Russian Ring Cookies
Introduction
These Russian ring-shaped cookies are crunchy, nutty, and not overly sweet. There is something about baked nuts sprinkled on top of cookies; the flavor that comes out at the end is very deep, rich and yet hard to describe. The recipe is very simple and there are no complicated ingredients, just eggs, flour, sugar, the usual. But it’s the proportion of these ingredients that makes the final product anything but usual, so unique and delicious.
We enjoy these cookies with tea, coffee or milk. They are also perfect to bake during the Holiday season. Oh and I must tell you that after you put them in the oven, your kitchen will be filled with amazing aroma. Bon Appetit!
Recipe
Ingredients
250 grams of unsalted butter, room temperature
150 grams of sugar
pinch of salt (about 1/8 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of baking powder
500 grams of flour
2 eggs
1 cup of peanuts or other nuts (if you have nut allergies, use sunflower or pumpkin seeds instead)
Instructions
Take one egg and separate the yolk from it. Set the yolk aside, it will be used as an egg wash for your cookies later. Combine your remaining egg white with the second egg.
Blend together all wet ingredients using a mixer: butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and your eggs (minus the yolk which you set aside).
Now combine dry ingredients: salt, flour and baking powder.
Slowly start adding dry ingredients from step 3 to wet ingredients in step 2. Again, the key here is slowly, add the flour mixture little by little until uniform dough is formed.
Once the dough is uniform, finish mixing it with your clean hands for several minutes and form it into a ball. Cover the dough and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
Take the peanuts and crush them just a little.
Roll out the dough with rolling pin to your desired thickness; however, be sure the dough is not thicker than 1/4 inch (or 0.6cm).
Take your cookie cutter and shape your cookies. Place the parchment paper on a baking tray and transfer your cookies there. If you don’t have parchment paper just brush your baking tray with little bit of butter to prevent cookies from sticking. Then take the egg yolk that you set aside and beat it a little to make the egg wash out of it. Dip the egg wash brush or paper towel in the yolk and lightly brush each cookie with it. Then sprinkle the cookies with your crushed nuts.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 Celsius) and bake the cookies for about 15-20 minutes, depending on the oven.
Take the cookies out of the oven and enjoy!