Hungarian Kifli and a Quiet Weekend

While other people were piling up outside, after Thanksgiving dinner at various locations for the famous Black Friday shopping, 24 hours before, I was glad to get home and just chill out after a huge Thanksgiving feast with friends and family. Whatever happened to just the plain old "day after Thanksgiving Sale?"...now it's BLACK FRIDAY!...pretty scary, especially when you have to camp out the day before...luckily, this year they opened the doors at some stores, as early, as 9:00pm on Thursday, and midnight, instead of 4:00am on Friday! Granted, the sales are incredible, 40 to 60% savings, is for sure a bargain. I saw a few incidence on the news last night about an irate customer that was going around with pepper spray...spraying his/ her opponents so they can't get the bargains that she was aiming for: she did get arrested, but that is "bizarre" ...think I'm just going to take advantage on the online shopping, and leave the stress behind!

The reason this is called Hungarian Kifli, which means "crescent"  in English, or "kipfel" in German The dough is either a yeast based type of dough or in this case, is dough that is combined with equal amount of butter, and cream cheese, combined with flour. No eggs used in this recipe. This is the basic dough for the famous Rugelach, as well! On the front row, they are filled with ground walnuts, raisins and apricot jam, and in the back row, shaped like the Rugelach, but slightly bigger, filled with Nutella, which was the kids' favorite!

I also made the fluffiest, and most amazing Sweet Potato Pie, at the same time, with homemade pie crust. Lora and I were able to work alongside at the same time...making pies, and other pastries. As you can see, I got the favorite butcher block table, and she had the entire granite top counter, which she likes to use.

 I did not get a chance to take hardly any photos at the dinner party, but did not want to miss the chance of my son-in-law's Chef Fabrizio's Vegetable Lasagna, that was a huge hit!

 Lora's Cranberry cake...light, and moist, not too sweet, absolutely delicious!

HUNGARIAN KIFLI

1/2 lb. unsalted butter  (cold)
1/2 lb. cream cheese (room temperature)
2 cups all purpose flour
dash of salt (1/2 teaspoon)

In a large food processor, add flour, salt, small pieces of butter, and cream cheese. Do not process, just pulse to combine, little by little, until dough is formed, so that
you can work together into a ball. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for a couple hours.

Cut the dough in half, and on a heavily floured work surface work separately, each dough into a disk. No need for plastic wrap to roll the dough.

As you can see, I rolled the dough into a rough circle, without the ease of plastic wrapper, since the dough is not sticky.

This is roughly, about a 12 inch circle.

When you fold the dough back, you can actually see, that the dough does not stick to the surface...you know, you have a nice pliable dough to work with, without the aide of plastic wrap in the top, and bottom!

While you're working your dough...in another room is another little "worker" working his Play dough!

(grandson, Luca)

For the walnut filling:

2 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup white raisins
1/2 cup apricot jam
1/4 cup orange juice
3 Tbsp. sugar

Mix all together in a medium bowl, Take half portion, (or entire portion) to process in a food processor. I use half portion. Spread half the amount, of the walnut mix, onto the dough, leaving about 2 inches of border.

Since I measure this to be a 12 inch circle, it came out to 12 portion of triangles cut. Filling was spread out more to the edge, after photo was taken.

Roll from the outside end, to shape into a crescent, and place on a parchment lined baking pan.

Kiflis nicely stacked up in a row, and ready to be baked.

Before baking the Kifli, brush egg wash over them.
(crack 1 egg, add a Tbsp. water, and mix)


The Kifli doesn't have to be perfectly shaped, as you can see in the photo, as long as it's rolled up, in shaped into a crescent=kifli...that's all that matters. It's the quality of the dough and the filling that makes the difference.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Makes 2 dozen, large Kifli, or up to 4 dozen, if you make smaller ones. ( In that case, you would have to divide dough in 3 portions, instead of 2)











I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones, and friends. We have so much to be thankful for in our country. Every morning when you wake up, and know you have peace, and not war, and extreme poverty in this land, knowing that our troops are out there in another land fighting for us, when they should be all returned, just know that you are safe...we are thankful for them! Do as much as you can for your family, your friends, and for your country, to make a difference. Let's all care for one-another, and keep our environment, and our land free, and safe! God Bless you all! Have a wonderful weekend!

Related articles

• Rugelach (pastrypixiez.wordpress.com)
• Chocolate Rugelach (carabossesbakeshop.wordpress.com)
• Mini Apple Pies (blogher.com)
• Nut Rolls (bakerunlive.com)
• Apricot walnut rugelach (charlotte.news14.com)