How to make cookie sticks with dried fruits

The only thing that takes time in these cookies is shaping and forming them. Of course, you can involve children, your husband, and time will pass more cheerfully... but even longer :) The dough is very simple, shortcrust, and it seems like there is nothing special about it - mix it and that's it, but in order for it to be truly tender, you need to know a few rules and strictly follow them. Get all the ingredients out of the refrigerator in advance, they should be at room temperature. The main ingredient is, of course, butter. If you're in a hurry and try to warm it up in the microwave, be careful not to melt it, we need softened butter, not melted. In general, I used to knead the dough by hand, but with the recent addition of a stand mixer in the house, everything has changed, but you still need your hands. Sift flour into a bowl, add powdered sugar and butter. Definitely use powdered sugar, as regular sugar simply won't dissolve in the fairly dry, sandy dough and may not be very pleasant to bite into. Mix with the mixer until crumbly. If using your hands, just take and rub it, achieving the same crumbly texture.

In a cup or bowl, beat and mix the egg with milk and salt until homogeneous. The egg should weigh about 65 grams. Pour into the bowl with the crumbs and continue stirring, then gather the dough into a lump with your hands. If you're not using a mixer but rather your hands, quickly and thoroughly mix and gather the dough into a lump. Place in the refrigerator while we make the filling.

For the filling, I used the following dried fruits: dried apricots, prunes, dried cranberries, and raisins. It's not crucial, you can use any dried fruits you like. I always pour them into a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Let it sit for about 30 seconds, then drain in a colander. Put them in a blender along with the nuts, rum, and lemon juice, and blend until smooth. I don't see any problem with adding a spoonful of rum, and my kids eat these cookies without any issues. But if you're adamant, omit it. You can use orange juice, tangerine juice, or something else instead. The rum just gives the filling a distinctive flavor that I like. It would be very nice to add spices here that are associated with Christmas - such as cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. If you want, just a pinch of each.

Sprinkle the table with flour. Take out the dough from the refrigerator and roll it out to a thickness of about three millimeters. If you don't have any helpers, it would be more convenient to divide it into two parts, as you won't be able to prepare everything in one go, and while the first half bakes, you can make the remaining dough. Cut out any shapes you like, as you can see, I have stars, hearts, and Christmas trees.

I took wooden skewers for kebabs. Toothpicks here are too small. It's better to use flatter sticks - they hold better. On one cookie, put a little filling, place a stick in the middle, and place another cookie on top. Press firmly so that the cookies fit tightly together and the edges meet. It is not necessary to make all the cookies on sticks. The main thing here is what? To pleasantly surprise, and the sticks play the role of a pleasant surprise, as it's not always like that!

Be sure to preheat the oven to 180-200 degrees. It is highly undesirable to put shortbread products in an unheated oven because the butter will simply melt out of the dough at low heat. It is also unnecessary to overbake them because if we are talking about shortbread dough, a very browned taste is significantly worse than a pale one. The optimal baking time is 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the dough. I baked these cookies for 10 minutes at 180 degrees. Then I turned off the oven and let them sit for another 5 minutes to dry. Keep in mind that an electric oven remains quite hot for a long time, and if you leave the cookies there until they cool completely, there is a high probability that they will burn even after turning off. Therefore, after 15 minutes, either open the oven completely or simply take out the baking sheet with the cookies.