price, five roubles.
What was this thing? When I asked the scruffy vendor what the mold was used for, he said, horishki, Ukrainian for walnuts. Making walnuts? I asked if he could tell me more, but that is all he said he knew about it. On a whim of growing curiosity, I bought the mold for almost nothing, determined to follow up this strange discovery with more knowledgeable sources and resources.
The following Monday I brought my prized acquisition to the office and asked my Ukrainian female co-workers who were good cooks for a recipe. (Ukrainian men, I thought, rarely knew about such things.) After much oohing and ahhing, each woman recalled that this mold was used to make walnut-shaped cookies. They reminisced nostalgically how these walnut cookies were very special childhood treats years ago, usually made by their mothers or grandmothers for New Year’s, the Soviet substitute for Christmas. Several said that they mostly remembered the special creamy filling, but none of them had actually made these cookies or had a recipe.
I turned to my collection of old Soviet cookbooks to search for a recipe. But even that great compendium of recipes Book of Tasty and Healthy Eating (Книга о вкусной и здоровой пище), assembled by Anastas Mykoyan in 1939, then head of Soviet food production and later a diplomat, proved to be a dead end. I could find no published recipe. I was resigned that the mold would remain unused, nothing more than a curiosity in my collection of interesting kitchen tools.
In passing I mentioned to a Ukrainian male lawyer that the Walnut Cookie recipe was elusive. He didn’t say much, but a few days later he handed me a slip of paper from his mother on which, hand-written in the characteristic Soviet block letters on graph paper, was the recipe. Finally, not all was lost.
Walnut Cookies, I learned from further research, are known throughout the 15 republics of the former Soviet Union, but they are not attributed to any specific ethnic cuisine. As Russian was the lingua franca in the Soviet Union, they are often called by their Russian name oreshki and the mold is called oreshnitsa.
In fact, Walnut Cookies are also baked throughout Eastern Europe and are known by various names: horishki in Ukraine, orzeszki in Poland, dió sütemény in Hungary, plnené oriešky in Slovakia, ořech tvar křehké sendvič sušenky in Czech Republic and nuci in Romania. While the actual origin of this cookie is unclear, some food historians claim Walnut Cookies and molds were a Soviet creation, possibly dispersed throughout the Warsaw Pact countries by diplomatic and Red Army cooks. These molds were eventually copied and produced locally. Old and new Walnut Cookie molds are available online.*
In the Soviet Union, Walnut Cookies were baked widely as long as the ingredients and molds were available, usually just before a major holiday when, despite usual food shortages, Soviet authorities often provided treats to their citizens. Apparently, the recipe fell out of use when, during a period of food shortages, certain ingredients could not be purchased and the recipe was forgotten by the time the missing ingredients returned to shop shelves.
So I was eager to try the recipe. I read it several times to make sure I understood the ingredients and steps. All was clear except for the cookie filling instructions. Here the recipe called for taking a can of sweetened condensed milk, placing it unopened into a stockpot of water and simmering it for 3-4 hours until the milk and sugar inside the can caramelized. The recipe, however, came with a warning to always keep the water level in the pot 2 to 3 inches above the top of the can or the can could explode.
This process sounded downright dangerous and I imagined myself washing sticky caramel off the 9-foot kitchen ceiling. Knowing the general condition of food canning in Ukraine and having had several cans explode at the seams on my kitchen shelves without being boiled, I took this cautious note seriously as fair warning that there must have been prior can explosions during this cooking process.
Just to be safe, I googled “caramelizing sweetened condensed milk” and surprisingly learned that this cooking method is, in fact, promoted by companies that can sweetened condensed milk, and is used often by Hispanic cooks in preparing dulce de leche. So, with some trepidation, I cooked my first can of sweetened condensed milk without a problem and produced a can of thick caramelized milk.
I quickly made a batch of Walnut Cookies the following weekend. The cookies looked and tasted like walnuts. The crisp exterior yielding to a caramelly nutty filling produced a luscious cookie. These unusual cookies lived up to the nostalgic recommendation of my Ukrainian co-workers. I could see why Soviet children found these Walnut Cookies appealing and memorable. On Monday I brought my first batch of Walnut Cookies the office. They were devoured quickly and proclaimed a raving success – just like mother’s.
I have since played with the original Walnut Cookie recipe several times and present two versions here. The cookies from the original recipe are light in color and look like English walnuts. Rather than cooking a can of sweetened condensed milk as I did in Ukraine, I, fortunately, discovered a short-cut in North America. Néstlé has already done the work and is marketing LaLechera dulce de leche in Hispanic sections of most grocery stores. Furthermore, some Hispanic markets and delicatessens sell good quality dulce de leche in bulk. In either case, using commercially prepared dulce de leche simplifies making these Walnut Cookies and produces a luscious no-cook filling. The resulting cookies are golden and crispy on the outside with a luscious yet crunchy filling. (Just in case ready-made dulce de leche is unavailable, I provide instructions for cooking a can of condensed milk at the end of this post.**)
In looking for other Walnut Cookie recipes, I discovered a chocolate Walnut Cookie version at the King Arthur Flour website which adds cocoa powder to the dough. I adapted this recipe to make it more walnutty and this dark version contrasts strikingly to the lighter original. These super chocolatey, mouth-melting cookies are filled with a silky chocolate-walnut ganache.
