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Rolled-up cookies of Eastern European origins (I have variously seen them labeled as Kolaky, Kolachki, Roczki, and other names and various spellings, attributed to Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, and Czech and Slovak cuisine) with cream cheese dough and sweet nut filling. In Russian, they are Кифлики and often bent into a crescent shape once rolled into a tube (not pictured), and often served dusted with powdered sugar. Very similar to Polish Kołaczki and Hungarian Kolaches, but they are rolled into a log instead of folded over. According to this website, they are originally Ukrainian and eventually shared with (and adapted by) the countries bordering that country. Most Ukrainian recipes use blackcurrant preserves.
Ingredients
- For the dough
1/2 pound cream cheese (at room temperature)
1/2 pound butter (at room temperature)
3 cups all-purpose flour
- For the nut filling
1 pound finely ground walnuts
1 large egg
1 cup granulated sugar
water
- Or use a jam filling
blackcurrant preserves
Directions
- Make the dough
- Mix butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add flour, and mix again until smooth. Making this dough is easy with a food processor, hard with a mixer. Roll dough into 3 balls. Refrigerate dough to keep it from drying out. The dough can be refrigerated for 1-2 hours, but it is not necessary. Preheat oven to 375F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out 1 ball at a time and flour lightly. Roll dough out very thin in flour or granulated sugar so it doesn’t stick. Cut dough into 3″ squares.
- Make the nut filling
- If you are using the nut filling, mix together the walnuts, egg, and sugar, and adding just enough water to obtain a sticky consistency.
- Assemble and bake
- Add about a teaspoon of filling (either of the above nut filling, or of blackcurrant preserves) to each piece of cut dough. Roll squares into logs. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned.
Notes
- Also see our Polish Kołaczki and Hungarian Kifli recipes. These are all nearly identical, and cookies like this very with similar names can be found all over Central and Eastern Europe and places where central and eastern Europeans emigrated to.
There is also the Ukranian Kolach, a sweet bread, and the Czech and Slovak Kolach which is a flat round pastry with a fruit filling. It’s all very confusing and wonderful! - Reviewers, please help us out and note the yield!