Khrustyky or “little birds” are my favourite part of holidays or special occasions – that’s when my Baba always made them, but I feel like they should be in standard kitchen rotation because they’re so.damn.good. Light and crispy, these fried cookies are easy to make, but do require some care because of the frying. For a richer tasting cookie – and for those who want to keep it more traditional, replace some or all of the vegetable oil with refined pork lard. Truthfully, it doesn’t hurt to scale up and make a double batch – these are addictive. Before you know it, you’ll have blacked out in a haze of shattered, sugary crisps and eaten the whole lot.
You’ll notice that I didn’t use an exact measurement for the flour – you just gotta trust the process. Have at least two to three cups of flour on hand – you’ll need some for dusting when you roll out the cookies. Add a quarter cup of flour at a time until the dough is soft and pliant, but not sticky – somewhat like the consistency of Play-Doh. Too much flour and they’ll become tough. If your dough is too tough, add a couple of tablespoons of milk or cold water and fold in to loosen it up.

You will need:

2 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
1 tbsp heavy cream
1 tbsp liquid honey
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
generous pinch of salt
all-purpose flour (around 1 – 1.5 cups)
1L sunflower or vegetable oil for frying
icing/confectioners sugar for dusting

You’ll also need:
a dutch oven or deep pot
metal whisk
metal tongs
paper towel on a plate for draining
rolling pin and floured surface for rolling out the dough
a sharp knife

Method:
Beat the eggs and egg yolks together until light and foamy. Add the honey, salt, cream and vanilla to the eggs, and whisk again – ensure that there are no globs of honey remaining and everything is well incorporated.
Add the flour one quarter-cup at a time. Whisk in the first quarter cup, and then with clean hands, mix in the next quarter cup and the next. Exactly how much you use depends on the freshness of your flour, the type, how big your eggs are, and the humidity in your kitchen – which is why it’s a good idea to go slowly and only add a quarter cup at a time. Aim for a soft, easy-to-roll consistency that won’t pull back when you roll it out.
On a floured surface, knead your dough a few times to ensure everything is mixed together – but don’t knead for two long, as you don’t want the dough to toughen. Section your dough into two and take your rolling pin, rolling the dough out to a rectangle with a thickness of about 3mm and a width of about four inches. With your sharp knife, cut this into triangles – long sides and a short base (isosceles), about 1.5 inches across and four inches in length. Once you have your triangles, use the knife again to cut a small slit in the middle of each triangle, a few centimeters up from the base. Thread the tip of the triangle through the slit, and pull through – this will create a little tie out of the dough. Repeat for all of the remaining dough.
Heat your oil on medium-high heat in a dutch oven or deep pot on the stove until oil is shimmering. With a fingertip-sized piece of leftover dough, test the oil by dropping it in. If it starts sizzling right away, it’s ready. Keep an eye on the heat – you don’t want it to get too hot or else the cookies will brown too quickly. Line a plate or pan with paper towel and have your tongs ready. Working in batches of 4-5 cookies, place them in the hot oil (don’t drop from a height, or else you’ll splash hot oil everywhere and that’s not fun) and let them cook for about a minute on each side, watching them carefully to ensure they don’t burn. Once they’re floating at the top and are a rich golden colour, remove with your tongs and drain on the paper towel. Once all the cookies are fried and you’ve turned off the heat on your stovetop, dust the khrustyky liberally with icing sugar.
These will keep in an airtight container for up to a week – but truthfully? They’re not going to last that long before getting eaten.