Because if I don’t mention this today I believe my husband will pop out of lurkdom and tsk-tsk me publicly for it, let me own up to one thing: I snore. Just kidding! I emphatically do not snore, not even when I have had wine with dinner and a lingering head cold and it would have been completely understandable. Not even then.
Wow, that was totally not what this post was supposed to be about. Let me try again, from the place where I own up to something: I often get really cranky with recipes when I cook. Why wasn’t this tested better? Would it have killed them to add this highly relevant detail? How many editorial hands did this recipe pass through and not a single one of them could have corrected this bogus weight? It’s not pretty and, tellingly, the tendency has only become exacerbated since I began writing my own cookbook. It leads to a lot of grumpiness in the kitchen. A recipe I feel would benefit from an overhaul is a needling reminder that even with a team of very able people involved, perfection is unattainable and one day someone will be standing in a kitchen wondering how nobody saw that inevitable typo in my book and lordy, is it too early for a drink?
So last Thursday, I decided to make some delightful looking cookies from The Gourmet Cookie Book as a hostess gift for our Christmas Eve dinner. Plus, I love a recipe that calls for something I’m trying to use up, in this case, a brick of farmer cheese. But the recipe put me in a bad mood. [This is the part I am supposed to own up to, says my husband, as he had to listen to me complain about the recipe for an hour.] First, it told me I’d have more than enough cheese when I barely had enough which sent me into a fit of “Should you pack the measuring cup? Should it fall loosely in there? This recipe is from 1973, at no time over the last 37 years could they have inserted that important detail?” and other distractions. Then, I was mixing the dough and I checked and rechecked and what? Where was the sugar? What kind of cookie doesn’t have sugar in it? It would be terrible. Or, perhaps, there isn’t supposed to be any sugar but don’t you think they should mention that in the headnote so people don’t become alarmed? I spent 15 minutes debating whether I should follow the recipe or add sugar, getting increasingly grumpy with each (uh, single-step) pace of the kitchen floor before deciding to the take the recipe at its obviously incorrect word. When it was time to roll out the cookies, I was positive that they’d open up and jelly would burn up all over the pan and really felt more detail was warranted on how to avoid this. I really sound like fun, don’t I? Hey, who wants me to review their cookbook?!
I hope you know where this is going: These are some of the best things I have ever made. Oh, if I could go back in time and just tell myself to shut it, awesomeness is nigh I would. Instead, I will tell you this so you can make your way through this recipe with serenity. What came out of the oven was a veritable dream, a cross between a croissant and rugelach with the kind of pillowy flaky layers pastry chefs work tirelessly to achieve through focused applications of regimented amounts of butter to floury doughs. But you can pull it off with 10 minutes and a big mixing bowl. The absent sugar that I fretted over is its greatest feat: just a light dusting of powdered sugar and the sweetness of the jam (and I find most jams very sweet) within carries the whole cookie to the perfect coda, that I’d normally classify as “grown-up sweet” but it turns out 15 month-olds don’t mind them much either.
One year ago: Pear Bread and Parmesan Cream Crackers
Two years ago: Braised Beef Short Ribs with Potato Puree, Swiss Chard and Horseradish Cream and Gramercy Tavern’s Gingerbread
Three years ago: Blue Cheese Iceberg Wedge and Linxe’s Chocolate Truffles
Four years ago: Pecan Squares, Boozy Baked French Toast and Onion Soup
Crescent Jam and Cheese Cookies
Adapted from The Gourmet Cookie Book
We are so infatuated with these cookies that I’m breaking my Never Post About Cookies Right After Christmas, When The World Is Cookie-d Out, Rule to tell you about them today. We want to fill them with Nutella, with chocolate chips. We want to try out different jams and maybe even some of that exalted chestnut paste. Plus, having no sugar in them, they seem destined for savory applications to, be it herbed goat cheese or a slip of caramelized onions.
Makes about 30 cookies
2 sticks (1 cup, 8 ounces or 227 grams) unsalted butter, softened
7.5 ounces farmer cheese (a lowfat cottage/ricotta-style cheese; I buy mine from Friendship)*
2 tablespoons (1 ounce or 30 grams) sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups (8 3/4 ounces or 250 grams) all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling cookies out
1/4 teaspoon salt
Jam or preserves (I used raspberry)
Milk, for brushing cookies
Powdered sugar, for dusting
Cream butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Force cheese through a sieve right onto creamed butter and stir it in. Add the sour cream and vanilla and combine the mixture well. Whisk or sift together flour and salt in a separate bowl and gradually blend it into the cheese mixture. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill it for at least 3 hours.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll one-fourth of the dough out very thinly on a lightly floured surface and chill the remaining dough until it is to be used. Cut the dough into 3-inch squares** and put about 1/2 teaspoon jam or preserves in the center of each. Fold the dough in half on the diagonal, pressing firmly down to seal the two sides around the jam. Roll the triangle into crescents, starting at the wide end. Arrange crescents on a baking sheet (they won’t expand terribly much, so just an inch or so between them is fine), brush them lightly with milk and bake them for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are golden. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and dust them with powdered sugar. Continue making cookies in the same manner until all the dough is used.
* Or enough pot cheese to fill a 1 cup measure once forced through a sieve. (Pot cheese is the primary recommendation of the recipe, but I didn’t test it with this so cannot provide a definite weight.)
** For the first batch, I used a ruler and a knife and honestly, it is always a pain to try to cut dough into a perfect grid. The second batch, I remembered I’d just bought some square cookie cutters and hoo boy, it sure sped things up!
These look amazing! I must try them soon!
Such cute little crescents. I usually don’t like jam in my cookies but these may change my mind!
Great looking cookies! I think I can fit in a few more cookies! I’m thinking of all the different types of jams that would be great in these. Mmm, apricot…
These look amazing. Do you think ricotta could be substituted for farmer’s cheese, if I can’t find it at my grocery store?
Hi Mira — I am definitely expecting some questions on substitutions! I’m too neurotic to recommend anything I haven’t tested in my kitchen but if you promise to take my advice with a caveat: I think that ricotta is a bit wetter than farmer cheese (some more than others). What I might do is leave it in a coffee filter for a while so some of the water/whey drains off and when it looks more like that brick you see in the second photo as in, able to hold a shape but still very damp (the paper it sits on is not transluscent, it is actually soaked from the cheese, for reference) you should be good to go. Hope that helps.
Jam and a flaky pastry = heaven for me! Can’t wait to try them :)
After you have ranted about these cookies even though it is after Christmas I must make them!
That does look fancy and impressive. Those are the kind of cookies a girl makes when she wants to wear her “domestic goddess” hat.
Mmm, totally making these as soon as I return from my trip :-)
These remind me of the pastries we make here in Puerto Rico, quesitos and pastelillitos so good with coffee in the morning @__@ must make this with guava jam
These look amazing!!! I was just starting to wonder what I should bring to a potluck New Year’s Eve Party, and I think these will be perfect! Thank you so much, and have a Happy and Healthy New Year!!!
Oh, these look phenomenal!
I was reading this thinking, man, I am sooo cookie’d out. And then I reached the part about the Nutella and all was right with the cookie world again.
Ah, hindsight is over-rated;). I know not usually living in it – keeps me humble! I believe I will be making these before a new year apprpaches!:9
Deb,
I am always looking for holiday cookies *without* nuts, since my daughter has a nut allergy. She LOVES raspberry jam and powdered sugar of course, and we both love moons.
I am going to be making these this week for New Years!
THANKS!!!!
These sound amazing! It seems like the recipes that drive us crazy at first end up being the ones that ultimately reward us the most! LOL!
Hi Deb – My square cookie cutter is 2 5/8″ (as I noticed is the one you linked to on Amazon). I’m assuming it’s okay that it’s not quite 3″, yes?
Use it, but use a scant half-teaspoon of jam inside each. I measured the largest square at 2 3/4 inches.
What a curious cookie. I wonder if Whole Foods would have Farmer Cheese, I’ve never even heard of it. And your little darling is, of course, the cutest taste tester around ;)
..and this may sound silly, but I would advise people to let the cookies cool before dusting with the powdered sugar, or they might end up with a sticky mess :)
I would eat dairy for these little nuggets of love! The first picture of them reminded me of a chocolate filled cookie a neighbour used to make all the time. I was very young, but I do remember the cookie not being very sweet, but with the gooey chocolate you didn’t notice. I may have to make these, in a few weeks of course.
Your comments on recipes are the reason why I prefer cooking over baking. If I think it needs something, I add it. If there are steps missing, I make it up. But baking, that’s a science that you cannot mess with too much. But my all time favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe comes from me misreading the recipe and also adding in a few of my own things.
This reminds me of a Christmas cookie my friend makes — similar dough, crescent shape, and powdered sugar, but with an almond paste in the middle. She says they’re a Polish cookie, and calls them kieflies (I am sure I’m spelling that incorrectly). Our friends wait all year for these cookies. I’m willing to bet these would be just as delicious…
These pastries sounds heavenly. I sometimes enjoy these recipes that are less precise, it gives you more latitude to personalize them.
I definitely want to try these.
How well do they keep? They look like they might be the kind of thing best eaten right away.
haha, I love hearing about how you fuss over recipes. This is why I know your cookbook is going to be awesome (no pressure!). I keep reading about the Gourmet Cookie book on other blogs and need to go check it out. These cookies look so good, especially with as little that is in them. Also: square cookie cutters = brilliant!
