Kifli (Croatian Cookies)
These were my grandma’s specialty. She would make so many of these that her whole kitchen was full of them, powdered sugar everywhere. Even her dentist would get a batch. Now i get to try her recipe, keto style.
Ingredients:
1 block cream cheese (sub tofu or vegan cream cheese)
2 c flour (1:1 GF)
1/2 cube butter (or ghee)
1/2 Tbs baking powder
Filling
2 c ground walnuts
1/2 c coconut sugar
2 egg whites
1/2 lemon
Preheat oven to 325, cook for 30 min
Combine flour and baking powder, then add butter. Squish, roll between hands into tiny peices, then add cream cheese.
Divid the dough into 4 or 5 balls, then roll each out into a big pie. cut into triangles.
Combine the filling, could only use half. You could also make smaller roll up moon shaped cookies, and use apricot jam instead of the filling.
Add filling to widest part, then roll from wide end to the tip.
Ingredients, yields 56 cookies!!
1½ cups finely ground almond flour
1½ cups tapioca flour
1 cup white rice flour plus more for rolling
1½ teaspoons xanthan gum
1-lb butter (4 sticks)
6 large egg yolks (keep the whites for the filling)
1 cup sour cream
FILLING (see notes):
6 egg whites
24 oz walnuts
1-lb powdered sugar (approx 3¾ cups) plus more for dusting
Instructions
The day before, in a large bowl, combine almond flour, tapioca flour, white rice flour, and xanthan gum. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives criss-crossed work the butter in until it's the size of peas. (if you're lucky enough to have a food processor it'd probably be a lot easier/faster here). In small bowl whisk together egg yolks and sour cream until smooth. Pour into flour/butter mixture and mix until smooth.
Pinch off dough and roll into balls about the size of a golf ball. Cover and refrigerate dough for 24 hours (the best is 24 hours, the bare minimum you can get away with is 3 hours).
Prepare filling (day of or day before, either is ok, just be sure to refrigerate it when not in use): Whip egg whites to soft peaks. Coarsely grind walnuts in food processor or blender. Fold walnuts and powdered sugar into the egg whites.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper.
On rice floured wax paper roll out dough balls into a ¼-inch thick circle. TIP: I used my tortilla press instead of a rolling pin - best.idea.ever. Keep the dough cold! It's very easy to work with when chilled but once it starts to warm up it gets sticky. I take out only 5-6 dough balls at a time while keeping the others in the fridge until I'm ready for them.
Add 1-2 teaspoons filling off-center, then roll jelly roll style. Pinch the ends closed and curve cookie into a crescent shape.
Bake 18-22 minutes until light golden brown. Remove immediately to a wire rack. Cool completely then dust with powdered sugar.
Notes
Except for the GF flours this is the exact recipe handed down to me. The filling recipe makes A TON and way more than I can ever use. I strongly urge you to consider cutting the filling portion of the recipe in half.
