/ Cookies/ Russian Monday
Christmas baking is a part of the holiday tradition in many countries. Cakes, muffins, rolls, cookies, marzipan and chocolate figurines appear in large numbers on bakery store shelves and in our kitchens and dining rooms. And every Christmas baking has its own story…
In the human diet, cookies appeared almost simultaneously with bread – about ten thousand years BC. We can say that the history of baking in general and baking cookies, in particular, is a culinary history of mankind. Of course, first cookies were very different from those to which we are accustomed, no doubt.
Cookies were prepared from different types of flour. People living in Europe were using wheat flour for their biscuits, while people of the Far East and South used rice flour. Only later people began to use oat, corn and other types of flour for their biscuit baking.Cookies are a dessert that has taken its place on our table long ago and since the inception variety of cookie types has been growing all the time. It is impossible to count all existing kinds of cookies, but surely everyone can easily find some kind to his liking.
As a Christmas gift, I like to give a jar of cookies to my friends and neighbors. This year I have decided to make a mélange of cookies from around the world. The first cookies on my list are Russian mushroom cookies “Gribochky”. After all, today is Russian Monday. It was a wonderful tradition to bake mushroom cookies back at home in St. Petersburg. This year I have baked them with my kids – it was fun! My children enjoyed playing with the dough and chocolate and they smiled all the way. If you like something unique for your holiday cookie jar – these “mushrooms” are for you!
For more Russian recipes, visit Russian Cuisine page.
For 30 more cookie recipes, visit Cookies page.
Print Recipe
Russian Mushroom Cookies - Gribochky
(240 votes, average: 3.68 out of 5)
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Makes about 24 mushrooms
Ingredients
- For the dough:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 stick (8 Tbsp.) butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- For the glaze:
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 1-2 Tbsp. orange/lemon juice or milk, (more if needed)
- red food coloring (optional)
- confectioners’ sugar for dust (optional)
- 4 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Instructions
1
Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2
To make the cookies, over a sheet of waxed paper, sift together the flour, baking powder, corn starch and salt, and set aside.
3
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the vanilla, egg and sour cream and continue beating until blended, 1 to 2 minutes more, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add flour mixture and mix until blended.
4
With floured hands, shape the 1/2 dough into 24 mushroom caps/balls (about 0.7oz each) and place them on the prepared sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Shape the rest of the dough into 24 mushroom stems, (about 0.5oz each). You can put the 'caps' on one sheet and 'stems' on another. I used 4 baking sheets.
5
Baketwo sheets at the time,until the cookies are just beginning to brown, about 10-12 minutes, switching the pans and rotating a half turn halfway through baking. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let the cookies cool on the sheets for 5 minutes. Repeat with two more baking sheets.
6
Place the chocolate in the top pan of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl. Place over but not touching simmering water in the bottom pan. Heat, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat.
7
While the cookies are warm, poke a small hole in the bottom of a mushroom cap. Spread chocolate over the bottom of the cap. Dip the tip of a stem in chocolate, and press lightly into the hole. When the chocolate sets, they will hold together. Repeat with remaining pieces.
8
To make the glaze, in a small bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar and orange/lemon juice until smooth. Stir in one drop of food coloring at a time until the desired shade is reached. Glaze the mushroom caps with sugar glaze and let it dry.
9
Dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar shaken through a sieve.
December 2, 2013 By Yelena Strokin
34
Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving!Christmas Cookies #2: Lebkuchen - German Spice Cookies with Almonds
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34 Comments
Reply
Rosa's Yummy Yums
December 2, 2013 at 8:03 am
What cute cookies!
Cheers,
Rosa
Reply
La Table De Nana
December 3, 2013 at 1:02 am
What darling cookies..I just love them..
Reply
Te de Ternura
December 3, 2013 at 3:45 am
Que ricos son los DULCES NAVIDEÑOS; y estas galletas RUSAS además de originales deben tener un estupendo sabor.
MIL GRACIAS YELENA por el inicio de tu temporada Navideña!!!
