I am excited to introduce Carina who is going to share with us her very favorite holiday cookie recipe!
Take it away Carina!
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Don’t you love how certain smells bring memories alive? The smell that drifts from the oven while these yummy treats bake bring back my childhood memories. My Grandma and Mom always baked them at Christmas time, but I thought their nut filling would lend nicely to Thanksgiving flavors.
They have the smoothest walnut filling that you won’t understand how delicious it is until you bite into one. Your first bite will be just the flaky, crispy pastry with just enough sugar sprinkled on top. The next bite will be a combination of the flaky pastry and then a smooth, sweet, nutty filling. Yum. These Hungarian cookies are called Kiffles and they are one of my favorite holiday cookies!
Are you ready to make some?
First you will need to gather all of your ingredients. You will probably have these very simple ingredients already, but the end result will make your family think otherwise!
Start with the dough:
-4 cups of flour
-½ tsp salt
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 lb butter
Before you turn your mixer on, dissolve 1 cake yeast (2 ¼ tsp) in 2 TBSP warm milk (I spared you by not posting this picture, it was not appetizing). While the yeast is dissolving combine the first four ingredients. Then, once the yeast is ready, you can add it to the mixer with 3 egg yolks and ½ pint (1 cup) of sour cream.
Your dough should look like this.
Now comes the filling!
It takes 8 cups of walnuts. This might be the only ingredient you’ll have to get at the store. Kiffles are budget friendly and delicious!
In order to get a smooth consistency for the filling, a meat grinder works best. You can use a food processor or blender that grinds stuff really well but if possible, use the meat grinder, it really does make a difference in texture (even my 5 year old who HATES the crunchy consistency of nuts will eat these cookies).
Once all the nuts have been ground, add 1 ½ cups of sugar and 1 ¼ cups of warm milk. If you have leftover filling, it will last 2 weeks in the refrigerator.
Now that you have your dough and filling done, you are ready for assembly!
Flour your counter and rolling pin, then roll the dough into 1 ½ inch balls. Be careful not to over flour the dough, it will prevent the sugar from sticking to them.
Roll the dough out into a circular shape (this might take a couple of tries). My dough rolling skills have come a long way, but I still can not match my Mom’s perfect circles. She is amazing!
You might even have some helpers wander into the kitchen. Having them help might get a little messy, but that’s how the best family traditions start right?
Place a full tablespoon of the filling inside the circle, then roll it up and pinch the ends.
While you are rolling the cookies in sugar, set the oven to 350 degrees. Coat the rolled cookie in sugar, then bake for 12-14 minutes or until they are golden brown.
Here they are, fresh out of the oven!
They come out so puffy and golden. I experimented with colored sugar this time, what do you think?
Here’s to being thankful, enjoying your family’s traditions and maybe starting some new ones as well.
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Carina was born in California, grew up in New Jersey and followed her hunky helicopter pilot husband to Nampa, Idaho. She studied Jewelry Design at F.I.T. in Manhattan before having two cute boys who keep her busy, busy, busy! She loves pottery, reading a good book, running, and family pizza movie night. Thanks for sharing here on HowDoesShe!
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 lb butter
- 2 TBSP warm milk
- 1 cake (2 ¼ tsp) yeast
- 3 egg yolks
- ½ pint (1 cup) sour cream
- 8 cups walnuts
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 ¼ cups warm milk
Instructions
- 1. Mix the first four ingredients in a mixer.
- 2. Dissolve the yeast into 2 TBSP warm milk.
- 3. Add the dissolved yeast, egg yolks, and sour cream to the first four ingredients until combined.
- 4. Set the dough aside, and now process the walnuts in a meat grinder.
- 5. Add the sugar and warm milk to the ground walnuts.
- 6. Roll the dough into 1 ½ inch balls.
- 7. Flour your counter and rolling pin (be careful not to over flour the dough or the sugar will not stick) and roll the dough into circular shapes.
- 8. Place a full TBSP of the filling on the dough, roll, and pinch the ends.
