Best Cream Cheese Cookies With Lekvar Filling Recipes

CREAM CHEESE COOKIES I

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease cookie sheets.
• In a large bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in flour until well blended. Drop dough by spoonfuls or use a cookie press to place onto prepared cookie sheets. If using floral cookie press design, make an indentation in the center with a thimble, fill with preserves, or press candy into center.
• Bake for 15 minutes in preheated oven. Cookies should be pale.

CREAM CHEESE-FILLED COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Shape into two 12-in. rolls; wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. , Unwrap and cut into 1-in. slices. Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheet. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately make an indentation in the center of each cookie using the end of a wooden spoon handle. Remove to wire racks to cool. , In a small bowl, combine the filling ingredients. Place 2 teaspoonfuls in the center of each cookie. Let stand until set. In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and butter; stir until smooth. Drizzle over cookies. Store in the refrigerator.

HUNGARIAN KIFFLES

Steps:

• 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.
• 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).
• 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.
• 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.
• 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

CREAM CHEESE COOKIES WITH LEKVAR FILLING

Steps:

• Blend in bowl with a wire pastry blender until dough forms together. Roll out like pie crust on a lightly floured surface. Cut in 2 X 2 inch squares. Put a dab of Apricot or Prune Lekvar in the middle of square. Filling: 1 lb. of dried Apricots -OR- pitted dried Prunes water to just cover 1 cup of sugar It is easy to make the fruit filling for Kipfels and filled cookies. Take a pound of dried fruit, either apricots or prunes, and put them in a sauce pan to cover with water and set them on the stove to cook. Do not let all the water evaporate or the Lekvar will burn. Add a little more water to keep this from happening. Once the fruit is soft add to the fruit one cup of sugar and further cook until thick. Remove from pot and puree with a food mill or a cuisinart. The puree will should be thick, not runny. If it is runny, cook till it is thick. Ladle the puree into pint sized freezer bags. These bags can be frozen until you need them or used right away. By cutting off a small corner, the bag now becomes a pastry bag which can be used to squeeze the puree onto the kipfel before it is rolled or folded up. This saves a lot of time and mess. You will want to make both prune and apricot. You will have some filling left over that be kept frozen until you need it. Then just cut off the corner of the plastic pouch and you are ready to go. Lekvar is also used as fillings for cookies. Take up two of the opposite corners and bring the two corners together with a squeeze over the dab of Lekvar. Note: If you have a pie crust trimmer with a crimped wheel, you can use this to cut all the 2 X 2 squares. It makes a beautiful presentation. All the pastry edges have serrated edges. Bake on a buttered and floured cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Do not let burn. Dust with Powdered Sugar.