Walnut Shaped Cookies With Dulce De Leche Recipes

WALNUT-SHAPED COOKIES WITH DULCE DE LECHE

Steps:

• Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla extract. Add flour and salt and mix until just incorporated; overmixing will make the dough too stiff. Cover the dough with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 to 60 minutes, or up to overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Press about 1 teaspoonful of the chilled dough into the bottom and up the sides of each walnut-shaped mold. Place the molds on a baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until browned around the edges, 12 to 18 minutes. Cool for a few minutes. Lightly tap on the bottom of the mold to pop out the cookies. Let cool until easily handled.
• Spoon some dulce de leche onto the bottom of each cookie and sandwich the halves together.

SIMPLE WALNUT COOKIES WITH DULCE DE LECHE (ORESHKI)

Steps:

• Melt unsalted butter in the microwave or on the stove. In a bowl, whisk together 3 eggs and 1 cup sugar. Whisk in melted butter. In a separate small dish, juice half a lemon and add ½ teaspoon baking soda. Let it foam then add into the bowl with eggs and sugar. Add 1 cup flour and 1 cup corn starch to the bowl. Mix everything with a spoon until well combined. The dough should not be super runny. Heat up the nut maker and once ready, place ¼ teaspoon of the dough and close the machine. It will take about a minute for them to cook and be golden. Once finished, take each nut out and pace on a cutting board or counter for quick cooling. If there is too much dough around the walnuts, cut off the extra. Place the cooled nut half into a bowl as you finish the rest of the batter. Fill each nut with the cooked dulce de leche and bring two halfs together to make a whole. Enjoy!

CRISPY WALNUT SHAPED COOKIES WITH DULCE DE LECHE FILLING (ORESHKI)

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, combine and beat together 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 2 egg yolks and 1/8 tsp salt on low for about 1 minute. In a small bowl stir together 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp distilled white vinegar - it will fizz. Then add the baking soda mixture, 2 sticks unsalted butter and 1 tbsp mayo to the egg yolk mixture and beat on low for about 1 minute.
• Sift and stir in 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour just until mixed in. (I beat on low 1 cup and then stir 2nd with spatula and remaining ½ cup). Dough will be sticky and you might think it needs more flour, but adding more flour will make the cookies really hard. Wrap dough with food wrap and make it flat to about 1-1 1/2″ thickness. Refrigerate up to 2 hours until dough is hard. (Sometimes I do overnight).
• 2 HOURS LATER: Preheat oven to 375°F. Shape little balls (about 1/2"-3/4") from the cookie dough and place into each walnut shape. First press each ball in the middle with a thumb and then using your index finger keep going around the mold pressing the dough until the mold is lined with a very thin layer about 2mm thickness, without any part of mold showing through. Shave off excess with help of a knife. Gently put the cover of the walnut shaped mold over the filled molds, BUT don't press. Bake for 27-30 minutes. (NOTE: You want them nice and round inside, but without too much extra cookie around the edges once baked. You might need to slightly shave off edges in some cookies once baked to make them perfect or you can leave the way it is. With this crispy dough, it's very easy to crash sides when shaving off. You can also bake without the walnut mold cover and not worry about shaving sides off. Refer to step 5 if you want to go with this other method). Refrigerate remaining dough while first set is baking. Once baked, remove from the oven, remove the mold cover and remove cookies right away. Usually my walnut shaped cookies are stuck to the cover. You can use a sharp knife to take them off, but don't poke the sides to prevent from crashing OR like me, I use my hands and gently take them off - they come off very easy because of the butter dough; you'll even see a bit melted butter right away when you remove each cookie. (Avoid from throwing the baked cookies onto a tray or dish to prevent from crashing - think gentle and place them instead of throwing). Let the mold cool or take it outside to completely cool to bake the remaining dough, otherwise the dough will melt fast and it will be hard to work with; cookies will also bake faster by about 10 minutes if the mold isn't completely cooled. Let the cookies cool while you make the filling.
• TO MAKE THE FILLING: In a medium bowl, combine 1 can dulce de leche and 1/2 stick unsalted room temp butter. Beat on high for about 2 mins until no more butter pieces can be seen. Refrigerate the filling for about an hour. (NOTE: I usually make the filling before I bake the cookies, and let it refrigerate so that it gets thick. It's much easier to work with thicker dulce de leche than have it leak out of cookies when you're trying to fill and place together). With help of a dull knife, fill each walnut shaped cookie completely without going over the sides. Gently, without pressing, put 2 pieces together, and place onto a serving dish with the part where the cookies are pressed being around on sides instead of touching bottom of tray to prevent from filling leaking out while these firm up in refrigerator. Enjoy the next day or throughout the week - just keep them refrigerated if these are not being eaten!
• BAKE WITHOUT MOLD COVER: Shape and shave off excess cookie dough as you would in step 3, but without covering them with mold cover. Bake at 375°F for approximately 20 minutes. This method bakes with perfect edges, but the only thing I don't like is that the middles are not as perfect as pressed and when you actually close the cookie, it might have a slightly bigger gap due to the cookie edge top being little bumpy. And to be honest, I go by this method anyway because it's slightly easier: D ).

DULCE DE LECHE SANDWICH COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Finely grind the hazelnuts in a food processor. Spread on a baking sheet; bake until golden, 12 minutes.
• Whisk the flour, cornstarch, 1/3 cup of the ground hazelnuts, the baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl; set aside. Beat the butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolks, liqueur and vanilla; beat until incorporated. Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Turn onto a sheet of plastic wrap; shape into a disk. Wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
• Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Dust the dough with flour and roll out into a 6-by-12-inch rectangle (1/4 inch thick) on a floured surface. Cut into 1 1/2-inch squares; arrange 1/2 inch apart on the baking sheets. Cut out circles from the middle of half of the squares using a small cutter. Refrigerate until firm, 15 minutes.
• Bake, switching the pans halfway through, until the cookies are golden on the bottom, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely. Stir together the dulce de leche and the remaining ground hazelnuts. Sandwich between the plain and cut-out cookies. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

TAHINI THUMBPRINTS COOKIES WITH DULCE DE LECHE

Steps:

• Place racks in the upper and lower thirds of an oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda, and set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer, cream together the sugar and butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the tahini and mix on medium speed until well combined, stopping to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed with a rubber spatula.
• Add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla extract and salt to the butter-tahini mixture, and mix on medium speed until emulsified, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure the dough is evenly mixed.
• Add the flour mixture, and mix on low speed until just combined and no streaks of flour remain. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure the dough is evenly mixed.
• Roll the cookies into tablespoon-size balls and place them on the baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
• Bake the cookies for 7 minutes, then remove them from the oven and very carefully use your thumb or the handle of a wooden spoon to make a teaspoon-size indent in the center of each cookie. The cookies will crack slightly along the edges; that's OK. Return the cookies to the oven, rotating the pans from front to back and top to bottom. Bake until the cookies are set and just barely golden at the edges, another 5 to 7 minutes. Set the pans on cooling racks and press on the indentations slightly if they have puffed up during the baking process. Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes.
• Use a small spoon or pastry bag to fill the indentation of each cookie with about 1 teaspoon of dulce de leche, and sprinkle with flaky salt, if using. Let cool completely on the pans. Store in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 5 days.