Popoques

12 years ago

Raise your hand if you know what Popoques are…
Just as I thought. I’m not the only one unfamiliar with this.

Popoques are walnut-shaped cookies with a creamy filling. They take their shape from the walnut design from a special press; there are no walnuts in the recipe.

Now that you have an idea of what popoques are, here is a request I received from reader, Lisa Lewis:

“My cooking club recently held a cookie swap, and one of
our attendees (who is Armenian) brought Popoques.

She bought
her walnut shaped maker/press on her last visit home to Armenia. I’ve looked online and cannot seem to find a
website that sells them (and you think you can find everything on the
Internet!). Do you happen to know of a place to buy this online?”

Photo from osharak.wordpress.com

Lisa’s description of popoque:
“The walnut-shaped “shell” is sort of like a tender waffle cone and is not overly sweet. Then you have the wonderful, soft filling. Mmmmm. My friend used a filling for hers that had dulce de leche (1 cup), cream cheese (4 oz.), and butter (2 oz.) – and they were heavenly!”

FYI: Dulce de leche is a confection prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a product that derives its taste from caramelized sugar. This is available in canned form in grocery stores which carry Latin American products.

Oreshki (Popoque) Press

My reply to Lisa went like this: “The name popoque is new
to me, so I ‘googled’ it and found a website with the recipe and photo of the press. It seems as though the author of the post also brought the press from Armenia!”

I was intrigued, yet not optimistic about finding the
press. Being unwilling to accept defeat, I immediately contacted the blogger who had
written about Popoques. She suggested I try looking for this press
under either of its Russian names ‘Oreshki’ or ‘Oreshnica’. Her suggestion paid
off because, naturally, the Popoque (Oreshki) press is available through
Amazon.com!

To make things really convenient, you can order the
oreshki press through The Armenian Kitchen Amazon Affiliate link here.

Interesting aside: The Armenian guest at Lisa’s cookie
club who brought the Popoques, was none-other than the author of the website I found while searching for the press – and – the same person I’d been emailing; what were the odds?!?