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Preparing these cookies requires a bit of a time investment, but they are such a special treat we know you’ll find them well worth the effort.
Hungarian Kiffles (Kiflis) Are A Holiday Tradition
Being of Hungarian descent, kiffles (also spelled kifli) have always been on hand at our family gatherings during the holidays. They take some work to prepare, but one bite will prove they’re well worth the effort.
Kiffles are delicate Hungarian cookies made with cream cheese dough and filled with various flavors of pastry filling. They make a beautiful contribution to any holiday cookie platter.
About Kiffle (Kifli) Fillings
It is very important that you use fillings that are made specifically for pastry in your kiffles. Pie filling will be too loose and jams and preserves can produce unpredictable results.
We’ve always used Solo Brand Cake & Pastry Filling and have never been disappointed. Solo makes a variety of flavors in 12-ounce cans. Pictured here are poppy seed, cherry, almond, and apricot.
Prune (lekvar in Hungarian), walnut, and poppy seed are the most traditional Hungarian choices and if you read through the comments, you’ll see that a few of our readers have included instructions for making these two fillings from scratch.
Pro Tip: How to Make All Your Kiffles the Same Size
Making sure your kiffles are uniform in size is not only about a beautiful presentation, it’s about even baking. The trick is to roll the dough into a perfect 9-inch square. Here’s how to do it:
- Cut a sheet of parchment paper 15 inches wide by 18 inches long. Fold 4-1/2 inches of each short side toward the middle. Make sharp creases and unfold.
- Fold 3 inches of each long side toward the center. Make sharp creases there as well and you should have a well-defined 9-inch square in the center of your parchment paper.
- With the flaps facing up, dust the parchment liberally with flour and place a portion of dough in the center of the square.
- Dust the top of the dough with flour as well, then fold the parchment along your creases to make an “envelope” around your dough.
- Turn it over (flap sides down) and place it on your rolling surface.
- Roll the dough from the center toward the corners as directed above.
- Remove the dough carefully to avoid tearing.
Once you have the dough rolled into a perfect square, you can easily mark off even intervals of 1-1/2-inches (6 per side) with the tip of a knife. Use your pastry wheel to make the cuts and you will get 36 kiffles (kiflis) per square.
Hungarian Kiffles
Ingredients
- 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup (1/2 lb) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 to 2-1/2 cups cake and pastry filling, about two 12-ounce cans
Instructions
Prepare the Dough:
- Whisk the flour and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Beat the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until very smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, mixing just until combined. The dough will be quite moist, but not sticky.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and flatten into a square approximately 1/2-inch thick. Cut into 4 equal pieces and wrap each separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, a minimum of 2 hours.
Roll and Cut the Dough:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove one portion of the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a liberally floured surface.
- Dust the top of the dough with flour and cover with a sheet of wax or parchment paper. Working from the center toward the corners, roll the dough out to a 1/8-inch-thick square. It should measure about 9 inches.
- For best results, see our recipe notes below to learn how to roll your dough into a perfect square.
- Using a pastry wheel or a sharp knife, cut your dough both lengthwise and crosswise into small squares.
- Your total yield will depend on how large you make them. We recommend 1-1/2-inches which will give you 36 kiffles per square of dough or about 12 dozen total.
- The best way to keep the size even is to use a ruler and mark all 4 sides of the dough square at intervals with the tip of a knife. You can use the handle of a spatula to guide you as you cut to keep your lines straight as well (similar to drawing straight lines on a sheet of paper).
Fill and Seal the Kiffles:
- Working as quickly as possible, place a small mound of filling (about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon) in the center of each square. If the filling flavor you’re using is relatively smooth you can spoon it into a small freezer bag, snip off a tiny bottom corner and squeeze the filling onto the squares. This works particularly well with the poppy and almond flavors.
- Lift two opposite corners of the dough over the filling and gently pinch them together. Fold that "point" over to one side, moisten the tip of your finger with a bit of water and smooth it down gently on one side of the kiffle. This prevent the kiffles from popping open as they bake.
- Important Note: The various filling flavors spread a bit differently during baking so you may want to fill a few "test" kiffles and bake them to gauge the right amount of filling for each type.
Bake the Kiffles:
- Arrange the kiffles 1 inch apart on the parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake until barely golden, 12 to 14 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute, then carefully transfer the kiffles to cooling racks.
- Repeat the process with the remaining 3 portions of dough, using different filling flavors if desired.
How to Store Kiffles:
- Store kiffles between layers of waxed paper in a tightly closed container and refrigerate. Bring them to room temperature (30 minutes out of the fridge), arrange on a plate and dust lightly with powdered sugar just before serving. It’s not advisable to top them with powdered sugar before storing.
- Makes 8 to 12 dozen
Notes
How To Roll Your Dough Into a Perfect 9-Inch Square:
- Cut a sheet of parchment paper 15 inches wide by 18 inches long. Fold 4-1/2 inches of each short side toward the middle. Make sharp creases and unfold.
