Rosettes – Savella’s Recipe
This recipe is from the Traditional Ukrainian Cookery cookbook by Savella Stechishin (pg.415) if you have her book. This book was extremely popular in the 1970s, and now you still can find it on Amazon.com.
I love making these Rosettes for special occasions because they look so dainty, but it is a time-consuming process like with most baking projects.
Today I am sharing the recipe with some minor changes I made to my version, as well as my pictures of some of the preparation steps for a better understanding of the process.
The dough is rested and ready to divide and roll out.
Three different sizes of circles are cut out, and slits are cut in each circle.
The circles are stacked up and gently pressed in the middle to join.
The cookies are fried with the largest circle at the bottom, then flipped over to complete the frying process.
Fried cookies are cooling off and ready for the finishing touches before serving. If you plan to store them for later, do not finish them with the jam and powdered sugar at this time.
This recipe yields 2+ doz. cookies.
Ingredients
- 3 egg yolks, room temperature
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 2 Tbs. powdered sugar
- 1 Tbs. butter, room temperature
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 Tbs. spirits of your choice (rum, brandy, cognac)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
- Powdered sugar and red jelly for decorating
Instructions
- Beat the egg yolks and the whole egg until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the butter, salt, sugar, and the spirits.
- Fold in the flour, until smooth batter forms.
- Place the batter on a lightly floured work area and knead it gently until smooth.
- Cover and let it rest for at least 10 minutes.
- Working with half of the dough at a time, roll it out on a floured work area to 1/8 or thinner.
- Using 3 different sizes round cookie cutters, cut out the same amount of circles in each size (I used 2 1/4, 1 3/4 and 1 1/4 .size cookie cutters. You can also use shot glasses as your cookie cutter)
- Using a sharp paring knife, cut five slits starting at the outside edge towards the center of each cookie circle, forming petals.
- Stack the 3 different size of cookies on top of each other starting with the largest to the smallest, making sure the slits are alternating in each layer.
- Use a blunt top of a knitting needle or whatever you have, to press all the cookies together starting in the very center of the top cookie pressing them down, so all of them gently stick together. If you wish you can moisten gently the center of each cookie before pressing it down, so it holds better and will not separate during frying, but each petal will curl up giving the appearance of an open rose flower.
- Place the cookie stacks on a kitchen towel, until ready to fry.
- Repeat the process until all the dough is used up.
- Place at least 2-3 cups of Crisco shortening into a deep frying pot (I used my 6Q dutch oven pot)
- Heat it until it turns to a liquid of 350 - 375 degrees F.
- Drop few cookies at a time (with the largest cookie at the bottom) into the hot oil and fry to a light golden color, then using a fork gently flip them over to the other side (with the smallest cookie at the bottom) and fry a minute longer to a light golden color.
- Using a large slotted spoon lift one cookie at a time from the hot oil and place them on a plate covered with a double layer of paper towel to absorb any extra oil. Remove cookies to a cooling rack, to make room for another batch.
- Repeat the process until all the cookies are fried.
- Cool completely on a cooling rack, and store them in an air tight container with a paper towel between each layer.
- Before serving, dab the center of each cookie with a red jam, and sprinkle with powder sugar.