You and me both — typos and errors drive me crazy! Also, there is never a bad time for another cookie recipe. :)
those look so good, and my mind is definitely thinking about what types of savory uses that dough could carry.
Hi Deb, I am a frequent visitor who does not comment but I must concur on your editorial rant! I have been raving about your recipes for months and I tell everyone how wonderfully detailed your recipes always are. Seriously. I have fancy, hardcover cookbooks I spent $50 on that don’t do it so well. And I am also pretty upset I missed these for Christmas. They look amazing, and will go on my long list of your recipes to try. And please, count at least 10 of your future cookbooks already sold. I am buying one for myself and everyone I know.
Mmmm! I for one, am never opposed to cookie recipes. It’s cold and so rainy that the locks on my car stopped working. I don’t have the energy to pretend I’m going to eat nothing but salad.
I will most likely have to make do with ricotta. There’s so much that is a holy Grail for me and commonplace for you. I did see chestnuts at Trader Joe’s though!
My god, these look amazing. THank you!
I was looking at that cookbook at Borders and I definitely questioned the taste of the people in the 70s and earlier. Glad to see that the oddities came together!
These look phenomenal, but I’m nursing twins and can’t have cow’s milk because they’re sensitive to it. If you wanted to share a thought about subbing goat cheese, I’d br your very best friend. I was thinking caramelized onions inside?
I share your recipe frustration but sometimes in reverse: today in the midst of baking a cake I realized I was about to run out of sugar and debated back and forth about whether I could skip the last 1/2 cup or whether it would totally mess up the ratios. silly me. these crescent cookies, however, would make a lovely surprise snack (or breakfast?) for overnight guests. thanks!
Wow these look super delish! Now, if they only made cream cheese lactose free, the world would be a better place. Thanks :)
I often feel that way about recipes. Which means your cookbook should be great! It’s already on my wishlist. :-)
Mei, tofutti makes it but I haven’t tried it. I think my trader joe’s carries it.
Love the little prologue about snoring :) and the cookie recipe looks really lovely! Am still in a holiday baking mood since I only made 1 cookie recipe this whole season!
Mmmmmmmm, I think I may have to try either my lavender or violet jams with these. Thanks for the giggle (sounds frighteningly familiar) AND the recipe.
I do not snore either, although my husband tells me that sometimes I make very ladylike sounds when I sleep….I choose to believe that he is not referring to snoring. The recipe looks lovely!
Hi Deb!
First time commenter, long time recipe follower. Do you think that I could use regular cottage cheese in these? Or should I just do the ricotta-cheese thing you suggested earlier?
Thanks so much!
Due to a holiday vacation, my cookie exchange is in Jan so this recipe is perfect timing. I can’t wait for your cookbook…btw, do you need recipe testers?!? I’m great at following directions. ;-)
I was just at my in-laws’ for Christmas where my husband’s aunt was baking up a huge batch of these – the Polish call them kolacky? But she used cream cheese. I wanted the recipe because I have a huge batch of homemade too-sweet jam and this sounds like the perfect application. Thanks!
I woke up, saw this recipe, and an hour later my dough is sitting chilled in the fridge. I haven’t even changed out of my pyjamas =]
Oh my GOSH these sound good. I love not-too-sweet sweets. Perfect.
These look great, but truly I commented to squee over your little boy, his tummy pudge, and the jammy drippings of an obviously delectable cookie down his front. Oh, and I second whomever up there offered herself as a recipe tester. (Pick me, pick me!) Happy New Year to you and yours!
Oh Deb, I adore each and every blog entry. I love your voice and style. I can’t wait for your cookbook! Thank you for this blog. — Sarah in Portland, OR
These cookies look so delicious! I would love to try them, even if you did snore!
I’m constantly trying to see how much sugar I can cut out of a dessert recipe. This is the best yet: no sugar in the cookie. Cool!
Kathleen
Lovely! Your photos are what totally suck me in. Cookbooks never, ever have enough pictures for me! I especially love the ones of the process, so I can tell if I’m doing it right.
Speaking of details in recipes, I’m dying to try these, but not until I find out what you mean by rolling them out “very thin.” It’s hard to tell from the picture. I’m one of those cooks, like you, who likes to have exact instructions!
These cookies look delicious. I agree with the exact directions too and side notes for recipes that tell you that a usually necessary ingredient is missing on purpose.
these look beautiful! the recipe reminds me very much of an old polish cookie called kolaczki. we used cream cheese in the dough. my grandmother put powdered sugar on top, but my mother prefers to sprinkle on granulated sugar before baking so you get a little extra sweetness plus the crisped sugar. apricot was always my favorite.
http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polishdesserts/r/kolaczki.htm
I recently bought the Gourmet cookie book just for the Bourbon Ball recipe, and I ended up marking almost every page as ‘must make someday.’ This recipe, though, was a ‘must make really soon’ bookmark. Now I really have to try it–they sound absolutely delicious. I’m ready to be less indulgent now that the holidays are pretty much over, but I think there’s still room for these. plus, I’m really in to not-too-sweet cookies right now.
And I know exactly what you mean about the recipe thing–I drive myself crazy, too. Sometimes I fix the recipe and it’s a good thing, and sometimes I ‘fix’ it and realize I should have left it alone.
Hi Deb, I come from Austria originally and know of these crescents with sweet and savoury fillings. I’d like to try out your version but am used to metric measurements. How many grams of farmers’ cheese would I use? We do have a simple formula of 1 part butter, 1 part cheese and 1 part flour of 250g each but this does not apply to your recipe. By the way, a walnut filling is superb as well. Cheers from sunny Australia, Ingrid
These look wonderful and I will try them out this Friday for new Years, but I think I also might make a savory batch as you had mentioned and put a little cheesy-nutty-veggie inside! What wonderful little morsels! Thanks for this recipe :)
Mmmm. Yes, please. That sounds like the perfect breakfast with a hot cup of tea.
And yes, I eat cookies for breakfast sometimes. I apologize for nothing. ;)
Your cookbook will be something to look forward to because I print out all your yummy recipes and stash them in my cupboards. I made your apple cider donuts this fall and couldn’t stop eating them. Wow they were delicious. These little cookie things look very good.
oh my! these looks amazing! definitely my kind of cookie!
These look delicious, and the absence of sugar would be a welcome relief right now.
these look fabulous and for post # 10 – guava jam??? mmmm…what a wonderful thought to wake up to!
Very interesting that cheese is incorporated in the dough. And I presume these cookies will disappear twice as fast – low sugar = guilt free = eat more:)
Deb,
These look and sound fabulous :) I am already a fan of the jam/cheese combo so these are going on my (ridiculously lengthy) must-make list!
for those that can’t get farmers cheese at their local shop (like me) here is a link to a recipe for it. (I hope I’m allowed to do this?)
http://americanfood.about.com/od/appetizersandsoups/r/farmercheese.htm
I haven’t tried it yet but it looks easy.
@ Ingrid: 7.5 ounces = 215 g
I have a handy iPhone app to do metric conversions for me, as I also don’t use the American measuring system.
Thanks for describing “Farmer” cheese! Around here, what they call Farmer cheese is definitely not any where close to cottage or ricotta. Gotta try this cookies–as soon as I get my kitchen back. It is being attacked today by workmen removing a wall so I can install my “new” old kitchen wood stove :-)
i enjoy baking rugelach & this is such a nice twist…
rugelach is freezer friendly (assemble & freeze) then glaze & bake off as needed…i image this would whole true with crescent jam & cheese cookies…yes?
could i use ricotta? — i have bunch i made & freezed from fresh milk…
This is a basic twist on the standard KOLACHE recipe that uses cream cheese instead of farmer’s cheese and then then adds a bit of sour cream to the recipe. I would recommend a classic poppyseed filling or prune filling, for sure.
thanks for figuring out the cheese issue for us! my husband would LOVE these cookies
This is tooooooo much – I have EVERY ingredient in the house! OH NO – I don’t need another cookie in our house – but lemme tell you, our UPS driver is some lucky dude!
These remind me of a Polish cookie my grnadmother makes calls “kolachi”, however, we use cream cheese in the dough instead of farmers. Sometimes my grandmother rolls the dough in powdered sugar/flour mix (since theres no sugar in the dough), it lends a slight sweetness to the cookie. The traditional jam is apricot and prune. I will try the creasnt shape since I often fret over lost jam. Thanks for the post!
And here I thought I was just going to skip over this post. Glad I didn’t – I love the sound of these and LOVE the idea of making them savory! BTW, you’re not the only one grumbling about recipes, wishing the directions were more clear or questioning something that seems amiss. I think we all do that to some extent!
I’m so cranky when recipes are problematic that I start swearing like a trucker…or worse.
That said, I’m glad you went into detail on the end result, because I usually find cookies with jam to be cloying. Now, however, this is a recipe I’ve bookmarked and will try someday soon.
looks so good!
Ha! I have been there, stressed over whether to follow a recipe strictly or make a change because it seems something has been left out of the recipe. I mean who wants to spend all that time and all those ingredients and then have the recipe fail. And yet, with recipes that I have made for years and then shared on my blog, I think I leave out details because they just seem too obvious to me or I do something automatically without thinking, so I forget to add it to the recipe notes. Tricky business!