- Fold 3 inches of each long side toward the center. Make sharp creases there as well and you should have a well-defined 9-inch square in the center of your parchment paper.
- With the flaps facing up, dust the parchment liberally with flour and place a portion of dough in the center of the square. Dust the top of the dough with flour as well, then fold the parchment along your creases to make an "envelope" around your dough.
- Place it on your rolling surface, flap sides down and roll the dough from the center toward the corners as directed above. Remove the dough carefully to avoid tearing.
Thank you for the excellent k i f f l e recipe with all the specific directions… today’s my day to make these fantastic cookies
Once they’re made I am ready with my cup of coffee to devour as many as I can
Where can I find the pastry fillings for these cookies?
I live in Windsor, On. Canada
Hi Carol,
The Solo fillings are becoming somewhat difficult to find, particularly in small quantities. Amazon is a possibility, but I think your best bet would be to contact Solo directly.
Here is a link: https://www.solofoods.com/products/cake-pastry-fillings.
Carol: I made the lekvar (prune filling) in about 15 mins and it was perfect. I bought Sunsweet pitted prunes, put in a sauce pan & covered them with water. Bring to a boil lower to low & cook until soft (you may need to add a tad more water). Put in a food processor until smooth put back in pan with a little sugar. I used 16 oz of prunes to 1/4 cup of sugar since they are naturally sweet. I also used apricot preserves. Whatever your family likes!
This is great information, Susan. Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
My family makes walnut filling with 1.5-2cups ground walmuts, 3/4-1 cup granulated sugar, 3-5 tables spoons of milk, and on tsp almond extract. You just mix it together until combined. The goal is to be well moistened but not runny. It’s my favorite filling.
What filling is traditional
Almond, walnut, lekvar (plum), poppy seed, apricot are all ones my familt have used for several generations. Usually walnut! It’s my favorite!
Where can I order these kiffles
Hi Hilma,
Thanks for getting in touch. We only share the recipe for making your own kiffles at home, but here are a few places online that sell them already made:
https://www.kifflekitchen.com/
https://buttermaidbakery.com/
https://www.wolfermans.com/
I can’t vouch personally for any of them, but the ones from Butter Maid Bakery have an ingredient list that reads most like our homemade ones. Hope this helps.
I am hungarian. Never ever met a traditional pastry with creamcheese in our cuisine……. but it can be delicious. Trying to make it.
Hello.
I’ve been making kiflis for many years using a fairly comparable recipe, only I also add a shot of whisky to the dough to improve the baking process.
You may consider using generous amount of powdered sugar in place of flour when sheeting and forming.
While it is a bit more challenging to form and fold, the end result is amazingly delicious and addictive.
If and when I have leftover, I store it in the freezer (in freezer bag) and reheat in toaster oven to make them crispy again.
Please give it a try.
My Great Grandmother’s recipe calls for sour cream not cream cheese in the dough. The fillings she used were poppyseed, a pecan filling and a walnut filling. You cook the nuts with milk and sugar on the stove till the sugar is dissolved. Let it cool before filling the pastries.
Any chance we could have the recipes for the filling s? Thanks!!
Hi Carol,
We generally use Solo cake and pastry fillings which you can find at Walmart. We are working on a couple of homemade versions though and if you scroll the comments on this post, there are a few readers that have shared their recipes.
I make my own fillings so they are as thick as I like. In a pinch, I put a can of cherry pie filling in the blender to puree it and then very slowly cooked it in a saucepan on low heat until a lot of the water steamed out. It turned into a thicker pastry filling and was delicious in the final product. I usually make all of my fruit fillings with dried apricot and prunes. Add water to cover and a cup of sugar (I like it sweet) and cook over low heat until soft and thick. I puree it in the blender and store in refrigerator containers until I’m ready. I make my own nut and poppy seed fillings, too. It’s worth learning how because it tastes so much better than the canned pastry fillings.
Hi Shell,
All of your ideas for homemade fillings are terrific and I look forward to trying them. Thank you so much for sharing.
I’ve making these for years but never knew what they were called. Since I use to make about 24 different kinds of cookies at Christmas time for gifts, primarily for my father who had everything, I did not want to make so many. I cut the recipe down. Your recipe is a very exact way of making them – excellent detail. I used jam as a filling, not pie filling, but if I was to serve just these, say for a luncheon, I would try your recipe exactly. ( My cookies would always open while backing so I used a toothpick to keep them down. Still had to press them together when they came out of the oven. ) Thank you for sharing.
Hi
Thank you for the great recipe and post. I am definitely going to try these, as well as the parchment paper guide to rolling out the dough.
Please let me know if you’ve ever tried the yeast method of making kifli.. I usually make the cream cheese version, but have been seeing recipes with yeast. I was just wondering how they turn out. I would think they would rise.. but anyway I will try your recipe. They look beautiful and a nice thickness which I love.. thank you- Janet
I make a yeast version of this cookie, my Mom called it Kipful. They are difficult to keep fresh so I make them the day before Christmas Eve so they don’t dry out before we eat them.