Hungarian Christmas Walnut Cookies (Hókifli)

These Christmas walnut cookies have a sweet, nutty filling inside a flakey, rich pastry! Heavily sprinkled with icing sugar mixed with vanilla flavored sugar. While they are traditionally made at Christmastime, they are outstanding any time of year! A perfect Christmas dessert, easy to make, plus, they keep very well for days or even over a week so can be made ahead of the festivities and stored in a tin. The dough is eggless.

Ingredients

  • 400 grams (2 2/3 cups) of flour
  • 250 grams (2.2 sticks) of butter
  • Zest of a lemon
  • 200 ml (3/4 cup) of sour cream
  • 200 grams (1 cup) of ground walnuts
  • 1/2 cup of milk
  • 1/2 cup of powdered sugar for the filling
  • 1 cup of powdered sugar mixed with vanilla sugar for dusting

Takes ,
Makes 50 cookies.

Instructions

  1. Mix the flour, the butter and a pinch of salt by hand. The mixture will be quite crumbly.
  2. Add the zest of half a lemon, add the sour cream step by step, knead thoroughly till combines into a smooth dough ball.
  3. </Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.i>
  4. Bring 1/2 cup of milk to a boil, add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar,the ground walnuts, and the zest of half a lemon, mix well. Turn the heat off and let it cool cmpletely. It will get thicker.
  5. Heat the oven to 180°C (355°F). Line a pan with parchment paper.
  6. On a floured surfCut out circles using a 8-9cm (2.5”) cookie cutter. Place one teaspoon of nut filling on each circle. Gently roll it up and stretch the rolls into crescent shapes and place them on the prepared baking sheet.ace roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch (3 mm)
  7. Bake the crescents in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until they begin to get a little color.li>
  8. Take them out and one by one immediately roll the hot cookies into icing sugar-vanilla flavored sugar mixture.