Conxita
Reply
Marsha Splenderosa
December 3, 2013 at 4:02 am
Yelena, these are lovely. Come see us tomorrow when we post our Christmas Party for "By Invitation Only." Happy Holidays, Marsha
Reply
Shibi Thomas
December 3, 2013 at 5:38 pm
They look cute!!! Cookie jar with cookies around the world is a wonderful gift idea. I bet your neighbors will love it 🙂
Reply
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious
December 4, 2013 at 5:58 pm
These are so stinking cute!
Reply
Brenda Grinapol
December 4, 2013 at 9:33 pm
These are the most beautiful cookies I have ever seen, and I bet they are as delicious as they are gorgeous.
Love,
Brenda
Reply
La Table De Nana
December 21, 2013 at 6:12 pm
Thank you so much ..Yelena..I made them today..They were so nice to play with..I have not tasted them..and as I was going along I thought oops.. and kept comparing them to yours..feeling like they will never be cute like hers..but once finished..I must say.. they are cute:)NOT as cute as yours but the second time will be easier:)
What a pretty addition to the cookie tray and gift boxes:)
Thank you..keeper little recipe.
Reply
melangery
December 22, 2013 at 10:15 pm
Dear Monique! How wonderful, I am so glad you spend some time to make these cookies, they are unique and delicious. I can not wait to see you photos!
Reply
Kathleen
December 29, 2013 at 2:23 pm
They are darling and would look so cute scattered throughout the cookie tray!
I read about you on Monique's blog. 🙂
Reply
melangery
December 29, 2013 at 6:58 pm
Dear Kathleen, thank you for visiting my blog. Very nice to meet you! I know Monique for some time now, she is an amazing person.
I hope you will try this recipe!
Reply
C.
December 10, 2016 at 5:48 pm
Hello!
I was wondering if you have any tips for shaping the stems of the mushrooms? Mine are not turning out nearly as adorable! 🙂
Reply
melangery
December 10, 2016 at 5:58 pm
I used my hands and fingers to shape the stems, just make it like a small pyramids. Not all of them were perfect for me also, so don't worry, they are delicious and it is important! Nave a nice holidays!!
Reply
vanessa
September 10, 2020 at 7:24 am
how many minutes total to bake?
Reply
Yelena Strokin
September 10, 2020 at 9:12 pm
Hello Vanessa, bake the cookies for about 10-15 minutes, depends on your oven.
Reply
Russian Mushroom Cookies – Gribochky – tiny dreams
January 22, 2019 at 2:34 am
[…] The full recipe is available from melangery.com. […]
Reply
Samantha Dorko
July 25, 2019 at 6:58 am
I am currently working on cookies for a party I’m throwing for my son’s new baby girl. The theme is woodland baby animals. Your mushrooms are darling and will add as a great accent to the log cookie trays I made. I had to tweak the recipe a tad, as I have been baking so much and ran out of vanilla. I replaced with some pure anise and they taste great. Such a nice dough to work with. Mine are not as fine polished looking as yours, but will add the perfect touch. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Reply
Yelena Strokin
August 11, 2019 at 10:39 pm
That’s wonderful!!! I am so happy to hear that. Enjoy them-)
Reply
Teresa Jennings
February 21, 2020 at 10:58 pm
Help! My stems flattened out. I even chilled my second batch. It did not help. The caps are perfect! What did I do wrong with stems?
Reply
Yelena Strokin
February 21, 2020 at 11:43 pm
Make sure your oven is preheated. And don’t work too much on the dough. Can you send me a picture of what you have?
Reply
Jenna
May 4, 2020 at 5:27 am
The stems of my mushrooms didn’t work out either despite preheating the oven. But overall 5 stars!
Reply
Yelena Strokin
May 4, 2020 at 5:33 am
Interesting, hmm. I will try again to make them and let you know the details.
Reply
Lisa
December 14, 2022 at 12:39 am
I just finished baking these wonderful cookies.
Plan on giving all away as forest themed Christmas cookies. So, I tried the crumbs that I scraped out of the caps. Delicious. And they’re gorgeous. Thanks for this recipe.