-Brenda
you had me laughing at the snore comment. neither do i, but i used my flip video cam to show my wife she does. all in good fun though.
i love how there is only powdered sugar in these cookies. the flavor profile is not compromised because you have the butter and cheese. caramelized onions is a fantastic pairing with goat cheese also.
have a great day in nyc
well, dear deb, all i can say is ‘hallelujah!’…as a diabetic for over 30 years, i am always looking for yummy, semi-healthy munchies……with the utilization of either all-fruit already made jam, or simple dry fruit home-made concoctions i too, can become a member of cookie-heaven.
thank you.
How far ahead do you think I could make these for a party and not lose quality? They look heavenly.
Friendship makes a “Pot” style cottage cheese. It is sold at WholeFoods.
These sound fabulous and your little one is over the moon adorable!
When I was a child my mother used to make these cookies filled with lokum.
Heaven.
Nope just in time for our Christmas on New Year’s day party…everyone will be home and have time off finally. My Mom thought the snow was really pretty and she was a lucky one to get a flight home as quickly as she did. It’s funny how sometimes the most frustrating recipe comes out the best. And I really wish publishers would hire me as a proof-reader. I would work for you for free, especially if taste testing is involved too. Happy New Year!
What is the purpose of pushing the cheese through the seive first?
Hillary — It breaks up any bigger clumps and makes it soft and silky enough that it easily mixes with the butter.
Jen — I wouldn’t make them more than a day in advance. They begin to get stale. You could, however, assemble the cookies and freeze them, baking them directly from the freezer when needed.
Shannon — I definitely avoided naming a thickness. My feeling was that you should roll them as thin as is comfortable, without them being translucent or hard to pick up. Because you’re doubling the dough by folding it over and then rolling it up, it can get very thick. Gourmet, however, says that you shouldn’t go thinner than 1/8-inch. I might have at times, though not by much.
Firstly, knowing your blog, I expect that there will be minimal typos and issues with your cookbook. Unlike most recipes I find on the internet, I rarely need to make any substitutions when I make one of your recipes, so I keep making more and more of your recipes (including the heavenly mushroom stilton galette recipe for Christmas this year). I can’t wait to read your cookbook and start cooking from it. I know it’s going to become one of my favorite cookbooks (and I hope that at least one galette is making it into the cookbook, by the way).
These cookies sound delicious and kind of German-esque cause I’ve had similar jam rolls at German bakeries.
My daughter got that book for Channukah and is working her way through them- so far all amazing- I swear she is sleeping with the book under her pillow.
Deb,
These are so close to my Austrian Grandma’s recipe that is a must on the Christmas cookie tray. She used very well drained SMALL CURD COTTAGE CHEESE if farmer’s wasn’t available. We make a nut, sugar, cinnamon mix which is our favorite. Would you believe without the sugar and so much butter it is quite low calorie( relatively speaking)— all the more reason to make them!
Jacob will have such sweet memories of waiting for hot treats from your oven!!!!
I just have to tell you that I appreciate the effort you take to make sure recipes are tried and true! There hasn’t been one thing I’ve made from your blog (and I’ve made serveral!) that hasn’t been outstanding!! Thanks!
Long-time reader (and huge fan!), first-time commenter. My best friend is allergic to eggs, and I love to bake, which means I am always on the lookout for desserts she can eat. This is definitely getting made soon. Thanks so much for posting!
Would it work to press the cheese through a ricer rather than a sieve? Or would that not get it into a fine enough crumb?
Ah, you crack me up! These cookies sound delicious, and I have some apricot jam just waiting to be used…. And the Jacob! Oh, the Jacob!
It’s 9 AM. I want these for breakfast.
These look like Hungarian kiffel but your recipe is much more complex. To make my pastry dough, I use 1 lb butter, 1 lb cream cheese, 1 lb flour. I mix it, break the large ball of dough into 4 or 5 smaller ones, flatten them, and put them in the fridge for 1 hour. I roll, cut, stuff, and bake for 25 minutes. These are a holiday tradition.
I can’t wait to try these cookies! Perfect for my husband who can’t eat sugar but can eat fruit sweetened jams. I’ll just skip the dusting of powedered sugar for him.
I am drooling at work! These look scrumptious ( I never normally use that word). Definetly worth breaking the no- cookie- recipes- after- christmas- deal.
I want to make these with strawberry preserves and a few chocolate chips in each one! I also love the links to pictures – the recipe-related ones are helpful, and the baby-related ones are just a delight!
Hey, these are just like the rugelah that I make, only a different shape (plus I do an egg with milk wash.) This kind of dough is devine and pretty much fool-proof.
Love this story! I’m a recipe follower myself. So when the recipe is wrong, confusing, incomplete – it just makes me nuts. I talk up a storm (to myself) in the kitchen. My family just stays away until I produce something yummy to eat. Or show them my disaster and retreat to the couch in a humph.
Glad it all worked out for you. I might just have to try these little delights!
What do you use to sanitize your counters before you roll dough out on it (and all the other cooking you do on it)? I’m always scared my cookies are going to taste like lysol. If you know of something a little more organic to clean counters I’d love to know.
Man, I would take that dough recipe and just cook and and eat it, so the idea of adding jam is amazing. I would host a lot more dinners if I got these as gifts!
Julie, try simply soaking a clean rag with water, then using it to wipe down your counters. However, if you’re afraid things will taste of a cleaner, you may want to use less – or use something else entirely.
um, i’m in love. these are the most amazing cookies ever! i’m all for the sweet/savory thing…sounds like these bad boys will deliver ;)
This recipe is a lot like a recipe for cheese crescents from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest (1 cup butter, 2 cups flour, 1 cup cottage cheese). Katzen calls for the dough to be rolled out and shaped like rugelach. There is no sieving of the cottage cheese in the recipe, and it still works.
I snore. Not always, but especially when I’ve got a head-cold and/or had a drinky or three. But I’d never admit to it either :).
Thank you for your post. I was debating if I should buy the Gourmet Cookie book. The reviews on Amazon are mixed, but after reading your post I will not buy it.
Having grown up in the Bronx, we know that Pot cheese and Farmer cheese are NOT the same thing. Sad to say, though, no one outside of Manhattan recognizes that difference – or sells it. I live in a suburb of Boston and even the Russian groceries don’t carry Pot Cheese. Of course, Zabar’s does.
Pot Cheese is a smaller and irregular curd cottage cheese without the creamy fluid, sold loose in a container. It is delicious and almost sweet tasting. Farmer Cheese is dry and dense with a very very small curd, sold in a brick like form. Farmer Cheese is great for making blintz filling – especially if you put it through a sieve. Pot cheese is great for that too- but also lovely on its own. Which are you using for these cookies?
Lovely! Though, I wonder what these would be like without jam.
Deb- I recently got that book and had the same problem. Two out of the three came out great and the third was a disaster. I have to go back and redo it to find out if it was me or the book. I also find that they replace things in the notes, and not in the recipe which further confuses the issue!
But these look delectable.
Thank you for posting both metric and English measures! Made it so much easier to pick up these ingredients at the grocery store today in Italy. I purchased ricotta instead of farmers cheese and will need to sub sour cream with yogurt. Just can’t get sour cream over here. Will make tomorrow and post results!
Farmer Cheese is mostly available around here around Passover. Which got me thinking…I frequently end that holiday with too much jam and cheese in the fridge. And since it doesn’t call for a leavening…think these would sail with matzah meal? Potato flour?
And on the irritating recipe note: I’ve given up on all but my most reliable recipes – even the World Peace Cookies have been tossed. There’s something funny about what I’m doing – the last 2-3 years (since I moved into this house) *nothing* has come out right. I went back to my favorite recipe writer – Maida Heatter – and had instant success.
Because there was a woman who tested her recipes.
Hmmm, I really like the concept of doing them with savory fillings. I might give that a try as part of the New Years Eve table of tasty nibbles. It would be especially fun since I could do all different fillings with all the lovely jars of tasty things currently in the fridge…..of that lovely jar of artichoke & red pepper tapenade that I found in my stocking……I’ll report back.
These look amazing!!
I absolutely love jam in cookies. I basically just love cookies! I bet you could try lots of different flavors or ingredients in the crescents (Nutella anyone?)
I had something similar in Hungary with either a ground walnut/spice filling or a poppy seed filling. Delicious!
So you took that block on the paper and pushed it through the wire mesh in the photo below and it looks like what you have in the container? (I know silly Q probably but just beginning baking and want to make sure I know what you meant. :) )
I am going to make my own farmers cheese by the recipe on Allrecipes in less you recommend another.
Thank you for posting we are very excited to do this with our homeschoolers. : )
Oh I just ran my cursor and saw your tags in the photo. THANK YOU!
Ohh… I may have to try these with a herbed/savory style instead of the jam. yummy.
As a couple of other people have commented, this is a variation on a kolachy. Instead of farmers cheese + sour cream, just use an 8oz brick of cream cheese. Every Polish-American person I know in the Chicagoarea is familiar with kolachy, but the cookie doesn’t seem to be well known anywhere else. They are folded differently to expose the filling. Poppy seed, prune, and apricot are the most common fillings and the dusting of powdered sugar is essential.
Well, I was given that cookbook as a christmas gift this year!! I noticed those cookies the one time I have had time to flip through it and thought they looked good. Now I will definitely have to try them! Thanks for the info. ;)
PS – I just looked, I don’t have sour cream in the fridge but I do however have GREEK yogurt – I’m using that instead when I make the recipe. Like I even need to bake any more food! I think I also might need an intervention to keep me away from my kitchy!
