Lil's Hungarian Nut Cookies

Last year, about this time, I mentioned these cookies with a post for Kifli. The kifli are very good cookies but if you want a cookie that everyone will love this Holiday, then you must make these!
As I mentioned before, we don't really have a name for these. My mother in law, Lilian, shared the recipes with me and showed me how to make them many years ago and they've been our family's all time favorite cookie..really..all time favorite! She jotted down the recipe on a piece of scrap paper, which I've kept all this time. And this was a recipe her mother made, and probably her mother.
What's unusual is that the filling is just walnuts and white raisins with a little lemon juice and egg white. And the only sugar used is in the dusting of powdered sugar so they're certainly not too sweet. The pastry dough is also just a few ingredients, butter, cream cheese and flour. I've never seen a cookie like this anywhere, especially not with this filling.


They're not rugelach and they're not kifli. But what they are is a light flaky dough wrapped around a mildly tart, slightly crunchy, not too sweet little morsel, sprinkled with powdered sugar, that you can't stop eating! Really.
Now, they are pretty time consuming to make, so you'll probably want to keep them all for your family..but share. If only just a few!

You'll need to separate an egg, saving the yolk to brush the tops of the cookies just before baking.

Make the dough the night before and wrap in plastic and refridgerate.

Then take it out of the fridge and cut into 4 pieces to make rolling out easier.

(Oh, BTW, see that red plastic wrap? I bought it by mistake, not realizing it was red but I love using it. It's not as sticky as the clear wrap, making it so much easier to work with. Just thought I'd share that little bit of info!).

Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll out each piece as thinly as possible.

I even cut this piece in half again and roll more to get it very thin.

Then cut into tirangles, but not too big. We make these cookies kind of on the small size, about 2 1/2" long.

See how thin the dough is? It's about 1/16th of an inch thick.

Place a scant teaspoonful of filling into the triangle...

And begin by folding the two outer ends over the filling first...

Then fold over the bottom...( this folding procedure is the same way I was taught by Lil to make stuffed cabbage.) Must be a Hungarian thing!

Anyway, then keep rolling and press the tip down onto the dough to secure.

Place onto an ungreased baking sheet, once you have them all made, spacing them about 2" apart.

This just shows how important it is to get the dough really thin because sometimes I even roll each triangle again to get it really thin ( but I've been known to get a little obsessive about this!)

Brush the tops with the egg yolk and bake them til they're golden, about 15 to 20 minutes.

See how one of the tips wants to pop up. That's why you need to press it down so it stays in place while baking.

Then, while they're still hot, roll them in powdered sugar all over.

Then place on a wire rack to cool.

Lil's Hungarian Nut Cookies
Makes approx. 4 dozen cookies ( depending on the size you make them)
(The recipe below is written almost exactly as Lil wrote it on the scrap of paper.)

8 oz. sweet butter ( softened)

8 oz. cream cheese ( softened)

2 cups AP flour

Mix above ingredients-shape into a ball, wrap in waxed paper ( I use plastic wrap) and refridgerate overnight.

Filling:

1/2 lb. walnuts
1/2 lb. white raisins

1 egg white ( save the yolk to brush on top of the cookies)

A little lemon juice ( about 1 tsp.)

Preheat oven to 350. ( Lil's recipe said bake in a moderate oven).

1. Grind walnuts and raisins and mix with the egg white and lemon juice. ( I don't have a grinder, although when my oldest son was a baby, I used to use his babyfood grinder. LOL!) Anyway, just chop very finely.

2. Cut sections of dough and roll out til thin, then cut into triangles, about 2 1/2" at the bottom by 4 1/2" high. ( Refer to my photos and comments above).

3. Fill scant tespoonfuls of dough onto each triangle and roll up, again referring to my photos above.

4. Brush tops with egg yolk and bake til golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Sprinkle or roll each very warm cookie in powdered sugar and set on a wire rack to cool.

6. Store cookies in an air tight container or cookie tin. These are best when eaten within a day or two ( which should be no problem!)

Note: The dough ( rolled out slightly) as well as the unbaked cookies, can be frozen. Just wrap well and place in a zip lock bag. Thaw the dough, then roll out more. I would thaw the cookies a little before baking but you may need to add some extra baking time.

Blueberry Picking

Today was the perfect summer day! It was bright and sunny with no humidity..perfect for doing just about anything outside. Like picking blueberries. Sure you can just go to the local market and buy a few pints, but why miss out on the chance to hang out with your son, enjoy the weather and gather sweet delicious berries!
While Kris was getting as many berries as he could, I noticed behind us the beautiful garden and couldn't resist photographing this yellow summer squash almost ready to be picked. I can't wait for the zucchini blossoms again this year. Have you ever fried them? Or stuffed them? They're so good!

Pierogies with potato,cheese and onion filling

When my son Kris was home from college a few weeks ago for Spring break he reminded me I hadn't made him pierogies in a while. I took that as Mom...how about it?? So today was pierogie day. It's a bit labor intensive but, hey, he's worth it and I, of course, had to sample a few for dinner, right? Mom has to eat, too!
So I got out my favorite recipe and proceeded to measure,stir,roll and stuff the little pot stickers, as they are also sometimes called.

This recipe is very good. The dough is made with lots of sour cream, I'm thinking that's an authentic Polish ingredient to add to the dough? How many this recipe makes depends on the size you make. I make mine kind of large and it makes about 3 dozen.

RECIPE FOR PIEROGIES WITH POTATO,CHEESE AND ONION FILLING

4 1/2 cups A.P. flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. butter - melted
2 cups sour cream
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp. veg. oil

6-7 med. potatoes - peeled and cubed
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt & pepper

TO MAKE DOUGH:

In a large bowl, stir flour and salt. Set aside.
In a separate bowl,whisk butter,sour cream,eggs,yolk and oil.
Stir the wet ingredients into the flour/salt mixture til well blended.( Don't worry if it seems a little lumpy. It rolls out smooth).
Cover bowl with towel and let it rest about 20 minutes.

FILLING:

Cook potatoes til tender. Drain and mash with cheese. Season with salt & pepper.
Set aside to cool.
Separate dough into 2 balls. I usually divide again to work with smaller portions of dough.
Roll out to about 1/8" thickness and cut out circles. (I just use a glass. The size is up to you. My glass is about 3 1/2" in diam.)
After you have all the circles cut out you can roll them individually to get them even thinner. Place about 1 tbsp. of filling on one side and fold dough over so edges meet. With a fork dipped in flour, press the edges to seal. Trim away any excess dough if there seems to be too much and repress with fork.

Place pierogies in a single layer on a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper and put into freezer til frozen. Transfer when frozen hard to zip lock bags.
When you want to use, just put frozen pierogies into pot with lots of boiling water and gently boil til they float. Then fry in pan with butter.
We like them with sauted onions and more sour cream.( Ran out of sour cream for the photo...darn!).