PHOTOS: Ukrainian refugees feel surprisingly at home in Brazil's 'Little Ukraine'
Laryssa Moskvichova just filled her biggest order yet. It took four days to make around 360 oreshki, a walnut-shaped cookie filled with doce de leite, a caramelized condensed milk associated with Latin America but also used in Ukraine.
The recipe she brought with her from Ukraine is a favorite of customers in her new home of Prudentópolis, a small town in southern Brazil where she fled with her three daughters — Anastasiia Ivanova, 22, Sofiia Moskvichova, 14, and Ruslana Moskvichova, 6 — when the war at home became too much. ( Like other Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60, Laryssa's husband — the father of her two youngest daughters — had to stay behind when his family fled.)
Orders have been rolling in at a pace Laryssa never expected. Today she's working on buckwheat bread and prepping for another round of oreshki tomorrow. In the days to come, there will be apple pies, honey cakes, vareniki dumplings and more oreshki.
As she kneads the dough