While I provide recipes for the classic and chocolate fillings, Walnut Cookies can be filled with whatever you want, providing an opportunity for creativity. Additional filling options found in other recipes include pastry cream, mascarpone, apricot jam with ground walnut paste and vanilla buttercream with ground walnuts and rum. Each of these fillings could also produce a delicious cookie.
These Walnut Cookies Light and Dark are large, about the size of an actual walnut, and look striking on my holiday cookie plate. One Walnut Cookie, either Light or Dark, or an indulgent two, with a cup of tea or coffee is a perfect holiday pick-me–up.
Walnut Cookies, Light
For dough:
½ cup (100g) sugar
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar
9 ounces (250g) unsalted butter
3 cups (375g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
For light filling:
1½ cans Néstlé LaLechera dulce de leche, 13.4 ounces (380g) each**
1½ cup (190g) walnuts, coarsely chopped
Equipment: Walnut-shaped mold(s) *
Preparation of dough: Cream sugar with butter until light and fluffy in a bowl of a large stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Add vanilla and room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing until well-blended.
Mix vinegar with baking soda in a large measuring cup.
Combine flour and salt and mix a few spoons at a time into the sugar, egg and butter mixture alternating with the vinegar mixture until no flour is visible. (The composition of the dough should be soft but firm enough to hold a round shape.)
If baking cookies in a manual mold over a gas burner, prepare the stove by wrapping the drip pan under the burner in aluminum foil to catch any drips to make cleanup easier. (I have not tried making these cookies on an electric stove.)
Preheat cookie mold on the stove over medium heat. Scoop dough into small ½ teaspoon balls and place into wells of cookie mold.
Close mold and bake over a low flame for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. (The first batch of cookies will take longer as the mold heats up. You can open the mold to check on the color of the cookies after 2 minutes.) If using an electric cookie mold, follow manufacturer’s instructions.
Once cookie shells are golden, remove mold from gas burner and ease cookie shells from the mold with a toothpick over a rimmed cookie sheet.
Immediately fill the cookie mold with the next batch of dough. Repeat until all dough is used up. Allow cookie shells to cool completely. Then trim any dough overflow from the edges of cookie shells with fingertips or knife to obtain perfect walnut shells.
Preparation of filling: Combine dulce de leche with chopped walnuts.
Mound approximately 1 teaspoon of filling on a cookie shell, placing another shell over the filling to form a walnut. Wipe off any filling which seeps out around the edges of the cookies.
Cookies can be stored in airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days or can be frozen for several months.
Yield: 5 dozen cookies
Walnut Cookies, Dark
For dough:
1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup (150g) sugar
½ cup (75g) Dutch-process cocoa
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
2 cups (256g) unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
For filling:
1 cup (175g) chopped semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips
½ cup heavy cream
1 cup (125g) finely ground walnuts
Preparation of dough: In a large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat together butter, sugar, cocoa, salt, and flavorings for several minutes until well combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add egg and beat for about 5 minutes until the mixture is fluffy.
Stir baking powder into flour and combine with the butter-sugar mixture. Cover dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat cookie mold for a few minutes over a gas burner.
Divide dough into small ½ teaspoon balls. Place dough balls into wells of cookie mold. Close mold and bake over low flame for 2 minutes on each side. (The first batch of cookies will take longer while the mold heats up. After 2 minutes, open mold and, since the color of the dark cookies will not show a visible change, test one cookie with your finger for firmess. The dough should not be sticky.) If using an electric cookie mold, follow manufacturer’s instructions.
Once baked, remove cookie shells from the mold with a toothpick over a rimmed cookie sheet and immediately fill cookie mold with the next batch of dough. Continue until all dough is used. Allow cookie shells to cool completely. Then trim any overflowed dough from the edges of cookie shells with fingertips or knife to obtain perfect walnut shells.
Preparation of filling: In a small saucepan, heat heavy cream until steaming. Remove from heat and add chocolate, stirring until it melts. Reheat briefly on low heat if chocolate doesn’t completely melt. Cool, whisking often, mixture until it thickens slightly and mounds in a spoon. Stir in finely ground walnuts.
Fill one cookie shell with about 1 teaspoon of filling. Let these shells sit for a few minutes to partially set up, then top filled cookies with unfilled shells.
Cookies can be stored in airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days or can be frozen for several months.
Yield: 5 dozen cookies.
* Walnut-shaped molds, manual or electric, are available at
https://www.amazon.com/Walnut-Cookie-Mold-Oreshek-Maker/dp/B00MBPMQ9U?tag=askinfovinedelta-20 or at King Arthur Flour https://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/walnut-cookie-molds-set-of-24 or at http://www.ebay.com/bhp/oreshki
**If Nestle La Lechera Dulce de Leche is not available. This link provides instructions on how to make dulce de leche from sweetened condensed milk. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/homemade-dulce-de-leche/
One year ago:http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/discovering-perus-foodways-part-one/
Two years ago:http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/a-chocolate-indulgence-steamed-chocolate-pudding/
Three years ago:http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/dark-ale-braised-beef-short-ribs-carbonnade-a-la-flamande/
Three years ago also:http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/exploring-the-foodways-of-dubai-part-1/
Three years ago also: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/exploring-the-foodways-of-dubai-part-2-2/