- 9. Set the oven to 350 and coat the cookies in sugar.
- 10. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!
Beatrix Pinkal says
Hi!
I’m excited to try this recipe! I’m actually from Hungary and my sweet grandma used to make kifli’s (the right spelling is kifli in hungarian:)) so she used to make these all the time. do you know that you can try to put jam in them as well? My grandma had prune jam she used but i would totally try either apricot or strawberry jam. I love these! Thanks for posting!
Carina Gabrielsen says
Beatrix, aren’t Grandmas the best?! I loved hearing your memories and learning the true Hungarian spelling. I have never tried filling kiflis with jam before, but I am totally going to try it! It sounds delicious and I know my family would love it :).
Cindy says
I have actually tasted these amazing cookies….love them. They are a perfect holiday sweet treat. Cg
aboren says
About how big do you make the circle of dough? 8 Cups of grounded walnuts or are you measuring the 8 cups of pre-grounded walnuts? My husband loves walnuts, I ‘d like to try an make these for him 🙂
Thank you,
They sound yummy!
Carina Gabrielsen says
aboren, you should make the dough balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. For the walnuts, I measure them before I grind them. If your husband loves walnuts he will gobble these cookies up (my husband can’t get enough when I make them)! You’ll have to let me know if he likes them :).
Eric @ AddSomeCharacter says
Wow that looks delicious! This may be weird, but do you think you can substitute the walnuts for a different type of nut?
Carina Gabrielsen says
Eric,
I don’t think trying a different nut is weird at all! I’ve only ever used walnuts, but after all these yummy suggestions I’m going to be trying a lot of new fillings :). Let me know what you try!
Joan says
These cookies sound delicious I’m so excited to try them!
Stephanie says
Carina, I am glad to have the recipie with pictures and instructions for these yummy cookies. I think I will try half the dough with pecans and half with jam. Can’t wait.
Carina Gabrielsen says
Stephanie,
You will have to let me know how they turn out with pecans and jam. I can’t wait to hear how everyone’s cookies turn out! Thanks for reading 🙂
Patty Mickelsen says
Carina, these cookies sound wonderful! I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Missy says
I can’t wait to try these – I love trying new desserts and these look so yummy!
Ami says
Delicious! What a perfect holiday cookie.
Stephanie says
Can I use regular rapid rise yeast in this recipe? I bake bread several times a week and keep this on hand. I never have cake yeast and can’t usually find it in the grocery store around my neck of the woods.
Carina Gabrielsen says
Stephanie,
Rapid rise yeast will work great. Truth be told, I’ve never actually used cake yeast. Just substitute the equal amount in cake yeast for regular yeast and they will turn out the same :).
Mary says
Grandma used to make these at Christmas. Us kids were only allowed to eat one or two as there had to be enough for everyone. There is a recipe floating around out there, but most of it is written in Hungarian, lol. Grandma always said these were expensive to make because they used so much butter and walnuts. Ours did not have sugar on the outside, they were dusted in powdered sugar while still warm. Thank you for the recipe, I am giving it a go this year.
Carina Gabrielsen says
Mary,
I loved reading your memory! So fun :). I will definitely be trying your powdered sugar trick, it sounds amazing! I hope my recipe is pretty close to your family’s, let me know what you think :).
Sandy says
Approximately how many does this recipe make? It looks like a lot!
Carina Gabrielsen says
Sandy,
The recipe makes 2 1/2 to 3 dozen. It makes so much that sometimes I half the recipe. I usually end up regretting it though because my husband complains I didn’t make enough :).
jean says
I’d like to try a couple with chocolate ( Nutella) and see how that will work out.
Carina Gabrielsen says
Jean,
Oh. My. Goodness! Nutella in the middle would be so good and definitely dangerous :).
Leni Shuster says
Growing up, we had an elderly neighbor lady and daughter, that would bake these each year at Christmas. They always sent a huge box to our home. Your recipe matched my memory of her delicious cookies. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. These will become a holiday staple for the cookie tray.