Czechoslovakian Cookies
These Czechoslovakian cookies are a crumbly, sweet cookie bar that we make every Christmas. It’s an easy crowd pleaser and perfect for a cookie swap.
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hr 15 min
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: dessert
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/2 lb. softened butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 to 1 cup strawberry jam
Instructions
- You have two options for mixing: as some commenters have noted, you CAN cream the butter and sugar together first, then add the eggs, and then slowly add in the flour. Note that the dough will get thicker as you add each, so a stand mixer on low speed might be the most helpful to use for this. Traditionally, we’ve often just mixed the whole thing as a single mixture in a large bowl without creaming the butter and sugar separately first. This is entirely up to you; we have gotten an enjoyable cookie both ways.
- Take half of the dough mixture and layer in a greased 8×8 pan.
- Spread a little more than half of the jam on top, over the dough layer (eyeballing half-to-two-thirds is fine; this is a crumbly cookie where the layers merge as they bake, so imperfect is ok).
- Spread the remaining dough on top of the jam layer.
- Add remaining jam, spreading thinly (it thickens in the heat of the oven and helps the top layer of nuts to stick as the dough puffs up).
- Top lightly with more chopped nuts.
- Bake at 350 º for 1 hour.
- Place on a wire rack to fully cool, then cut into squares.
Notes
Chopped pecans are an excellent substitute for walnuts if you have a preference.
Alternatives for strawberry jam: strawberry preserves, raspberry jam, etc. (if you have a flavor preference or allergy).
Correction added 12/30 to change the pan size; the (handwritten) original recipe implied a double batch for a 9×11 pan.