A pound of walnuts.
A whole Tablespoon of almond extract.
Some recipes are just made for the elitism of the once-a-year cookie.
In rich, palate-pleasing flavor and complex, multi-step process, these cookies are decadent from beginning to end. They are my ultimate favorite Christmas cookie and the reason I have white flour in my house this season. My mother made kifli every year that I can remember, and as they crumble on my tongue, memories of childhood come vividly to mind.
They also might just be perfect for soaking grains, if I ever get bold enough to experiment with whole grains and risk ruining a perfectly good nutrient-deficient cookie. I like the compromise of the pound of butter for healthy saturated fats, the four whole pastured eggs, the pound of properly soaked and dehydrated walnuts, and the relatively low sugar content that would be easily adaptable to a natural grain sugar or a combination of honey and granular sweetener.
There are a lot of steps to this recipe, but at least I can tell you that it’s possible to make the dough on a Saturday, the filling on a Sunday and the cookies on a Tuesday…and a Thursday. They’re flexible enough for children to interrupt, and they have some really fun elements just perfect for pint-sized helpers.
| My Favorite Christmas Cookie Ever: Kifli |
- Dough
- 1 pound (4 sticks) butter
- 5 c. flour
- 4 beaten egg yolks
- 3/4 c. cold water
- 1/4 c. white vinegar
- Filling
- 4 egg whites
- pinch of cream of tartar
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tbs almond extract
- 1 pound ground walnuts
- Dough
- Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour.
- In another bowl, blend the egg yolks, water and white vinegar. (Be sure to reserve the egg whites for the filling.)
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix only until it holds together. The key to a flaky pastry is light handling. The more you move the dough, the tougher it will become.
- Refrigerate.
- Filling
- Whip 4 egg whites into a meringue.
- Add the cream of tartar, sugar, and almond extract.
- Mix well.
- Fold in the ground walnuts.
- Building the Cookies
- Divide both dough and filling into 8 equal sections.
- Roll on lightly powdered sugared surface into a pie shape.
- Spread with filling and cut into ~12 equal wedges.
- Roll from edge to center.
- Bake on a cookie sheet 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar (through a sieve) while cooling on racks.
I find that it’s most efficient to bake one pan on the uppermost rack, one on the very bottom, and switch them halfway through.
I would recommend reading on to see the photos of the step by step.
The dough will hold in the fridge for as many days as you need it to, within reason.
Make the Filling
I’ve never made a meringue before! You could probably do this with a whisk by hand, but it was super fun to watch in my KitchenAid mixer with the whisk attachment. This is not quite finished:
See the peaks stand up by themselves? Now you have a meringue! Mix in the sugar and almond flavoring. Any recipe that asks for a whole Tablespoon of almond extract will really turn a kitchen visitor into a real baker!
Grind the walnuts rather finely in a food processor or blender and fold them into the mixture. Be sure to lean in and inhale the filling; if you ate this bowl up, you’d be satisfied (sweet tooth and all!) for two days.
Roll the Dough
To help yourself keep enough filling for each round of dough, cut the dough into 8 more-or-less equal chunks, and divide the filling into 8 sections as well:
I don’t know why I couldn’t wait until all 8 sections were cut before taking a photo!
If the dough and/or filling has been chilled, give it an hour to warm up to make it easier to work with.
Roll out one section of dough on a powdered sugared surface until it is quite thin, about a 14-16” circle. (I used a floured surface in this photo – serves me right for skimming the recipe card. That would explain why they don’t taste *quite* as sweet this year as I remember!) This dough is more forgiving than pie crust and doesn’t break as easily. If you do make a hole, it will get rolled into the cookie anyway, so don’t fret!
Spread filling evenly and thinly onto the entire circle. I found the easiest way to do this is to put little plops all over the circle of dough rather than one big plop in the middle, especially if your filling has not been freshly prepared.
Cut the circle into ~12 equal pieces, like a pizza or a pie:
Buddy Boy and I used a pizza cutter, but a knife works too.
