These are the cookies my grandmother always made at Christmas. She was an immigrant from the Austro-Hungarian Empire before WWI. As you can see, the ingredients are simple but would have been precious to peasants. The cookies are somewhat time consuming to make but very light and a big hit with everyone. This is the first time I’ve tried putting the recipe into writing, so feel free to ask questions if it’s not clear. The name is probably a combination of German and Hungarian and means “nut crescents”


Nussekipfle

Dough:
½ pound butter
6 egg yolks and 1 egg white
2 cups flour
1 tsp. vanilla
Pinch of salt

Filling:
5 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 pound of walnuts ground finely

Cut the VERY cold butter into slices. Place flour butter and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles course meal. Stir the egg s and vanilla with a fork to combine and add the food processor. Process until just combined. Then turn out onto a well floured board and knead briefly. Divide the dough into 48 pieces, rolling each piece in the palm of your hand to forma ball. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, beat the egg whites until very stiff. Beat the sugar in gradually. Fold in the ground walnuts.

Roll out each dough ball on a well floured board as thin as possible. Place a heaping teaspoon of the filling towards the lower part of each dough circle and roll up. Gently curve into a crescent and loose close the ends. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. I roll out 6 then fill and shape them and then repeat.

Bake in a 375 oven for 13 minutes. This works in my over, since oven temperatures can vary, check carefully at first as they can go from golden to burned in an instant.

When cool, dust with powered sugar.