Makos Kifli, a Birthday Treat!

Yesterday was John's birthday, and so I decided to make one of his favorite desserts for him: Makos Kifli! These Hungarian cookies are made by wrapping a sour cream butter dough around a ground poppy seed filling. "Makos" means poppy seed, while "Kifli" means crescent. These are most certainly a labor of love, so John's birthday was a perfect occasion to make them! This is the recipe I used (modified slightly) along with some pictures!

Ingredients:

* Dough

1 1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
2 2/3 tbsp sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* Poppy Seed Filling

3/4 cup poppy seed, freshly ground
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp milk
2 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl, cream together butter and egg yolks. Add the sour cream and vanilla. Mix in the flour until smooth, gather the dough into a ball. Turn out onto floured surface, and roll into a smooth log. Slice the dough into 24 equal size pieces, rolling each into a ball (about the size of a walnut). Refrigerate while making the filling, it makes the dough much easier to work with. In a saucepan, combine all of the filling ingredients. Over low heat, stir constantly about 5 minutes until mixture thickens slightly. Take off heat and let cool. The filling should be easy to spread, if too thick add a touch more milk. Preheat oven to 350. Flour work surface and roll each ball out one at a time to about 1/16 inch thick. Spread some filling on the inside (one or two spoonfulls) and roll up the edge closest to you, continuing until the it is in a roll shape. Pinch the edges to seal, and curve into a crescent shape. Place on a greased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Continue until all of the Makos Kifli are rolled, and then bake until very lightly browned. Cool, and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

The dough, ready to be gathered into a ball:



The dough rolled into a log. Baguette, anyone?:



The dough balls, ready to be refrigerated:



One dough ball rolled out, ready for the filling:



All finished rolling and filling, ready to bake!:



Finally, ready to be devoured!:



Happy Birthday my love!!!