Roll each cookie from the wide portion to the skinny center:
Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 20-30 minutes. You can place the cookies very close together, unlike drop cookies. I find that it’s most efficient to bake one pan on the uppermost rack, one on the very bottom, and switch them halfway through.
Then you get to make them even better by doing this:
Put powdered sugar in a metal or other fine mesh strainer. Generously dust the cookies as they cool on racks.
Real Food Adjustments
The original recipe calls for half margarine, half butter. I’m guessing that the original original recipe from long ago probably used all butter, and when butter went out of fashion someone changed it to incorporate the trendier “healthy” margarine. I’d also be willing to bet that it just wasn’t nearly as good or flaky if 100% margarine was used, so they compromised and went half and half. I took it all the way back to the real thing.
I used soaked and dehydrated walnuts instead of raw, so that the phytates are reduced. I would not recommend reducing the sugar, but I added a bit of honey into some of them and it tastes great. Depending on how much honey taste you enjoy, I’m sure you could substitute a half cup of honey for ¾ cup sugar, maybe more.
A Real Food Question
What do the grain soakers among you think? (See Why Soak Grains? for more info.) If I used whole wheat pastry flour and/or white whole wheat for this recipe, could I soak it with the vinegar and water at room temp, even with the egg yolks in? I leave my mayo out to lacto-ferment for 7 hours with raw egg yolks. If they’re pastured eggs, would it be safe? It would be easy enough to do!
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This post is entered in:
- Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff
- Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed With Grace
- Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
- Mouthwatering Monday at a Southern Fairy Tale
- Holiday Food Fest: Desserts at Life as MOM
- Things I Love Thursday at The Diaper Diaries
- Pennywise Platter Carnival at The Nourishing Gourmet
- Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
- A Beautiful Life at The Inspired Room
- Ultimate Recipe Swap: Holiday Food You Love
these look really good – I’ve just got started with Christmas cookie baking and this looks like a great new recipe to try.
.-= Rhonda´s last blog ..PIe Fixes Everything….. =-.
[Reply to this comment]
Does this mean I don’t need to make Kifli this year? Guess that wouldn’t be fair to your brother.
My recipe card called for all margarine. Who knows, the original may have called for all butter OR maybe lard.
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Those look pretty amazing but I don’t think I am up to making them! And I don’t soak grains. Maybe one day . . .
.-= Brenda´s last blog ..Pumpkin Pie Cake/TMTT =-.
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I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of these before. They sure look good!
Hope you’ll stop by and link up today at my Christmas Recipe Party!
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I’m commenting because I want to know the answer to your soaking question. I have that on a lot of my baking items and I consider it eat time I bake. I’ve never thought about leaving the eggs in and that intrigues me…
.-= Bonnie´s last blog ..Thoughts Teeth and Fear =-.
[Reply to this comment]
Katie Reply:
December 17th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Bonnie,
Katie
Keep an eye out for soaking grains updates (like “is it even worth it?”) over the next few weeks here. I’m deep into research right now!
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Oh WOW. They look delicous. I’m wondering if maybe using sprouted flour might work better than soaking?
.-= Millie@Real Food for Less Money´s last blog .. =-.
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They sound delicious. My hubby is allergic to nuts so we miss out on all the nut filled goodness at the holidays
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Those look delish!! I wish I had the time to make those! Wanna back some and send them my way? Haha – thanks for the share! I’m drooling and craving all things unhealthy now!
.-= Meg @ Manic Mommy´s last blog ..Things I love Thursday – Smores =-.
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just saw your link to these on the white flour post. I’m totally up for a new Christmas cookie recipe to try! I would sub almonds instead of walnuts – would probably work, right?
[Reply to this comment]
Katie Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 1:23 am
Annie,
Sounds very possible! Walnuts are so much softer than almonds, so I would just recommend making sure they’re quite finely ground so they can make that beautiful paste there.
