"Brushwood" - cookies surprisingly tasty, delicate, crunchy, literally melting in your mouth. It is perfect for both a festive and everyday table, goes well with tea, coffee and other drinks. And to cook it, there are several varieties of original recipes. Perhaps the only minus of the dessert is that too much fat absorbs the dough while it is fried. Use a deep fat fryer to avoid this.
"Brushwood" ordinary: preparation of the test
First, as usual, let's start with the classics. Cooking the dough to make a traditional brushwood cookie. The recipe includes the following ingredients: flour - 3 glasses (without a slide), eggs - also 3 pieces, sugar - half a glass or a glass (optional), alcohol (vodka, cognac, brandy) - 30-40 g, water - 1 glass, salt - half a spoon (tea), powdered sugar for sprinkling and fat for frying. How to knead the dough to get a classic brushwood cookie? The recipe is as follows: sift flour, beat in eggs, add salt and sugar, pour in alcohol and water. The dough should turn out cool, so if necessary, add more flour. Cut small pieces from the resulting workpiece and roll into thin layers. Of these, cut strips 5-7 cm wide, which weave into a pigtail, "eight" or give them another desired shape.
"Brushwood" ordinary: subtleties of preparation
The brushwood cookies are almost ready! The recipe further draws your attention to the fact that this delicacy is not baked, but fried. To do this, pour vegetable oil in a cast iron with thick walls or put lard to melt. When the fat warms up very well, send small pieces of dough into it and wait for them to brown. The finished brushwood recipe recommends getting out with a slotted spoon or a fork, spreading it on a sieve or wire rack covered with paper towels or a towel to absorb excess oil. Then, when the figures have cooled, roll them in icing sugar and serve with tea on a flat dish.
Recipe with sour cream 1
It’s possible to cook fagots in a slightly different way . The recipe is also not too complicated. Number and composition of components: 2 and a half cups of flour requires 3 egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of sugar and sour cream, 2 tablespoons of brandy or another alcoholic beverage, half a spoon of a little salt (or to taste), half a glass of milk (fresh). Plus fat or oil for frying. How to knead the dough to make brushwood cookies? The recipe (photos are attached) requires first to combine all the components except the flour, and then pour it in small portions, thoroughly kneading. The dough should turn out steep, elastic, smooth. Further, as in the previous recipe, it should be rolled out into thin layers, cut into strips 12 cm long, twisted them and fry the resulting “twigs” in hot fat. Put the finished cookies on paper or wire rack and, when the excess oil drains, roll in powder.
Recipe with sour cream 2
As already mentioned, usually "brushwood" is not baked, but fried, such a tradition. However, there is a very interesting recipe that violates it. It also includes sour cream. Sift 400 gr. flour, add a little soda or baking powder, 200 g of sugar, 150-160 gr. butter or margarine (melted), 1 whole egg and 2 more yolks, 3 tablespoons of sour cream and make a smooth dough. Then roll it into seams half a centimeter thick and, as usual, cut the strips, make braids. Lubricate them with whipped protein, put on an oiled baking sheet and bake until cooked in a pre-heated oven. Sprinkle with powder or sugar.
Helpful advice
Along the way, it should be noted that brushwood can be sprinkled with more than just powdered sugar. Do this: mix it with vanilla powder and cinnamon. The resulting mixture will be very fragrant, and your cookies will get a stunning mouth-watering smell. Instead of powder, you can take ordinary sugar, slightly crush it and mix with the indicated components, adding cardamom and grated nutmeg. It will also be great, you can be sure!
Cookie cutters
It’s far from always that “brushwood” cookies are with alcohol. The recipe without vodka, offered to you, will not yield to the taste of previous delicacies, and for its preparation does not require a drop of alcohol. Take the premium flour (required) - 2 cups, 5 tablespoons of sugar (tablespoons), a little salt and 5-6 eggs. Knead the batter, carefully rubbing all the lumps. Naturally, it cannot be rolled out and cut into strips, so you will need a special form for brushwood cookies . In the beginning, some dexterity is required to deal with it. Then things will go briskly. Only all manipulations should be performed, albeit carefully, but at a pace. So, in a cast iron, heat fat. Dip the mold into it so that it warms up, then lower it into the dough and then again into the cast iron. Brushwood quickly fries and lags behind the form. Put the finished cookies on paper and continue to fry further. Then roll the “brushwood” in powder (sugar) and you can enjoy the dessert!
And more recommendations
Firstly, who liked the recipe, but with the presence of problem forms, we can advise you to do so. Pour the dough, for example, into a teapot with a narrow neck. And from it, pour a thin stream of the workpiece directly into the hot fat, directing the stream in zigzags. Cookies are fried - take out and continue the process. Secondly, what to fry brushwood on. Traditionally, sunflower oil, necessarily refined, is taken. Or such combinations are used: in equal proportions animal lard and vegetable oil, baking margarine. It should be heated very well, not lower than 180 degrees. Of course, you will not measure the temperature, but you can navigate. The surface of the fat will begin to smoke, as it were, and it will evaporate. It is at this temperature that the dough pieces do not drown in oil, but remain on the surface and quickly brown. Then you need to send them semi-finished products and take out the finished treat! Just be careful: red-hot fat is very sprayed.
Good luck to you, crispy and rosy, and bon appetit!