At Christmas, the nut cookies are one of the stars of many Czech dinner tables. Here is a great recipe by the Creative Mom, so you can make the nuts at home.
Supplies
Cookies:
– 300 g/10.6 oz of butter (unsalted, of course)
– 140 g/4.9 oz of powder sugar
– 2 egg yolks
– 400 g/14.1 oz of all-purpose flour
– 60 g/2.1 oz of ground nuts (typically walnuts but you can use also almonds or hazelnuts)
– 1 tbsp of cacao powder
– 1 tbsp of cinnamon
– 1 tbsp of vanilla extract
– baking molds (either the typical ones formed like walnuts or any other round ones)
Filling:
– 400 g/14.1 oz of sweet condensed milk – recipe here
– 2 tbsp of rum – we use special Czech rum called “Tuzemák” or “Božkov” of very specific aroma and taste. If you can’t get it, you can use other types of rum although the taste won’t be the same.
– a handful of ground nuts
– 125 g/4.4 oz of butter
How to make the Christmas nut cookies
Bake the cookies
In one bowl, combine the flour, ground nuts, cacao powder and cinnamon. In another bowl whisk the egg yolks with sugar and vanilla extract. Put the yolk mixture in the bowl with the dry ingredients, add butter and knead everything until everything’s incorporated perfectly. Let the dough rest in a colder spot at least for a couple of hours.
Take small pieces of the dough and press them into the molds and place the molds on a baking tray.
Preheat the oven and bake for 12 minutes on 180°C/356°F.
Take the tray out and flip the molds upside down, the nut halves should fall out. Let them cool down.
Whisk the Filling and “assemble” the Christmas nut cookies
You can find the recipe for homemade condensed milk here.
Place the can with the condensed milk in a pot with water and boil 1 hour. If you’re using homemade condensed milk, be sure to put it in a heat-proof container of double of the milk’s volume. The milk will caramelize in the process of boiling.
Mix the caramelized milk with rum, ground nuts and butter until they make a nice smooth cream.
Fill the nut halves and make nuts. Sprinkle them with some powder sugar if you want.
These cookies taste the best if you let them set over night, so the cream can soak into the cookie a little.
For more Christmas cookie recipes look here.
