Mushkazone Hungarian Spice Cookies Recipes

SPICE COOKIES

Steps:

• Soak the currants in the brandy for 10 minutes. Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, spices, salt, and dark chocolate. Mix well with a whisk.
• Put the butter, sugar, vanilla, and lemon and orange zest in a stand mixer fitted with the beater attachment and beat to combine but not aerate much, about 1 minute. With the mixer running, slowly add the egg and mix for about 1 minute. Add the dry ingredients, followed by the currants and brandy. Mix until everything comes together.
• Gently knead the dough in the bowl with your hands until it comes together and is uniform. Divide the dough into 1 3/4-oz / 50g chunks and shape each chunk into a perfectly round ball. Place the balls on 1 or 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing them about 3/4 inch / 2 cm apart, and let rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F / 190°C. Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes, until the top firms up but the center is still slightly soft. Remove from the oven. Once the cookies are out of the oven, allow to cool for only 5 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack. While the cookies are still warm, whisk together the glaze ingredients until a thin and smooth icing forms. Pour 1 tablespoon of the glaze over each biscuit, leaving it to drip and coat the biscuit with a very thin, almost transparent film. Finish each with 3 pieces of candied peel placed at the center. Leave to set and serve, or store in an airtight container for a day or two.

MUSHKAZONE (HUNGARIAN SPICE COOKIES)

Steps:

• Mix together Ground walnuts, bread crumbs, ground cloves, ground nutmeg and sugar.
• Beat egg yolks with melted butter.
• Mix beaten egg and butter mixture into mixing bowl ingredients with a wire pastry cutter.
• Firmly press the cookie mix flat into a 9 x 13 pan that has been buttered and floured on the bottom.
• It should be about one inch thick.
• It will seem crumbly at first.
• With a knife or straight edged pastry board scraper, carefully cut the dough into 1 inch by 2 inch bars.
• Bake at 325 degrees until firm, about 20- 25 minutes.
• It should darken in color a little; Watch carefully; Do Not Burn!
• Let bars cool in pan.
• After they are cooled, recut with knife and keep in cookie tin.

SWEDISH SPICE COOKIES (MUSKOTSNITTAR)

Steps:

• Whisk together flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Gradually add flour mixture and beat to combine. Divide dough evenly into quarters.
• Roll each quarter into a 14-inch-long rope. Transfer ropes to parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced 6 inches apart (two ropes per sheet). Flatten ropes to 2 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using the back of the tines of a fork, make crosswise lines across the surface of each flattened portion of dough. Bake, rotating halfway through, until golden around the edges and dry on top, 16 to 18 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks; let cool 5 minutes. While still warm, cut on the diagonal into 1-inch-thick slices. Let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

HUNGARIAN COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325.
• Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x9x2 cake pan and set aside.
• Cream the butter, sugar, and yolks.
• Fold in flour and walnuts.
• Divide the batter in half. Do not over handle the dough. One half will serve as the top layer and the other as the bottom.
• Take a piece of batter and gently flatten it using your fingers. You will see that the batter tends to make its own sections. Work with those. Place this section on the bottom of the cake pan and continue until you have covered the bottom of the cake pan in a patchwork manner. Do not worry about the dough not looking smooth in the pan, you will fix that in a minute.
• If you have leftover dough from the half, fill in holes and build up areas that may be thinner than others.
• Take the back of a spoon and gently smooth the edges of the dough together so no holes are apparent.
• Spread a thin layer of jam over the dough. Do not make the layer thick, you are not making PB and J here.
• Use the final half of batter to make the top layer using the same technique as above.
• Place in the oven at 325 degrees for 30-45 minutes. At around 25 minutes start peaking in the oven, the dough should be a nice golden brown color when it is finished.
• Let cookies cool completely before cutting into small squares.

#1 PUMPKIN SPICE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 2 baking sheets.
• Stir the flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, and salt in a bowl.
• Beat the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and allow it to blend into the mixture before adding the other along with the vanilla. Add the pumpkin and apple butter; continue beating. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the walnuts, mixing just enough to evenly combine. Drop spoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, about 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.