Pass or Fail: Hungarian Kiffles
9:32 PMI assume most people who use Pinterest are like me-- they find tons of cool clothes, workouts, tools and recipes, but never actually get around to trying them. It’s a bit discouraging to have a cache of nifty plans and ideas but never get around to them.
I’d like to change that, so a few times a month, I’m committing myself to trying on of my many, many, many Pinterest pins. Ideally I’d like to do one a week, but I’m going to ease into it with one or two a month. I’m going to give the idea a pass or fail-- I’m a teacher, after all-- to let you all know what’s worth your time and what you can skip with no guilt. Basically, I’m doing the dirty work for you. Your welcome.
I must admit though, this week I’m cheating, and I feel bad about it. (I may also cheat next week. I apologize in advance). My husband was all about making Christmas cookies this year, so all of this took place last year. Among other cookie recipes, we made Hungarian Kiffles. I’m not totally sure how he came across these cookies; he isn’t Hungarian and I don’t think he knows anyone who has ever made them. Maybe if he had known someone, maybe they would have turned out better. That’s foreshadowing, my dears.
These cookies marvelous, don’t they? Too bad they’re not the ones we made. Source: mygourmetconnection.com
The cookies tasted alright. The dough takes forever because you have to refrigerate them for at least two hours, until the dough firms up. Strike one, in my book. They also take a lot of time to assemble. You need to roll the dough out, cut it into squares, fill the squares with filling, fold over, and bake. Strike two for not being able to just roll them in a ball or spoon them out onto a sheet like any self-respecting cookie I know. The dough isn’t a very sweet dough, which I think equals half a strike, because if you’re going to go for a cookie, why go for a bland one? But that’s just me. I like my sweets coma-inducing so I can rack up a ton of guilt in a short amount of time.
The filling is just any canned pastry filling. We did raspberry and almond, which were both good, but you could go for whatever makes your heart happy. I also think you could just use jam, as there see, to be more flavor options than pastry fillings.
But ultimately, what do I know? Because our cookies came out looking like this:
Wow, that's a weak performance, kiffles.
I’m going to blame my husband for the cookies opening back up, because I think he used too much flour when rolling out the dough and cutting it into squares, but to be fair, my sister-in-law Emily and I actually did the filling, folding, and pinching, so we could very well be to blame. But Emily is a baker and I am without fault, so I’m leaning toward this being Sean’s fault. There’s no way we messed up.
The open-faced cookies didn’t taste any different than the few that stayed together, but we couldn’t give them away to neighbors like we wanted to, so we had to eat them all. Had to.
I have to say these cookies were a fail. They were time-consuming and underwhelming. To say they were a waste of time would be too harsh. We had fun making them and laughing at how they turned out. Towards the end of the night (because they literally too all day to make) we took the remaining dough and made two massive “hand pies” that were 2- or 3-inch squared when done, and those were actually pretty tasty...probably because they were mostly pie filing.
If you want to make these yourself, we used this recipe from MyGourmetConnection.com. Make sure you follow all of the directions for the best results and be prepared for a long day.
I’m curious if anyone has made these or something similar before. Do you know what we did wrong?
Share your insights, and maybe your favorite cookie recipe, in the comments!
Did this guy even try to stay folded? He looks like a perfect little flat square. Fail.
3 comments
My family makes these, which are similar, but you put powder sugar on top which just makes them that much better. This isn't the actual recipe we use, but best i could find online.
ReplyDeletehttp://southernfood.about.com/od/cookierecipes/r/blbb553.htm
Yours look a lot easier than the ones we did! Do you have a trick for keeping the corners folded over? I think we had like 2 out of a triple batch that actually stayed closed :-/
ReplyDeleteI know your post is several years old and you'll never make Hungarian Kiffles again but, just to save the cookie's reputation...I've made these for years but the recipe is called Hungarian Apricot Cookies. Traditionally they have apricot filling, and when I've seen them in bakeries they do. I've used other flavors but everyone prefers the apricot. And I use preserves because they're thicker than jelly. Two things would help yours stay closed: The dough has to be just right -- firm but not too hard. They should be rolled out thinner -- about 1/8 of an inch. But mostly, you should only put a tiny dab of preserves in them. Yours have way too much and that's helping push them apart, plus it them runs all over the place. Roll them out on a sugared surface, and then the sugar melts deliciously on the bottom. Fold over the edges, pinch them lightly, and sprinkle with a pinch of granulated sugar before baking.
ReplyDelete