Hi Deb,
Any idea if Ranchero/queso fresco cheese can be substituted for the Farmer’s cheese?
Deb, go savory! I make a savory rugelach with Indian-spiced carmelized red onions that’s divine. Pastry is similar in concept, with cream cheese and sour cream and filling has garam masala and cumin seeds sprinkled on top.
I make a similar cookie which actually never had a name. The recipe is from my Hungarian mother in law and I just name it after her. Lil’s Hungarian Nut Cookies.
The cookie also has no sugar in it except for the confectioners’ sugar sprinkled over top after baking. The pastry is flaky and light and the best!
I’m wondering if I’ll have enough jam – can you tell us about how much we need?
I hate it when recipes are missing key info!
However, that recipe looks amazing! I would love to try it with Nutella or Justin’s Chocolate Almond Butter! Yummo!
this also reminds me of a hungarian pastry i’ve had. these sound phenomenal.
This is similar to the recipe passed from my German/Hungarian grandmother, to my mother, to me. It is filled with a walnut filling (ground walnuts, whipped egg whites, sugar – I add amaretto) and rolled into crescents (kipferl), then dusted with powdered sugar. I also like filling the crescents with poppy seed filling.
Thanks Alison! I love doing Ricotta at home.. I think I will enjoy making Farmer’s Cheese just as much.
These look amazing..love the powdered sugared sprinkle! :)
I kept looking at these all day long, until I finally decided I had to make them tonight. They are AMAZING. I wasn’t so great at rolling them, but after taking a bite I really didn’t care. As my boyfriend pointed out (after one came unrolled and just looked like a triangle) they are quite a bit like turnovers. YUM!
Saw the photo of Jacob eating the cookie, made me melt. He’s a heart-breaker that one!!
I as well can get grumpy in the kitchen. Especially when I can’t figure something out!!! Can’t wait to make these cookies!
i made them, they are delicious! i wasn’t able to find farmer’s cheese at whole foods, but the cheese guy there recommended a similar ricotta, which worked great. my cookie cutter was 2 3/4″ which worked okay–i couldn’t quite master the crescent so i just went with triangles. no problem with powdering them right away, the sugar didn’t melt away or get sticky.
oh, AND i made them with nutella, but the jam actually tastes better.
Yeah baby a book! I can hardly wait!!! Congratulations!!!
I just bought that book yesterday {it’s on sale for half price at Crate and Barrel} and that was the first recipe I was planning to try! Thanks for taking all those hits for the team!
I can’t find Farmer Cheese! What should I do?!?!?
my local bakery sells something similar to these cookies, but yours look much better! cute and scrumptious!
Hey Deb, what about Marscapone cheese? I think it’s texture is similar to Ricotta and it’s has a delicate sweetness!
For you to break the no-cookies-after-Christmas rule is kinda a big deal. They look AMAZING, and I’m pretty excited to try them.
I had to laugh when I was making the recipe, and had some questions and doubts, as you did. For starters, I’ve never creamed butter with a mixer and I stood gaping at the bowl when the beaters instantly sucked up all the butter, so I had 2 big butter pops. lol! Needless to say, I’m a n00b, and had a few other things to work out along the way. I think those questions and doubts are fun, as they have less to do with the recipe author, and so much to do with our own confidence in our ability to succeed. (I think your recipes are fantastic, and your site is a joy to consult.)
A few homemade hacks: I used homemade ricotta that had turned out kinda rubbery. After smushing it through a colander, it was perfect for the recipe – what a great way to save a ruined batch of cheese! I didn’t have any sour cream, so I substituted yogurt and a dash of baking soda. I didn’t have powdered sugar, so I ground up some regular sugar in my coffee grinder. I used a little tea strainer to scoop up the powdered sugar and sift it over the cookies – straight out of the oven – worked fine. I also had a hard time rolling them, and some opened, but those were interesting, as they looked like gremlin mouths – good idea for Halloween!
The cookies were really sumptuous. I filled them with some spicy pear butter I had oodles of, and that my son, home visiting from college adores. These cookies provided the perfect vehicle to send him home with the pear butter wrapped in pastry goodness.
Thanks so much,
Your fan
It seems like a chevre would be about the same texture/ fat as the farmer’s cheese and would be delicious with a savory filling– or even a not too sweet jam. Deb, I know that you do not like to make predictions when you have not tested things, but if this seems way off, it would be good to have your input.
If anyone tries this, please post the results. I am not making treats for around the house for a few months, but if no one else has done the experiment by then, I will give it a go.
Happy New Year everyone! May the new year find you all in the kitchens you deserve!
I should have mentioned in my earlier comment…I substituted cream cheese, and the pastry came out looking like the pictures with regard to color and flakiness.
Actually, the pastry dough held up so well to the jam, I want to try it for a full pie crust some time.
I JUST made these for the first time last week (with apricot jam). My husband’s great-grandmother was from Austria and she made these every Christmas. They call them kipfels. The recipe they use only has 5 ingredients: butter, cream cheese, eggs, flour, apricot jam. (Ok, 6 if you count confectioner’s sugar to sprinkle on top after baking). I thought it was a cookie recipe so I spent a lot of my time cursing while working with the dough (it’s more like pastry making than cookie making). Next time I would use parchment paper b/c some of my jam did leak out onto my pan.
It was all worth it b/c they tasted wonderful and my in-laws were very touched that I made them.
I’ve put the butter and goat cheese out to soften, the fresh basil is snipped, I’m heading to the market to buy a a new head of garlic, an onion, and some farmer cheese. I’m making a variety of sweet and savory… I just happen to have powdered sugar on hand for the first time in years, because I iced gingerbread cookies last week!
These jam-filled crescents are awesome. I could enjoy these with a glass of wine or a good cup of coffee.
btw, it’s never too early for a drink (laugh).
Happy New Year! Looking forward to your posts in 2011.
Velva
Ooh I have homemade ginger-orange marmalade from Christmas and farmer’s cheese is very easy to make. I think I’ll do half savory for my husband who doesn’t like sweets (crazy, but more for me!).
I live in a small town, 2 hours away from the nearest city, where it is impossible to find Farmer’s Cheese. Any suggestions for a good substitution?
oh wow, these look soo delicious. mmm mmmmm.
Hi. I live in Turkey and I’m a big fan of your site! I’m making these cookies right now for a New Year’s party tomorrow. The dough is chilling in the fridge. I used a mild Turkish farmer cheese called Lor peyniri and instead of sour cream (which I can’t get here) I used extra-thick strained Turkish yogurt (süzme yo?urt). I hope they turn out because yours look SO good!
Farmers Cheese (Friendship) is available at Fairway all year.
Is there a substitute for the sieve? I don’t have one….
Bogus recipe ingredients have brought back terrible memories of a so called”easy” lemon tart that called for the rinds of SEVEN lemons. It was terrible. All that rind in one 8 inch tart. Maybe it was just me, but I swear, SEVEN lemons. Oh, and , naturally, the cookies look amazing!
I would make these every Christmas with my grandma (a very good cook) and haven’t made them in about 20 years now. I am planning to make them with my kids tomorrow. Thanks for reminding me of a special time long ago.
what beautifully delicious-looking cookies!
happy new year!
I made the cookies and the dough is super amazing. However, I could not, no matter what I did, stop the filling from leaking out. I pinched each one 3 times. I put a little milk around the edges to help seal them and I even took a fork and went around the edge and then pinched them again, but they still leaked. What’s the secret, Deb? What did I do wrong? Thanks for another fantastic recipe!!! Linda
These look delicious! Conversely, my grandfather gave me a recipe for tart dough that went something like “a pound of butter, a pound of cream cheese and a pound of flour”….needless to say there was much flailing of arms at the lack of sugar and detailed direction…and they too were amazing! I can’t wait to try making these!
I haven’t had these since I was a little kid!
BTW, I always loved it when they leaked jam — it was worth the burnt fingers & lips to scrape the gooey, caramelized jam off of the cookie sheet as a prequel snack.
Try it some time! I’m looking forward to it, I’ll make sure to be a bit sloppy so that a few crescents leak.
I grew up with the Polish version which uses sweet poppyseed filling. They are magical and one of my best food memories.
Theses are very similar to the Eastern European Kolacky (Kolache), that have been my family cookie staple my whole life. No sugar, just flaky cream cheese dough and jam, cheese or poppyseed filing.
They are always a hit and perfect when you want a less sweet treat.
I just finished making these! Unfortunately, I left the powdered sugar at the store, so I will dust them tomorrow, but I had a taste test anyway. I used strawberry jam for half and half Nutella – and then I made the leftovers with Nutella too because it is SO GOOD. Nice call!
They turned out great, but I also couldn’t keep the edges together so there was significant leakage. No matter, though; dusted with powdered sugar, they look lovely and taste amazing! Thanks for the great recipe.
Mmm I get angry with recipes too sometimes so I totally understand! Happy New Year, Deb!
These are such perfect cookies! I made the Polish Apricot-Filled cookies from the 2004 December issue of Gourmet, for my family this Christmas, and they were SO delicious. The recipe is very similar, but it uses cream cheese, and they are filled with a home made apricot fruit filling. (And My 13 month old also really really enjoyed them!) But I am really glad to know about this recipe, because it sounds slightly less labor intensive, but just as incredible!
