Vanilice (Serbian Little Vanilla Cookies

• Produce

  • 1 tsp Lemon, zest

• Refrigerated

  • 2 Egg yolks

• Condiments

  • 1/2 cup Jam

• Baking & Spices

  • 2 1/2 cup All-purpose flour, unbleached
  • 1/2 cup Shortening
  • 3/4 cup Sugar
  • 2 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cup Vanilla sugar, powdered

• Nuts & Seeds

  • 2 cup Walnut, halves

• Dairy

  • 1 stick Butter, salted

Found on curiouscuisiniere.com

Description

Ingredients

• 1 ½ c powdered vanilla sugar*
• 2 c walnut halves
• ½ c shortening
• 1 stick salted butter, softened
• ¾ c sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 2 ½ c unbleached all purpose flour
• ½ c jam (apricot or rosehip are traditional)

Directions

• Place the walnut halves in the bowl of your food processor. Grind them until they are evenly and finely ground. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, beat the shortening and butter together with an electric hand mixer. Add the sugar and continue to beat until creamy.
• Beat in the egg yolks, vanilla extract, and lemon zest, until evenly mixed.
• While beating on a low speed, add the ground walnuts and all purpose flour, mixing until an even dough forms. (The dough should be soft, but not sticky.)
• Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a ball and wrap each separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the wrapped dough for at least 2- 3 hours (up to overnight).
• Preheat your oven to 325F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Working with half of the dough at a time, dust your counter top with flour and roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick.
• Using a 1 inch, round cookie cutter, cut out the cookies and place them one inch apart on your baking sheet. (You may have to get creative here. We used the lid to a spice jar as our cookie cutter!)
• Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes, until just before they start to turn golden around the edges. (You want the cookies to stay that nice white color.)
• Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Once the cookies are completely cool, make sandwiches out of them with the jam. Take one cookie at a time, spread about ½ tsp of jam on it, and top it with another cookie.
• Once all the cookies are sandwiched, place your powdered vanilla sugar in a medium bowl or gallon bag. Roll each sandwich in the powdered vanilla sugar, until nicely coated.
• Store the cookies in an airtight container on the counter. The cookies will be good now, but traditionally they are stored for one to two days before eating. Something magical happens in these two days, so do wait, if you can!