OLD TRADITIONAL COOKIES WITH WINE, WALNUTS AND SYRUP (VINARKI)

Traditional Macedonian recipe of cookies that's been written in our grandmothers recipe books, often made with beer, but I think they're better with white wine. This recipe is from my aunt, though I remember my grandma used to make similar with beer. The name of the cookies is "vinarki or vinarici", derived from the word "vino" meaning "wine". If you heard about "pivarki", those are the cookies I've mentioned before, basically the same, just made with beer (pivo).

Cookies melt in your  mouth, I bet you can't stop at one.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of white wine
• 1 cup oil
• 1 packet of baking powder
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• about 800 g of sharp  flour (ap. 28 oz)
• walnuts as needed
• coconut flakes for dipping (used in the end after cookies are ready)

Syrup:

• 300 ml of water (1 and 1/5 cup)
• 400 g sugar (14 oz)
• a few lemon slices

Preparation:

1. Knead a soft non-stick dough from the dough ingredients. If the dough is too soft, add a little flour, and if it is too hard, add a little wine. If you do not have sharp flour, use soft or half soft, half sharp flour.
2. Then you take a walnut-sized dough from the dough, form a ball and spread it in a small disk. Put half a walnut or crushed walnuts in the middle, maybe jam as desired and wrap it in a roll, and close the ends with a gentle press.
3. Arrange the prepared cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
4. Bake at 170 C (350 F) degrees for about 15-20 minutes until they start to get a beautiful golden colour.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the syrup, bring the water to a boil with the sugar, let it boil for 15 minutes. Finally add a few lemon slices.
6. Pour the lukewarm cookies with the lukewarm syrup, and then roll them in coconut flakes. They are left in the fridge for a few hours and are ready to eat.