Cookies on boiled yolks
This recipe creates a truly soft shortbread cookie, known for its light, crumbly, and moderately sweet texture. The secret to that exceptionally delicate structure and pleasant yellow tint lies in using boiled egg yolks. For the best experience, I highly recommend enjoying these fresh—even warm right out of the oven—as they are not meant for long-term storage, keeping for just a couple of days at most.
Ingredients
Dough (on boiled yolks)
- 3 boiled yolks
- 65 grams of sugar (but can be reduced to 15 grams, which is equal to 1 tablespoon)
- 120 gr butter
- 60 gr sour cream
- 140 gr flour
- 40 gr corn starch (or nut flour)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- vanilla
For the Filling
- Prunes + dried apricots + favorite nuts + orange peel + 1 tbsp. honey
Instructions
- First, let’s talk about the delicious filling. As you can see, the choice is completely up to you! For my crescent cookies, I used a 1:1 weight ratio of prunes, dried apricots, nuts, orange peel, and honey. However, you can customize your filling with anything from chocolate pieces or a simple nut and honey mixture to just dried apricots, boiled condensed milk, or even stick toffee—truly whatever suits your taste.
A quick note on sugar in the dough: I personally found 1 tablespoon of sugar sufficient for a batch, but my family preferred the dough with 65 grams of sugar. Adjust according to your sweetness preference.
Dough Preparation To prepare the dough, begin by grinding the previously boiled egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. Next, incorporate the softened butter, mixing until thoroughly combined. Add the sour cream, a pinch of salt, and vanilla, then mix these ingredients well. Sift the flour, corn starch, and baking powder together, then add this mixture to the wet ingredients. Knead until smooth—but be careful not to overmix. Once kneaded, move the dough to the refrigerator for a minimum of half an hour. Ensure your chosen filling mass does not spread easily; for my version, I simply mixed dried fruits, ground nuts, zest, and honey.
- Now, it’s time to shape the cookies. Divide the chilled dough into pieces, each about the size of a walnut (approximately 24 grams). Roll each piece out on your countertop into an oval shape. Place your chosen filling, formed into a small log, along one edge of the oval dough. Carefully twist the dough around the filling, bend it to form a crescent, and then place it onto a baking sheet. Immediately transfer the shaped cookies to a cold place, like a plate in the refrigerator. This crucial step, though optional, helps prevent the butter in the dough from melting prematurely, ensuring your cookies remain wonderfully crumbly after baking.
- Arrange the crescents evenly on a baking sheet. Bake them in a preheated oven at 180C for approximately 20 minutes, or until lightly golden. Once baked, allow the cookies to cool completely. For an extra touch of sweetness and presentation, sprinkle generously with powdered sugar if desired.