Echoing Laura, there is a similar recipe in The Settlement Cookbook. It’s for apricot horns, and the dough is made up of one pound each of flour,unsieved creamed cottage cheese and butter. This makes a very soft dough that has to be chilled, then formed into one inch balls, just two or three at a time, so they don’t soften up too much. What I’m getting at is that I think you can play around with substitutes for the farmer cheese, and still arrive at that “it’s hard to believe I achieved this in my kitchen” flaky, tender dough. Also, for Beth and anyone else who mentioned kiefle, my Serbian MOL says that the Martha Stewart recipe for Vienna Tarts (in the MS Christmas Cookbook but not on the website) tastes like the kiefle her mother used to make.
I love you. Thank you. That is all. (Um, and I’m breaking my “no more baking because I’m tired of cookies after Christmas” rule too.) Fabulous, amazing cookies!!
I’ve never eaten these type of cookies, but I’m going to make them, they look delicious. I love powdered sugar on anything.
Hi! I haven’t commented before, but I just had to on these cookies. I just made some today for my annual New Year’s Eve party. They are soooo good! I got sick of rolling and cutting though, so my leftover dough I used to make a very rustic tart-like dessert. That was delicious too. Although, I couldn’t resist adding a little too much jam–it made the tart nice and runny. Vanilla ice cream is a nice compliment.
These are my go-to cookie that I make every Christmas. I adapted my recipe from a recipe that was a lot like what it sounds like you came across: no sugar in the dough, and way less cheese than what a normal person would use (like 3 oz. of cream cheese instead of an 8 oz. package). After making them for so many years, though, my own adaptation makes much more sense, and has worked with so many jams and other yummies (a favorite is cherry preserves). Thanks for putting this recipe up, because I haven’t been able to find an online reference to these cookies of mine to give people an idea of what I’m talking about. :) Your blog is awesome!
These are amazing. I just made them with ricotta instead of farmer’s cheese (drained in a coffee filter per Deb’s suggestion) and they came out perfectly. I did a sampler of different fillings: 3 kinds of jam (rose, lemon-ginger, and cherry), chocolate chips, and caramelized onions + ricotta + parmesan. I’ve only tasted the rose and the savory ones (because after burning my mouth TWICE stuffing them in there straight from the oven I’m trying to let the rest cool before I scarf them down) but they were phenomenal.
The Russian Heritage Cookbook has an almost identical recipe: butter, farmer cheese, and flour. Then sour cherry jam in the middle. No salt, no sugar, no sour cream, no cream cheese. I never actually made them with farmer cheese because it’s too darn expensive. Instead I drained cottage cheese overnight and pressed it through a sieve. The dough turned out wonderfully tender and flaky. I tried them another time with cream cheese (because I was feeling lazy) and they turned out quite greasy and not nearly as good.
You’re making me want to dig out that recipe again! I always overfill the darn things, though. A half teaspoon of jam doesn’t seem like enough! But then they leak. Ah well. Maybe someday I’ll learn. Lol.
Sarah — I have to buy that book! Thanks for the heads-up.
Linda — Not sure, only one or two of mine leaked. I was absolutely obsessive about only putting a half-teaspoon (like, measuring teaspoon not teaspoon from the cutlery drawer) in the middle, which is a very tiny amount.
Alexandra — I don’t think anyone said they were the same thing. I used, as I mentioned, farmer’s cheese. The recipe says either can be used.
JJ — It looks like some folks in the comments have had success with draining cottage cheese very well and sieving the solids. Scroll up and you’ll see other things people have tried with success, including cream cheese! I can only attest to the farmer’s cheese that I used.
Other substitutions, mentions of mascarpone and chevre — My gut tells me that they’re too soft but if anyone tries this (or other cheeses) with success and can report back, everyone will appreciate having more options!
MJ — For 30 cookies x 1/2 teaspoon = I get 5 tablespoons. Which is 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon, or very little jam.
KatP — Looks like a good recipe on AllRecipes. My MIL makes her own from buttermilk, but I think this is better because you can start with full-fat milk while it is nearly impossible to find full-fat buttermilk north of the Mason-Dixon line!
Gale — I think a ricer would be just fine. I have an OXO one and the holes are pretty small.
I think I did everything wrong when making these. I used full fat cottage cheese. I didn’t drain it. I used whipping cream instead of sour cream (a little less) because I was out of sour cream. I did not measure my squares. I used more than 1/2 a tsp of jam (oh, boy did they leak). Every cookie was a different size (some double than others). One batch, it took me 40 min of checking and rechecking to figure out I had turned off the oven the batch before. And to NOT top it all off, I was out of powdered sugar. I think I did everything feasible to mess this cookie up.
They were soooo good (Homer Simpson Style, drool and all). Me and mine ate through the whole batch that night. They were ugly, misshapen, unpowdered, and covered in caramelized jam, but they were GOOD!
I made these yesterday for a NYE party, using queso fresco (for those looking for farmer’s cheese subs, this worked great) and strawberry and apricot jam. I was able to roll the dough pretty thin without any problems, and though I also measured the jam I still had a few leaks–no big deal, though. They were a hit!
Picture! http://flic.kr/p/96zgSY
Your’s is my new favorite food blog! simple, well written and yummy!
I feel a little disappointed when I tried a substitution of ricotta because there was no cheese taste or fragrance coming through. I shld have known because ricotta is so mild?
Do u taste the farmers cheese or cream cheese? Or does the cheese only provide for the light fluffy texture?
(Everyones been talking abt the wetness or texture but I am also wondering what farmer cheese taste like… )
Did you use the salted or un- version of farmer cheese?
caps — Oops, didn’t check. I’d guess salted, however.
I didn’t bother with the sieve…I did use caramelized onion jam for a savory cookie–a delightful snack paired with a glass of wine!
Me and a fellow devoted follower of yours made these for our New Years Eve dinner party and they were fabulous! We made caramelized onions (sauteed in truffle oil with a little salt and pepper and some wine) for the filling, omitted the powdered sugar and found that a pizza cutter was a great substitution for the knife/cookie cutter. They were delicious as appetizer accompaniments to the butternut squash soup starter. Thanks for another wonderful recipe and best wishes for a wonderful new year for you and your family!
These Were FANTASTIC! Thank you :) Made my Polish friend here in the wilds of rural Oxfordshire, UK, very happy too ;)
ps I know you guys in the US don’t make mincepies, but if any UK readers want to try these with mincemeat, they are awesome and really seasonal. YUM!
Can I just say WOW!?!? This was my first try at one of your recipes and it far exceeded my expectations. I went out and tried to hunt down the Farmers Cheese but all I could find was a pretty solid block of something yellow and wrapped in plastic labeled “Amish Farmers Cheese”. I grated it using the fine hole of grater but it looked like it would be at least two cups grated so I just used about half of it. I was very skeptical of what kind of results I would have but …. WOW. What a delicate pastry! Not too sweet, which is a nice change from the holiday overload. Thanks!
I had two wheels of rugelach dough (made with cream cheese) left from holiday cookie baking, and at your suggestion made a savory version. The filling was softened goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and herbs. delicious. I can wait to try more versions. thanks! love your blog!
Hi, I haven’t read all the comments…but I did try it with part skim ricotta (a dry one) and it produced a light “springy”, flaky dough. I filled it with Nutella…YUM! The kids were my taste testers and they gobbled it up :). My 6 years old daughter (which is the dictionary definition for “sweet tooth”) did feel the lack of sugar in the dough and commented- mom, I didn’t like the dough but I did like it- translation: go heavier with the Nutella please!. All and all, this recipe is a keeper for me because of the texture and it’s versatility. I assume that adding sugar to the dough will change the delicate nice texture, but I will try it next time. Oh…almost forgot, I decided that I will try making the Hamantaschen this year using this dough.
My mother has made these for years. They are my absolute favorite. She does it from memory and I haven’t yet learned to make them from her. Thanks for the recipe and the gorgeous pictures!
Very pleased! I used a pizza cutter with various combinations of chestnut paste, peach and raspberry jams. l am intrigued to try Nutella, savory versions and a rugelach. Thank you Deb for another “go to” recipe that I know I’ll be using for years!
I’m loving this!! The powdered sugar really adds that je-ne-sais-pas-quoi aspect to these little buddies. They’re like puffy moons. I’m looking forward to whippin’ these up for friends in the snowy midwest ;)
Thanks!
I used cottage cheese and greek yogurt, which are available here in Berlin, but I used too much jam and found them overwhelmingly sweet. I only baked 1/4, so I’ll try another 1/4 batch today with a cottage cheese filling and see if I like it better.
Happy New Year’s!
I made these yesterday and they are delicious. They are so flaky. You don’t taste the farmers cheese at all, but I’m sure the cheese is why the cookies are so flaky. I filled them with Nutella (well, the brand they sell at Whole Foods), chocolate chips, herbed goat cheese, mixed berry jam, cranberry raspberrypreserves, cream cheese, peanut butter, and then some with peanut butter and jam, and cream cheese and jam. You really need to put 1/2 teaspoon in them or they will leak. I will be making these again very soon!
Love your blog!!! I check it every day when i am supposed to be working! I substituted greek yogurt for the cheese, used ½ wheat flour, and substituted olivio spread for half the butter to cut down on calories a bit. And when i ran out of raspberry jam I used the almond/fig spread someone gave me in a gift basket. They came out great! Taste like pie crust filled with sweetness! I got 44 cookies, so they were a little smaller, but that’s ok because hubby is supposed to be on a diet. LOL, there are only 6 left! Next time I will open the other jar that came in my gift basket: carmelized onion/balsamic spread.
