An Even Dozen or Ten

Kolachki?  Kolacky?  Kolachy?  Kolace?  Kolachi?  Kolache?  Kolachke??  Truth is I'm not sure what these cookies are called.   Growing up we called them hunky cookies, which I realize now was more than likely an ethnic slur rather than a description of the nutty filling.   But my extensive search of the internets did not make things any clearer.  These are some version of an Eastern European wedding or tea cake.  Czeck?  Slovak?  Hungarian?  Or as Oscar the Polish caterer might describe them:  It's a delightful pastry with a thin flakey crust...wrapped around nuts. (not to be confused with a fried hoosecheekie) 
Recipe I used:  My Aunt Louise's.  Because I wanted them to taste like her's.  I called my Mom who called my Aunt Louise (who doesn't see well)  who read the recipe to my Mom who read it to me.  There was only a list of ingredients with a very few vague directions.  (What could possibly go wrong?)

I supplemented the recipe by reading every internet entry of everyone's Slovak Grandma's recipes.  Thus my use of my pastry cutter to cut in the shortening like pie dough.

Warm milk, dry yeast, eggs,vanilla...Cover and let the dough rise.  The recipe did say 3 hours or overnight.  (And that was the most precise information the recipe offered.)  I went with 3 hours.  Which gave me enough time to make the nut filling.

Which called for a can of sweetened condensed milk.  None of the recipes online contained this ingredient.  Which is why I needed Aunt Louise's recipe.

Born, as I was, in the days when breastfeeding was out of style and aggressive marketing of commercial baby formula had not begun, I think this wonderful liquid is the reason for my propensity towards obesity and my pre-diabetic condition.  I could drink this straight from the can.

"Cook until thickened"  Seriously?  This seemed plenty thick to me and no one else's Polish Grandma was cooking her filling, but I cooked it.

And, believe me, it thickened.  While it cooled and the dough rose, I still had time to paint my toenails.

And show you the rest of my Christmas gifts.  When we were kids, we left our Christmas gifts in the living room until after New Year's Day.  And all of our aunts and uncles and cousins would come to visit, and we would serve them cookies and show them our 'pile' of gifts.  We would also go to visit their houses to see their stuff and eat their cookies.  So in honor of the year of the cookie and the aunts who made them, here is the final installment of 'What I Got for Christmas".
The good thing about baking cookies after Christmas is that you get to use some of your Christmas gifts. (What?  You didn't know Santa shopped from the clearance cart?That's real vanilla, just like I asked Santa for.)



At this point I called my mom again.  Because at this point it occurred to me that although I have eaten plenty of these cookies, I have never even seen them made, let alone made them myself.  My mom, likewise, had never made these, but she was able to give me a little direction and a lot of encouragement.  

Roll.

Cut into squares.  These are about two inch squares.  One online Hungarian grandma cut her's into four inch squares.  Those would be some honking big cookies.  (Honky cookies?)

Apply filling.

Roll 'em up.  See my Christmas silpat?   Made in France.  Once again as close as I am getting to Paris this year.  But Ooo La La...such wonderful European pastries right in my kitchen.

After I baked the first tray, I decided to roll the cookies in sugar before I baked them.  Because I kind of remembered them having that sugary outside.  

 I filled a few with apricot jam like on the internet recipes, but because I made enough nut filling for the whole batch (and cause I never had a Polish Grandma), I only made a few apricot ones.  

How these turned out:  Amazingly like I remember them.  They were definitely better the next day.  (When I wasn't so sick of taste testing at every step.)

Who will eat them: (Any one and every one--I made the full recipe which made about 10 doz. cookies.)

Not the STP (Wheat flour)

Not the Goob (Nuts)

Me

The STP's accountability partner and his family

Friends who Just Dance with me.

People welcoming in the New Year with me.