CREATIVE COOKING IN THE TIME OF CORONA
a blog about food
MY AUNTY'S ROLLY POLLY COOKIES
When I was a little girl in Montreal, I used to spend weekends with my Aunty Anna, my late father’s sister. I loved going to her cosy apartment on a Friday night because I knew she would spoil me with her beautiful cooking and baking. I can still taste her Russian borscht (beetroot soup), her sweet and sour meatballs and her yummy rolly polly cookies. Pure comfort zone! Of course, the recipes were never written down. So, over the years, I’ve tried to recreate those delicious dishes by experimenting over and over again. I think I’ve nailed those rolly pollies! A word of warning: they are a bit fiddly so I’ll do my best to make the instructions as clear as I can. But, trust me, they are so worth the fiddling!
DOUGH
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light oil (eg. grapeseed or rice flour oil)
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tsp baking powder
3 1/2 cups plain flour
FILLING
jam of your choice
raisins
currants
walnuts, chopped
dried apricots, finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180C.
Combine all dough ingredients to make a soft, pliable dough. (I use a food processor with a dough hook but you can do this by hand too.) Divide dough into four equal parts. Roll out each part one at a time on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness, or 3/4 cm approximately. Sprinkle with a little oil.
Gently spread jam of your choice onto the surface. Combine remaining ingredients (you can experiment here with dried fruit and nuts, the ones above are just how I love them) and spread over dough. Tuck either end of dough in and then gently roll until you have a sausage shape. Lay carefully into an oiled pan. Repeat with the other three until, you have four "sausages" side by side. It doesn't matter if they touch each other.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until the dough is lovely and golden.
Cool in pan. Cut into slices.
These keep really well (see my cookie jar in pic) if they last! You should end up with about 3 - 5 dozen slices depending on how chunky you want them. I like mine really chunky. ❤️