Just a note about the recipe. I have this book and if you read the notes at the bottom it says that 1 cup of cheese is about six ounces.
I made them with ricotta and they came out beautifully – it was Trader Joe’s ricotta, which seems a little bit drier than some other ricottas to me, so no draining was necessary. I filled some with strawberry jam, some with chocolate, and some with chocolate and peanut butter. They were all good but the jam ones were really the best because of the sweetness of the jam with the unsweetened dough. This is definitely the place to use quite sweet fillings without having the whole thing be overwhelmingly sweet. I brought them to a friend’s for dinner and all of them (including the not quite as good peanut butter and chocolate) were devoured!
jeannie — 6 ounces of sieved cheese did not fill a 1 cup measure. My entire 7.5 ounce package barely filled it, too, but since that amount worked for me, it is what I recommend. [Most of this post is about having issues with this recipe as written.]
can’t wait to try hot pepper jelly!
My Grandma Bair used to make something like this, only the filling was a cooked date/nut mixture. Yummy! I think I’ll try your savory version. I’ve some Italian poultry sausage calling to me from the freezer.
just got them out of the oven and half of them are already gone! made it with ricotta as I couldnt find farmers cheese, tastes fantastic but was a bit challenging to roll out, was a little sticky. used nutella for half and goat cheese for the other. OMG they are delicious! best pastry/cookie as of yet!
I used ricotta cheese and drained it before adding to the butter. My fillings were Nutella, Crofter’s Organic Europe Superfruit conserve, and Alouette Light Cucumber/Dill cheese. I sprinkled the later with dill and they were delicious. A sliver of smoked salmon in these savory ones would have been just the thing. I lined my baking sheets with parchment and mine baked for 17 minutes each.
Made these tonight and they are HEAVENLY! I used homemade raspberry and cherry freezer jam I made over the summer….so good, I can’t even tell you! Thank you!
Next time, try them with guava… yum.
Hoo, yes!!
We’ve been making (and inhaling) these for years, cobbled together from two old Martha Stewart recipes (back when she FEATHERED her hair, I kid you not). They are the bomb. Puts puff pastry to shame. We love it with apricot. And no sugar in the dough.
Definitely rule-breaking material, these.
These made a disaster of my kitchen, particularly my baking pan (was out of parchment paper), but they were sooo lovely! Thanks for sharing the recipe, and the encouragement – I’m sure I would have given up halfway through if I hadn’t read your post first.
I made these cookies for New Years Eve and they were SO fantastic – the crowd inhaled them. My pickiest friend came over and said “I just ate 4 of these cookies…what are they? I love them!”…total success!! Thanks for sharing!
I new here, but I just made these cookies and they are wonderful. I used my sister’s homemade plum jelly for the filling and my husband, who doesn’t like sweets at all, just inhaled several of them and wants me to make more.
I still have half the dough in the fridge and I think I might try filling at least part of it with a potato/vegetable curry and make something kind of like samosas with it. Just to see how it is. I’ll probably put nutella in the other part for the kids (and me–I wont lie, these things are completely addictive).
I made these for the New Year’s Eve and had to come here again and say how amazing and addictive these cookies are!!!
And the recipe is so easy (but it’s good you warned us about confusing things like that there is no sugar in the dough:-)
I think I wll have to buy this book as I have also tried the “Benne Wafers” seen on “The Wednesday Chef” blog… Needles to say they were also great!
Thanks so much for this — I actually remember my mother making these from the magazine, and they were a HUGE hit with us. She made them repeatedly over the years, particularly for parties. Thank you thank you thank you.
I don’t care for most sweet cookies, so this is probably the best single thing for me that you could have plucked out of that big book.
I finally made these and they are delicious. My family ate the entire batch last night( I have two teenagers). Oddly enough 4 oz. of the sieved cheese filled my measuring cup. I guess the cheese I used was drier? So I have to wonder if you should go by the weight given in the recipe or the volume?
Hi, have just made these little lovelies. I used ricotta and didn’t sieve it at all (shock, horror!) the dough mixture turned out brilliantly and is surprisingly easy to handle. Thought it would be a nightmare. Have tried them with dark choc grated and also raisin and cinnamon…thanks
These are incredible. I made some and got rave reviews from everyone at my office. I cannot wait to try them with other kinds of filling. I had a bit of difficultly keeping them in the crecent shape, and some of the jam exploded as the dough doesn’t stick to itself very well. Any suggestions?
I made these tonight, only half the recipe because there are only two of us in the house. I used an herbed chevre, filled them with sun dried tomatoes and sprinkled with kosher salt when they came out – and they were delish! Next time I’d consider some sauteed mushrooms as well, as long as everything is chopped fine and they aren’t overstuffed.
Bridget- I had trouble with that the first time I made these (I’ve made them twice now). I found two things helped the second time around. 1) I used a bit less filling that called for. 2) I rubbed the milk along the edges that I was pressing the dough into. A few swipes with my finger along each edge before sealing almost completely eliminated the problem for me. I hope this helps!
I have a separate question. How long do you think these would keep for sealed in an airtight container at room temperature? I haven’t managed to keep them around for more than 24 hours, but I think my mom would really love these, and her birthday is coming up.
I thought they were a bit stale after more than a day, so I wouldn’t keep them for long. They don’t go bad quickly, just don’t have as wonderful of a texture.
I found farmer cheese at my whole foods so I went ahead and made these. It came in a 1lb. block and I just used all of it. The dough was super easy to work with and the cookies are fantastic. More like little tiny croissants or something. I made half with apricot preserves and half with Nutella. I found it easiest to spoon some Nutella in a ziptop baggie and snip off a corner so I could pipe on the right amount for each cookie. Getting the right amount on there with a spoon is tedious. I’m definitely going to try these savory next.
can I make this dough ahead of time? like 4 days ahead?
I agree with the earlier Sarah on this being VERY similar to the cream cheese dough that’s in my family Kolacky recipe.
For the perfect filling, instead of Jam, use Solo apricot, poppy seed, or other fruit fillings. Other brands don’t seem to have the right sugar/liquid/solids ratio; Solo brand is where it’s at.
Jordan: No, you probably can’t make the dough ahead of time. It’s pretty sensitive to moisture content and likes staying at room temp. They’re also very sensitive to moisture after they’ve been cooked. We keep them in a tin and dust them freshly with powdered sugar before eating.
Hi Deb!I am so happy you posted this. I love your recipes but I recently gave up sugar and I thought I wouldn’t be able to enjoy most (if not all) of your baked goodies, but this was very encouraging! I can’t wait to make these.
I would love to make these but I cannot find Farmers cheese in my grocery either, but I am thinking maybe I can substitute Indian paneer instead, it has the same consistency as farmers cheese. Do you think so?
I have not even made it down to the actual recipe yet, but I’m laughing–your rant is the voice in my head when I’m trying something new! HILARIOUS! Thanks for the laugh, o Never-Snored-In-My-Life Deb!
I tried it last saturday and omg it was to die for. my whole family loved it and it’s soo easy to make THXX A LOT
You have no idea how happy this recipe made me! I lived in Austria years ago and these looked quite Austrian/Hungarian/German etc. as other posters have said. I decided to try it with a cup of Quark (unstrained), a German-style cream cheese you can find in some stores here (I used Appel brand) and it worked perfectly. I realized these were tiny versions of the Marmeladezipf, a pastry I enjoyed regularly for breakfast before work while living in Vienna. YUM. Thanks for the wonderful recipe and memories!
Jordan: i’ve made them and only used 3 our of the 4 quarters and about 4 or 5 days later (left them in the fridge) used the last quarter and it turned out just fine. just my two cents.
My dough is chilling as I write this, and I cannot wait! :-) I found a block of “verse kaas” in the supermarket here, and it bore a resemblance, so I decided to give this deliciousness a go. I have no sieve, so pushed it through the finest openings on my grater, and I’ve got black cherry jam ready for the filling. I ALMOST grabbed the apple, peach and apricot chutney; I think that would work well for savoury appetisers. And someday I’ll try this with chevre: yum.
Just made these and they are amazing! Used 3 different fillings: nutella, home made dulce de leche and strawberry jam :) To cut the dough i used a small plastic container that was roughly 3x3in, all worked very well! I’ll definitely be making these again. Thanks for sharing the recipe :)
These look divine! I’ve been dying to make them ever since I saw them the day you posted these. Only one problem (aside from those pesky New Year’s Resolution-thingies). Where I live, in Southern California, the stores don’t seem to stock “Farmer’s Cheese” per se. They do, however, carry and ample supply of Mexican fresh cheeses, like Cojita, Queso Blanco (Southern California, after all). Are any of these reasonable substitutes, do you know? Or are they going to be too hard/salty whatever? The finer points of cheese are not my area of culinary expertise.
Any idea how long prep is or the total time? These look amazing! Can’t wait to try!
Thank you for the recipe – my family is in love with these cookies now too. Our Small Person especially loves the ones with damson plum jam in the middle =)
Ok, so! This morning I made a batch filled with a homemade apple filling, and I added some sharp cheddar cheese to the dough alongside the farmer’s cheese. AMAZING. Again, thank you.
