Milk shortbread is a simple nostalgic cookie which for decades has been popular in Russian canteens and school cafeterias. A simple comforting and huge cookie is a dream with a cup of tea or a glass of milk.
Nothing fancy or over the top, with slightly crunchy edges and soft middle, this cookie will give sweet comforting memories to many.
The recipe has specific measurements. If you don’t have kitchen scales – I most definitely recommend it. It will save you lots of calculations and converting. Plus will give an extra fun side to the cooking process, you can pretend to be an old-fashion druggist taking his job seriously 🙂
Ingredients:
Milk – 80 gr
Sugar – 200 gr
Margarine – 100 gr
Egg – 1
Flour, sieved – 400 gr
Vanilla sugar – 2 gr
Soda – 2 gr
Baking powder – 4 gr
Method:
Warm up milk, and add sugar. Mix in untill the sugar melts, preventing boiling. Take the milky syrup off the heat. Add margarine, mix it in to melt and leave the mixture to cool down.
Set the stove to 200 C.
Mix in an egg and soda, baking powder and vanilla sugar, mix well. Gradually add flour, mixing it with a fork at first, and then use your hands. Put the dough for 15 minutes into the fridge, for the dough to cool down, this will make it easier to work with.
Roll the dough out. Traditional width of the piece of dough is a little less than 1 cm – this will make soft korzhiki. For crunchier once, you can roll the dough thinner. Cut out the cookies. Collect the dough leftovers and roll them out too, for the other set of cookies.
Place the korzhiki on the tray lined with baking paper, do not place them too tightly. Optionally, you can cover the cookies with an egg wash.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, do not allow for them to get too golden.
Sochniki are staple Russian shortbread cakes with tvorog cottage cheese filling. OMG such simple and comforting treats.
These cakes have been very popular from Soviet times in canteens and cafes across the country. Not surprising – the tvorog filling is rich in protein, and sochniki are a great bakery to start off your day.
The main ingredient here, is, as to be concluded from above – tvorog, which is available in every Russian shop. Some people say you can substitute tvorog with kwark – do not listen to that! 🙂
Tvorog and kwark are two different things, their texture is completely different. If you don’t have tvorog you can substitute it with ricotta cheese – that would work out just fantastic, but much more expensive too.
Sochniki Russian cakes with tvorog recipe
Ingredients
For dough
Butter, softened – 50 g
Caster sugar – 1 cup , Smetana – 0.75 cup (you can substitute with creme fraiche)
Baking powder – 1 teaspoon ,
Eggs – 2,
Flour – 4 cups for the dough+ 0.5-1 glass for dusting [/ezcol_2third]
For stuffing
Tvorog cottage cheese – 400 g,
Caster sugar – 2 tablespoons ,
Eggs – 1 egg and 1 egg white
Smetana 2 tablespoons , Semolina – 2 tablespoons ( you can substitute with flour)
Egg wash:
1 yolk for egg wash – 1
Method:
1. Firstly, make the stuffing so the semolina would swell up and the sugar dissolve
In a large bowl combine eggs, tvorog, sugar and semolina. Mix well with a mixer. Set aside.
2. Dough
Mix together softened butter with sugar and eggs. Combine smetana with baking powder and mix into the sugar mixture. Gradually add the sieved flour, mixing into soft dough with your hands.
Set your oven to 190 C. Line the baking tray with baking paper
Shape the dough into a roll. Cut it into manageable pieces, dust the working surface with flour and roll those dough pieces out. Cut out circles using a glass.
Place around 1 tablespoon of stuffing onto each circle of rolled dough, and fold two sides together (no need to pinch the sides). Bring your sochniki onto the tray.
Make an egg wash mixing 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water and cover the sochniki with the mixture.
3. Bake the sochiniki for around 20 minutes until golden. Cool them down.
Sochniki are to be enjoyed cooled down.
Bon appetite!
Tips:
1. For an extra golden glaze, repeat brushing with the egg yolk in the middle of the baking process.
2. You can shape sochniki in a different manner working with the dough: Shape the dough into the ball, cut into small pieces by halving each of them: the original ball into 2, them each of those two – again into 2 etc. Once you have small enough pieces roll out each of them into elongated shapes, place the stuffing and follow the above baking instructions.
3. You can chose not to glaze sochinki with the egg yolk, but then dust them with icing sugar