Reply
Olivia Dyer
December 23, 2022 at 1:23 am
I made these today and they turned out SO CUTE! I’m so obsessed with them. I want to make them again and make them a bit smaller, as I had about 28 successful mushrooms from the batch. I used a metal drinking straw to poke the holes in the tops and it was perfect. I will be making these again!
Reply
Lisa Garcia
November 16, 2023 at 7:29 pm
Can these be made ahead and frozen?
Reply
Yelena Strokin
November 28, 2023 at 4:28 am
I never done that before, you can try and let me know how it goes.Happy winter holidays!
Reply
Hallie Sharpless
November 26, 2023 at 10:11 pm
Hi Yelena!
These are so cute, and I’d love to maybe send them in a cookie exchange via mail.
Do you think these cookies last long enough or aren’t too fragile to send in the postal?
I know biscotti are a classic as they hold up for weeks but I’d love to try something more unique like these!
Thanks for your advice, just found your blog and I’m beyond inspired by your beautiful work!
Best,
Hallie
Reply
Yelena Strokin
November 28, 2023 at 4:24 am
Absolutely, you can send them in the postal, no problem. They will hold up. I hope you love them and your friends too. Happy holidays to you and your family!
Reply
Zuzana
December 14, 2023 at 2:48 pm
Hello Yelena, I tried to make these lovely mushroom cookies today and sadly, it didn’t work out tome. My cookies ended up being flat. I tried bigger and smaller pyramids and once I put them into the pre-heated owen, they just deflated 😀 They are still delicious and very cute so I am not worried about their shape that much, great thingy to go with coffee or tea…I am just a little sad it didn’t quite worked out. Any tips? I will definitely try this again, maybe I will need to freeze the dough…
Reply
Yelena Strokin
December 14, 2023 at 8:29 pm
Thank you Zuzana for your input. To tell you the truth I baked them a long time ago, I have to re-bake to see what is going on. I have a feeling that quality of butter, flour and such ingredients changed in the past couple of years. I would put a little more flour and try to freeze the dough. But again, I have to come back to you on that. Happy holidays.
Reply
Hannah Garnier
December 18, 2023 at 3:45 am
Can you replace the sour cream with greek yogurt?
Reply
Yelena Strokin
December 18, 2023 at 8:51 pm
Hello Hannah, you may try it, just remember you will need to adjust the flour, the sour cream usually thicker than yogurt. Happy holidays!
Reply
8Bit Baker
December 21, 2023 at 6:55 am
Based on some of the comments and my own experience, I’m not sure this recipe works. I suspect it may be due to a lack of weights for each ingredient – given that it’s an older recipe the original amounts may not have been measured correctly, leading to inconsistent results. I weighed out all of my ingredients (converting cups to grams) and still got poor results. I then shaped and froze my dough for about an hour and a half and still my stems sank as much as they did without freezing. Additionally, the advice of cooking more than one tray at a time and letting the heat out of the oven to rotate the trays is not great advice… I actually found my cookies were still quite soft after 20 minutes when I tried to do two trays at once. I also haven’t been fortunate enough to have an oven in my adult life that could fit two half-sheets side-by-side, let alone rotate them together!
The second batch I baked was frozen, placed in a preheated oven, and also baked just a single sheet but it didn’t make a difference. At 12 minutes the cookies were not only underdone (stems and caps) but they had lost their shapes completely (stems). Admittedly I wonder if the reviewers who said the recipe worked simply didn’t have high hopes for the stems or assumed they shaped them incorrectly and so they didn’t mind the final look…
I’m thankful this recipe doesn’t take many ingredients but disappointed as I was really looking forward to these. I found a similar recipe elsewhere that calls for a lot more flour that I am going to try.
Reply
Yelena Strokin
December 22, 2023 at 1:54 am
I think you are right, Something wrong with the measurements. I have to rebake them and see what is going on with this recipe. I will make a new post and link it, so people will go to the new place. Now I am curious myself. Thank you for a such detailed message. You have a wonderful holidays!