Mmm! This looks like one of my favorite Hungarian desserts, which are little pockets of dough filled with farmer’s cheese, deep fried and topped with sour cherries. Can’t wait to try this version too!
These are amazing! I made them with queso fresco which tends to be a bit saltier, also I used salted butter because it’s what I had, but I just held back the salt and they are AMAZING! Until they came out of the oven I was convinced they were going to be too salty. NOT SO! I think I’m always going to have a batch of this dough in my fridge!
I love your blog, love the recipes and the humor and the inspiring photos!
tasty. I found farmers cheese, but it was not pliable like what was shown (didn’t realize how hard it was until I opened it). As i’m stuck in a blizzard i grated teh cheese, and when blended realized that this dough wouldn’t come together. i doctored it with some cottage cheese. a bit tough to roll out, but tasty tasty tasty. OMG tasty actually. I’ll be using this recipe again! thanks!
Made these with mascarpone cheese rather than farmer’s cheese, and full fat yogurt rather than sour cream and they turned out great. Also, in addition to jam, I made some with high end chocolate bits. Also great!
Jordan– I made the dough and wrapped well in the fridge for 3.5 days before I had time to roll them out– still rolled out well, and baked well. Fresh is probably best, but this worked well. Despite also putting even less jam in, and brushing the sides to help seal (and pressing them together like crazy), the jam leaked out an burnt on almost every single one. Some with mini chocolate chips were less messy, so I’ll try again with different fillings! Delicious, but I’m not a fan of time-consuming rolled out dough, but I still think I’d make again! A dough scraper w/ inch measurements on it made the cutting easy.
I have an old Droste’s cocoa tin that I’ve been using to store tea. It is just a shade under 3″ square and worked like a charm to cut the dough.
Jordan, I also made the dough in advance and chilled it 2 days in advance. It worked great. I found the dough handled much better when it was a bit colder than room temp so I balled up the scraps and chilled them while I rolled out other batches of dough.
YUM! These definitely don’t keep well, though (might be because of all the humidity). My fillings: 62% chocolate + crushed toasted hazelnuts, lemon curd (deb’s recipe!) + chopped white chocolate, creme de marron, raspberry jam, nutella. Yes, I DID go a little filling-crazy. But it was fun eating them later and not knowing which filling we’d get! (:
These look delicious! Has anybody tried using mascarpone cheese? I don’t think I will be able to find farmer’s cheese in grocery.. :T
Almost a year later, I finally made these. I made my own farmer’s cheese, using a half gallon of whole milk and a quarter cup vinegar. If you google it, it’s really easy to make it. I did not have the required 7.5 ounces, so I just added more butter to the cheese till I did. They turned out amazingly fantastic! I’m actually still in the process of baking them. I rolled out the dough too thinly, but will rectify with remaining dough. Love the hot pepper jelly idea. Love that this recipe is forgiving. My jam did leak out but I’ll use parchment for next batch (I used raspberry). Most excellent recipe, thanks Deb!
There is a cafe near me that sells cookies called “Kipfel”, when I googled this I got “Kipferl”, but they don’t have jam in them. Your cookies look a lot like the Kipfel at the cafe. Do you know if these cookies are sometimes called Kipfel or Kipferl? Thanks!
Hi – Measurement alert! I just made this dough, with ricotta because that’s what I had and no time to go to the shop and try to figure out what the Belgian equivalent of farmer’s cheese is (though if anyone can tell me I’d be grateful). However, my usual equivalent for 1 american cup of flour is 142 g which x2 = 184g, and while I tried the 250g in the recipe, I found the dough did not come together until I added the last +/-30g. Got a beautiful dough once I did that, though. Can’t wait to bake these.
I made these yesterday to go into the cookie tins I like to give as gifts for Christmas. They were, without a doubt, the best thing I’ve made from this website so far! (And I’ve found quite a few great recipes here already).
It was a bit of a bumpy start, however: I used ricotta, but didn’t strain it; the dough was probably a bit stickier than it should have been. I had to compensate by flouring my counter quite liberally. The first batch leaked profusely, as I was a bit too generous with the jam, and also didn’t seal the cookies tightly enough. I learned from my mistakes, though, and got the hang of it pretty quickly after that.
These were a bit time consuming, but absolutely worth the work – the dough is so flaky and soft, and the cookies have just the right amount of sweetness. Especially when still a bit warm, these are heavenly. They will definitely become part of my annual Christmas repertoire. Thanks for the recipe!
Looks wonderful! Here’s one more addition to the ethnic mix: Slovenian. I grew up in Cleveland, eating cookies much like this at holidays. Just found an almost identical recipe in “Woman’s Glory,” a vintage 1950’s Slovenian American cookbook, but using cream cheese instead of farmer cheese. Filling is a simple date-nut-marmalade mix. (So happy to discover this amazing blog :-)
These were soo good! so flaky! I used strawberry jam in some and chocolate in others, but i can’t wait to try them with tahini next!
I made these with my Grandmother ours is a little different it calles for 1 pound of cottage cheese 1 pound of butter and 4 cups of flour jam ans powder sugar for dusting they are So Good the only difference is the dough
My back hurts from standing at the counter, I’m covered head to toe in flour, and I still have half the dough to roll out and fill (this is why I usually stick with simple projects) – but I just ate the first cookie, filled with chocolate-almond paste and raspberry jam, and it was WORTH IT. Thanks, Deb!
Yum! I make a similar version of this called Kiffles. Its a German recipe passed down from my grandmother’s family that calls for cream cheese and I don’t dare show up to Christmas Dinner without them!! I can’t wait to try your recipe with savory fillings. What a great appetizer!
As always, Deb, your pastry recipes are delish. One note: I stretched the implications of “refrigerate for at least 3 hours” and made the second half of the batch 48 hours after making the dough. this was a bad move – while the dough was still very tasty, I couldn’t roll it out thinly enough and the dough seemed greasier than before. made with raspberry jam (great) and nutella (didn’t shine) and look forward to using it for savory fillings. thanks!
I made these with goat cheese and scallions and they were awesome!
I made these tonight after having a bad day. They turned out awful! I was so excited, but now I’m crying.
I followed the directions, I don’t know what went wrong. half a tub of farmers cheese and 2 sticks of butter, etc, all wasted. I feel so terrible.
I made these with Neufchâtel cheese from whole foods and they turned out fabulous! Also after rolling them all up, I stuck them in the freezer and have been baking them straight from it for 18-20 minutes. It’s been about a month and they’re still incredibly tasty!
I was LOLing at your comments, I have been making these cookies since I was a teenager! The recipe is very similar, but it calls for quark which is a German cottage cheese, and it is my grandmother’s recipe. My absolute fave cookies! Though we cut out circles, use egg white to seal (with a fork), then brush with egg yolk. So good! We call them just Jam Pockets.
I made these yesterday evening with homemade raspberry jam. I couldn’t find farmer cheese at the grocery store (and I didn’t have time to venture to the specialty stores to find some), so I just used whole-milk ricotta and used paper towels to dry it off. They came out deliciously! I didn’t realize I should place them with the corner on the bottom, so some of the first batch had the edges pop up while baking.
I split it up by making the jam and the dough in the morning and baking in the evening after work, so it didn’t feel too labor intensive. It’s a very enjoyable cookie, which is still delicious the next day. Peak taste was after it cooled slightly from the oven, though.
Hi Deb…..can I make the dough, refrigerate and put together and bake the next day (or two)??? I’ve bought all the ingredients and am anxiously waiting to make them for my sister’s party!
So, my farmers cheese was a bit harder than it seemed like others’ was. Not sure if this is an issue anyone else had, but it wasn’t really wet/soft enough to easily mix with the butter. What I did is melt the cheese just a bit, which gave it a consistency that allowed me to easily combine it with the butter and other ingredients. I think the cookies turned out really really tasty, so if others have the same issues, melting the cheese a bit might work for you too!
I just made these up and loved them! Not too sweet, which is always a huge plus as I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. One tip for rolling such a sticky dough out thin: I put the dough in between two sheets of plastic wrap instead of rolling out with flour. I could roll it out much thinner than otherwise and no mess :-)
So, I bought quest fresco for the first time ever and it lists as an alert ate name “farmer’s cheese.” Any thoughts on if this is the same farmer’s cheese needed for this recipe?
I made these with standard cottage cheese and just dumped everything in the food processor and it worked excellently. I also had serious trouble finding sour cream without gelatine in it. Weird. Anyhow I just added lemon juice to heavy cream and stood that for a few minutes.
Deb–just found this. So, my question is are they bready with so little jam and so much pastry–despite how yummy flaky cheese pastry might be? Just wondering from the picture you posted and comments on adding more (agree that would be a major leakage problem). Thanks. Ellen
Ellen — They’re not bready (thank goodness) because it’s a flaky dough, like a rugelach but even softer and more flaky. But as long as you seal it well, you can definitely try to put more jam in. I think people mention more jam because this is NOT a sweet cookie. The only sweetness is from the jam and the powdered sugar, so it’s a very grown-up cookie. We loved this, but it’s good to keep in mind if you want to adjust accordingly.
hi very nice thanking you
New Year gift 2016 for girl friend
Made these for New Years-and decided to wrap prosciutto around them once the were baked. What a hit! These are fantastic!
A few things:
1. I have made at least 2 batches of these every Christmas since Deb posted the recipe. For as simple as they are to make, people are impressed and awed by how amazing they are. They have the honor of being my 9 year old brother’s favorite cookie.
