Kifli (Hungarian Walnut Cookies)
These cookies are buttery and flakey, love the walnut filling that gives the cookies just enough nuttiness and sweetness. Well balanced flavor, and cute little pockets, just can not have enough of them.
YIELD
60 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
10 minREADY
60 minThe origins of Kifli date back to the early 20th century when they were first mentioned in a Hungarian cookbook.
The cookies are made from a delicate, flaky dough typically filled with a sweet, nutty mixture, most commonly ground walnuts.
The use of walnuts in Hungarian baking can be traced back to the country’s abundant walnut production, making it a natural choice for traditional recipes.
Over time, Kifli has become a beloved part of the Hungarian culinary tradition, and the recipe has been passed down through generations.
The cookies are often enjoyed as part of a holiday spread.
Ingredients
Directions
Make dough:
In a large bowl, place the flour and the butter.
Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add the egg yolks and sour cream; stir with a fork until combined.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board or pastry cloth. Knead the dough with your hands until it is smooth and can be shaped into a ball. If dough is too sticky, knead in more flour.
If desired, wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Make filling: In a medium-sized bowl, place the ground walnuts, granulated sugar, milk and almond extract.
Using a wooden spoon, stir in walnut mixture until ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Prehead oven to 400℉ (200℃).
Grease baking sheets with solid vegetable shortening.
To shape Kifli:
Divide the dough into quarters; wrap three of the quarters separately in plastic wrap and set aside.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the remaining quarter of the dough to a 15 x 12 inch rectangle that is ⅛ inch thick.
Using a pastry wheel, cut the rectangle of dough into 3-inch squares.
Place a heaping teaspoon of the walnut filling in the center of each square; bring one corner of the dough over the filling to the opposite corner; pinch edges together.
Place Kifli on baking sheets; brush with the beaten egg.
Bake for 10 minutes or until cookies are golden brown. Remove from the baking sheet.
Fill the bottom of a pie plata with confectioners’ sugar. Roll Kifli in the sugar.
Let cool on wire racks. Repeat steps with the remaining three quarters of dough.
Comments
These look absolutely delicious and must be great at tea time. Will have to try once the weather here cools down a bit and I can turn my oven on without sweltering (A/C off). Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, lynn. They are very very good, buttery, fruity, flakey... you can find all these yumminess in these small treats. We took them to a party, they didn't last long. But baking on a hot day does generate lots of sweat, hehe!
Hungarians had a best recepie, i used different fillings
Why do the kifli open up while baking?
It happens especially if the dough is rolled too thick, or you use too much filling. After pinching the two corners closed, I fold the dough over one more time and pinch it together again. It also helps if, when you're brushing them with the egg before baking, you make sure to put a bit extra on the part you just folded over.
These are not kiflis. The are more like polish Kolacis. Kiflis are crescent shaped . V they use sour cream in the dough and no extracts. U75
Depends on what part of the country you are from. These are kifli the way my grand mother always made them. I never had a Crescent kifli until recently. I am 70 years old.
Looks so good. I want this recipe
These are definitely kiflis. The crescent shaped are also considered kiflis, depending where you are from.
The dough turns out extra flaky if you use cold butter rather than room temperature or softened butter. I used half frozen and half refrigerated, and they turned out great. You can also use fruit pastry filling for these! (You need to use less of it than you would the but filling though, or it will run all over your pan while baking!)
I make a variation of these. I also use Solo fruit filling. I add 2 heaping teaspoons of very fine plain breadcrumbs to the apricot, 3 tablespoons to the raspberry , strawberry and cherry fillings. The breadcrumbs seem to keep the filling in the dough.
When my mother made these, she would dip the tops of the prepared cookie in frothy egg whites and then coat them with a mixture of ground walnuts and granulated sugar. Made a crunchy topping when baked. Was always the favorite cooked of everyone.
Correction on walnut/sugar coating. This coating was used when my mother filled the Kifli's with apricot or plum fillings.
My creation mother in law made Kifli w a yeast dough tried your recipe w peach preserves these are Kifli
Correction my croation
mother in law
Can I freeze the dough to make them st a later tome?
So I have made these before and the problem I have is when they bake they puff up like puff pastry. I even had someone who makes these make the dough for me and I had the same problem. My friends does not puff up
It should puff up and form layers.
How may kifli dose thi make.
My family recipe calls for preparing the ground walnuts in a double boiler with ground white raisins, sugar and milk - bringing them to a boil before preparing the cookie. Anyone?
That is how my Mother made it as well
What is the serving size.
Delicous! Learned to make from my Great Grandma's recipe from the 1900's!! Your recipe is almost like same as hers and just as delicious.
My family begs me to make these every Christmas. This year they asked me to double the recipe.
Mother also folded the stiffly beaten egg whites into the nut filling
i used to have a box of betty crocker recipe cards when i was a little kid that my granny gave me and one of them was for kifli. i was about six years old when my granny took a nap and i decided i wanted to try making something and settled on the kifli recipe, probably cuz the picture looked pretty or something. now, i wasnt allowed to use the oven or knives or the food processor without my granny there, so i had to use this tiny little hand-cranked nut grinder to chop up all of those walnuts 1/4 cup at a time, and the little toaster oven to bake the cookies one by one. it took forever and i remember how tired my arms got turning the crank on the grinder. but i successfully made that batch of kifli and they were delicious. when my granny woke up, she was absolutely floored by the fact that not only did six-year-old me pull off such a difficult recipe with zero adult help, i did it with extremely limited equipment. she was also a little miffed that i used up all of her walnuts cuz theyre expensive and we were poor, but she was too proud of me to do more than tell me to ask first before doing that again haha
What a WONDERFUL memory!!!
Love this story, that's wonderful.
i am on a search for a similar recipe my grandma and aunt use to make all the time . it was like these only square and all four corners were brought in and they were made with a vinegar dough. if any one knows the recipe for this i would love it. they always made these for holidays , Weddings . i have pictures of many trays of this and nutrolls at my wedding
Anonymous
To my nut mixture I also add some
honey, it makes it so much tastier