I’d love to hear if they work out well with almonds! Enjoy – Katie
[Reply to this comment]
Annie Reply:
December 20th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Hi, Katie – they worked great with almonds
Thanks for the recipe. They were a nice part of a cookie exchange at my husband’s school! I’m off to make your spelt take-along biscuits. I’m using white flour and lard instead of spelt and CO 
I guess I’m a big ingredient subber. Just haven’t brought myself to buy spelt yet. And the VCO is low in the jar – saving it for smoothies. Thanks for all your great recipes and work – waiting along with you for Christ’s coming – Advent blessings!!
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My Hungarian grandmother made kifli every Christmas for us when I was growing up. She lived a few states away and sent them to us. I have her recipe and have been meaning to make some kifli for too many years. I want to make the time to bake some this year. The recipe that I have from her is a little different than this one (yeast in the dough), but I’m sure they are equally delicious. Oddly (for a child), I always loved my grandmother’s kifli because it wasn’t really sweet. It was a nice counterpoint to all the sweeter cookies and candies we had at Christmas. Thanks so much for triggering the wonderful memories of my grandmother by sharing this recipe!!
[Reply to this comment]
Katie Reply:
November 22nd, 2011 at 3:01 am
Heather, Aw, what fun!
Katie
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My grandmother’s receipe is slightly different but I am sure equally delicious. Christmas would not be the same without them! I have to make several batches because people tend to get possessive with the ones I give them.
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I can’t wait to try these! My uncle passed down a recipe from his mom that is filled & rolled in similar fashion, but the dough is first brushed with melted butter, then sprinkled with ground chocolate, cinnamon & sugar. Talk about non-nutrient cookies! I like to think that using grass fed butter adds some sort of nutrition – it makes me feel a little better while stuffing my face with them
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I used to be an avid grain soak-er and now I sprout and dehydrate my wheat to make things like cookies and tortillas. So that is the first thing I will try with this recipe. There is so much controversial information out there on soaking anyway, but I don’t know who can argue with sprouting.
That being said this recipe looks very soaking friendly. I used to make soaked graham crackers all the time. I recommend that you start by creaming the butter then adding the water (or why not milk?) and the vinegar (I prefer whey for a more neutral flavor). Then slowly mix in the flour till it is all incorporated. Leave it on your counter 8-10 hours then add the beaten eggs. It might work, but I doubt the texture would be flaky so that takes me back to sprouted wheat flour because you could still keep the same process and get a flaky dough and it is even better for you and easier to digest than soaked wheat flour anyway.
I noticed-no salt in the dough? I think i’ll try adding some-I like my food salted.
Oh and on the filling I would use Rapadura/sucanant it will just give it a fuller flavor like brown sugar. I use it for every thing and I have gotten over the stronger flavor since it is unprocessed and has more vitamins and all that. When I make treats for my kids with sprouted flour and unprocessed sugar I don’t have to worry so much when they eat them. It is nice to have the peace of mind that they are eating something that is nourishing and delicious.
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What a great recipe! I can’t wait to try it!
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My sister has made these for years. You’re the first place online I’ve ever seen the recipe besides her’s. She cuts 2-3″ squares of dough and puts a teaspoon into the center and folds it into a half triangle. It’s simpler yet and totally bite sized. Thanks for sharing!
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Oh, I love Kifle. The family I nannied for in college introduced me to them. I have never seen them anywhere else so I was so excited to see them here. We do them slightly different. We use yeast in the dough. We have always used canned almond paste (this is my first year eating real food) but I will be making the walnut filling this year.
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My grandfather made these, but rolled flat and topped with meringue and nuts. Not traditional, but much faster than crescents
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This was my first introduction to Kifle. Made a batch today and love them! I have two Christmas parties to bring things to this weekend. This makes so many it’s perfect. Thank you!!!
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We have made Kifli with whole wheat flour (1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat) for the past few years. Teeny-tiny bit less caloric-nutritional guilt.
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