Authentic Hungarian Pastries Recipes

AUTHENTIC HUNGARIAN PASTRIES

Steps:

• Prepare the fruit filling by putting the apricots in a saucepan. Add water just to cover.Cook until soft, being very careful not to let it burn. You may have to add more water to prevent this.
• When fruit is soft, add the sugar and cook until thick. When thickened, remove from heat and puree in a food processor. Let cool slightly, then put into a freezer bag. When you are ready to use the filling just snip off the corner of the bag. (You may have extra filling left over at the end- it can be frozen for the next time).
• Prepare pastry: Mix the dough ingredients together with a pastry blender. Roll out onto parchment paper or a lightly floured board to about 1/4" thick rectangle.
• Using a sharp knife (or a pie crust wheel), cut the dough into 3" X 3" squares.
• With a sharp knife, cut the dough diagonally from each corner to within 1/2-inch of center of each square.
• Put about 1 teaspoons of the filling in the center of each square.
• Fold every other corner of the square to the center to form a pinwheel shape, overlapping the dough at the center and pushing down gently to seal in center.
• Transfer cookies to a lightly greased cookie sheet. (They dont really expand so you dont have to worry about leaving a lot of space in-between.).
• Bake at 350 for 20 minutes on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Do not let get brown or burn.
• Dust with powdered sugar when cooled.

HUNGARIAN PASTRY

Steps:

• Cream butter/margarine and sugar.
• Add vanilla and egg yolks.
• Cream together well.
• Add sifted flour with soda and baking powder.
• Mix well.
• Then pat dough out onto cookie sheet with sides or a large shallow pan.
• Spread with jam and 1/2 cup ground nuts.
• Then over that spread the well beaten egg whites.
• Then sprinkle the other half of ground nuts to which 2 tablespoons of sugar have been added.
• Bake 1/2 hour at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Layers are:.
• Dough.
• Jam.
• Nuts.
• Egg whites.
• Nuts with sugar.
• When cool, cut into 2 inch squares.

HUNGARIAN KIFFLES

Steps:

• Beat butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer until pale yellow and creamy. Gradually add 2 cups flour to butter mixture until the dough is too thick for the mixer. Stir remaining 2 cups flour into the butter mixture by hand and knead until dough falls off hands easily. Roll dough into a ball, place in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Stir walnuts and sugar together in a bowl. Pour milk into walnut mixture and stir to form a paste.
• Turn dough onto a floured work surface and roll to desired thickness. Cut dough into 2-inch squares. Place about 1 teaspoon walnut filling in the center of each square. Roll the dough from 1 corner to the other corner around the walnut filling and transfer to a baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until light brown, 10 to 15 minutes.