Cooking with Svetlana

I remember when I was little, my grandma was always making those cookies for holidays and birthdays. Those cookies are crunch outside and soft inside. Raisins and walnuts adds to the overall taste of the cookies.

Ingredients (for the pan with dimensions: 11.5” x 16.5”):
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups raisins
2 cups chopped walnuts
2 cups unbleached flour
½ teaspoon baking soda

Steps:
Beat eggs and sugar together using the stand mixer. Add baking soda to the flour and mix together in the separate bowl. With the mixer still beating the eggs and sugar mix, slowly add flour/soda mix to allow them blend together smoothly. Final consistence of dough should look like a sour cream. Turn off the mixer. Stir raisins and walnuts into the dough with spoon.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Butter the pan using unsalted butter. Place the dough into the middle of the pan and spread it on the surface. Pan should be evenly filled with dough which should be about 0.4-0.5 inches thick.
Bake it for 17-20 minutes or until golden brown. If you like crispier tasting cookies, you should use bigger pan and spread dough thinner. Also, it’s a matter of preference, but you might bake them a little longer to achieve more dry/crispier taste. Some time ago, we preferred to bake them to be a bit on crunchy side, but now we prefer softer cookies, so we are trying to avoid overbaking them.
Pull the pan with baked cookie from the oven and put it on countertop or any hot resistance surface. While the pastry is still hot – chop it to the form the diamonds. Once cut, put the cookies on the cooling rack until they completely cool (placing them on the plate immediately will make them mushy). Once cooled, keep cookies in some airtight plastic container. No need to keep them in the refrigerator.