2. The best substitute for farmer’s cheese (which I do prefer for this recipe when I can find it–the grocery store near me in Michigan is frequently out) I have found is cream cheese. It’s so very close to farmer’s cheese texture-wise, and does impart a slightly more “cream cheesy” flavor but quite honestly they’re almost indistinguishable from the farmer’s cheese ones.
3. Raspberry jam makes our favorite filling, and I use quite a bit (it leaks a little out the sides sometimes.) For real tho, no matter how much/little filling you use, powered sugar flaky cheese dough is the best.
would cream cheese work instead of farmers cheese? i have a ton of it i need to use up. thank you!
Yes, it would be closer to a classic rugelach dough, i.e. tender but a tiny bit more crisp.
So good!! Made these using cream cheese instead of farmer’s cheese, primarily because I was too lazy to go to the actual grocery store and they carry cream cheese at my bodega. For any other commenters using cream cheese – I did put it through a sieve, but I don’t think it was necessary at all. Once it’s thoroughly beaten with the butter I can’t imagine it would have any different texture, and unlike farmer’s or ricotta there’s no lumps to get rid of. Used fig jam and raspberry jam, both of which were delicious.
One other note – perhaps because of the cream cheese, the dough was so hard after refrigerating that I had to let it soften on the counter for 15-20 minutes or so before I could roll it out. No distinguishable difference in pastry flakiness between the batches that sat on the counter to soften, and the batch that I was able to beat into submission straight out of the fridge! Practically fool-proof dough.
Like the other Kat above, I have been making these cookies with my grandmother in Poland since I was wee… Our recipe called for 250g of butter, 250g of flour and 250g of farmer’s cheese (pressed through a sieve). We used rose petal and sugar jam (crazy I know) and never worried about the closing of the crescents – if the jam run out, it caramelized and crisped up and was fantastic whichever way (but I hasten to add rose petals and sugar are not very runny).
All this reminiscing aside I have only now realized that this can be filled with something yummy savoury – thank you Deb for pointing out that obvious bit, that clearly was not so obvious… I am thinking leek and fennel. Or caramelized onion and squash… If anybody tried them with something savory outstanding please share!
I made these using cream cheese–the pastry is delicious. About half of my crescents unwrapped during the baking process so they aren’t pretty like the ones in the picture. They do taste very good. I made some savory crescents using Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic & Onion Jam. Next time I will leave these as triangles and use a fork to crimp the edges. My sweet crescents are filled with raspberry jam and taste like turnovers. All in all a good recipe. I know what modifications to make the next time I bake these.
Deb, you’re killing me. I can’t keep up with all the recipes! I’ve got to try this because it sounds yummy, but I’ve got pull-apart rugelach dough in the fridge. As a displaced New Yorker who has been disappointed with the rugelach from NYC lately, I’m hoping this is the flaky, buttery rugelach that I remember. Thanks Deb, I love your site. Keep up the good work!
Do you think I could substitute ricotta for the farmers cheese?
Hi Debra,
Can I use Tvorog as the cheese you added?
Thank you
I believe my MIL uses them interchangeably in recipes, so you’ll probably be okay.
I made these today with 8 oz. neufchâtel cheese (un-sieved but softened) in place of the farmer’s cheese, and substituted 0% fat plain yogurt for the sour cream – they turned out delicious! Thank you for the great recipe! I used some raspberry rhubarb jelly, which is delightful in these! By the way, I dip/level measured the flour, then weighed it, to discover that I had 285 grams instead of 250 – glad I weighed it! Also, they were not too hard to roll right out of the fridge, maybe because it was reduced fat cream cheese.
Going to try ricotta and cream cheese to substitute, I love rugalas so I know your cookie will be so fantastic. I always put in too much filling and they do burn somewhat but I rather like the caramelized parts, who needs perfection anyway, effort is everything , right?
Do you think cottage cheese could substitute for farmer’s or ricotta cheese?
It’s worth trying. Hard to say (varies by brand) if it will be more wet or dry, however.
Just made these for a cookie exchange and they are delicious! For the filling I used a chocolate-hazelnut spread from Whole Foods (lower in sugar than Nutella, and no trans fats). I portioned out the dough into quarters before I chilled it in the refrigerator. I used a pizza cutter to make the squares of dough. Pinched them closed around the edges and double-checked my work before rolling into the crescent shapes. Thanks so much for the recipe!
My new favorite breakfast…er…cookie! These are just the right amount of sweet and remind me of my favorite croissant at a bakery back home in Virginia. I live in Cape Town, South Africa, so some ingredients aren’t as readily available down here.
– I subbed ricotta (which is not at all whey-ie here, looks exactly like the photo of Deb’s farmer’s cheese) for the farmer’s cheese.
– I subbed castor sugar (really, really, really finely granulated sugar) for the confectioner’s sugar.
Followed the recipe exactly as written otherwise! Yummmm
Anybody know how far in advance I can make and they’ll still taste good?
Recipe so similar to my grandma’s rosky cookies and I am so excited to try this dough!
Made the dough for these for the first time for Christmas. My grandma’s roske are the best Christmas memory I have of her and since she passed away several years ago, I have risen to the challenge of making them for the family (no recipe from her, of course). This dough is pretty close to the one I had been using, but I am always up to try to make something better or more authentic. Our roske are filled with a ground walnut, honey, apricot jam filling. This pastry was so nice to work with. I actually rolled a bit thinner than I probably should have to make a few more. Not necessarily a mistake, but I think I may have gone too thin. Although I think the recipe I had been using may be closer to Grandma’s, this is definitely one I will go back to.
I recently made a delicious savory version with a “jam” of caramelized onions, mushrooms and garlic and sprinkled with a few sea salt flakes and finely chopped rosemary. It was the first empty platter at a neighborhood gathering! I’ve made these with jam and Nutella many times since first posted. A wonderful, foolproof dough. Love your blog Deb and appreciate your newsletter to remind me of recipes I want to try.
I tried this using a pizza cutter, and it worked fine and was fast. These were wonderful, and my new next-to-fave cookie because they are NOT TOO SWEET, Number one will always be a lard & butter sesame cookie I wheedled (after much pleading I finally wore her down) from a coworker. They are a family recipe, and I have been incredibly thankful ever since. Takes an amazing amount of baking powder and vanilla, and they are rolled in hulled sesame seeds before baking, so they have a toasted/less toasted zen quality that makes them the #1 cookie ever.
Monika, do not be a teaser, share!
Debating on these or the rugelah. Limited resources so have to pick one.
To each his own…. I know.
My Polish inlaws make Kolacky every year for christmas… cream cheese in the dough. Solo fruit filling in a can in the center. Apricot is my fav! Dough cut into squares but only opposite corners folded into center and pressed down. Is this basically the same???
Or maybe the Kolacy does have powdered sugar in it???? Help!
Are they yeasted, like a yeast doughnut or brioche dough?
I just made very similar cookies. I knew them growing up as kolachki cookies. That’s an Americanized Polish word, my mother, who made ones similar to the ones you’ve made here, was from far west Germany, but still called these by this Polish name. When I made mine recently, I also had forgotten about the no sugar and wondered a long time about that. I decided not to add sugar, but instead of rolling the chilled dough out onto a floured surface, I had a sugared surface. With cane sugar, not powered. It worked as well as flour for not sticking (though I did need to flour the rolling pin to prevent sticking) and I felt that it added just a little bit of sweetness that was a nice extra. Though I wondered if I imagined that sweetness or if it was really there. I did want my recipe to include sour cream. Which it did not originally, so I added it, cutting back a bit on the amount of butter. It turned out well, but I had hoped for there to be a more sour cheese taste than what I got. I like that yours are crescents. The way my mother made it was to also start with squares, place jam in a center, and then take two corners, opposite ones, and fold them over each other in the middle. So two ends are open where you can see the jam. It’s important to get the fold right otherwise they will open up during baking and then just look like square puffs with jam in the middle. I’m looking forward to trying your recipe soon.
Hello,
You’re absolutely not alone at recipe ranting. To prove it, I add to it (in a polite, friendly way): vanilla what? Essence, extract, seeds? The Americans must use some special form of vanilla for it seems to be perfectly clear to anyone except me (😳).
Anyway, like your recipes & ideas a lot.
Thanks!
MRSSAGE: In U.S. recipes, when “vanilla” is called for it is always (unless someone screws up in the recipe printing department… cough, cough — certainly not our DEB!!!) VANILLA EXTRACT, i.e. the liquid that comes in bottles here in the States.
Sometimes one may interchange essence for extract, or scraped seeds from the bean, but I can’t remember ever coming across a recipe where this was not addressed directly.
Hope this helps!
Thank you, as I said it’s obviously obvious to an American 😉. I’ve just made (like 15 minutes ago) these lovely crescents with vanilla seeds because it was what I had and they turned out beautifully. Cheers!
Haven’t tried this yet because (ignorant me!) I have never heard of forcing cheese through a sieve! You would think the recipe developer could take 30 seconds (smile) to explain this to all of us dolts who have no idea what that is or why to do it? Just sayin . . .
Hi, Judith. It’s pretty much like it sounds: slowly push and rub chunks of cheese through a mesh sieve, the same kind one also uses to rinse beans, drain pasta, sift flour, strain spices, etc. If you use a very fine mesh, it’ll take a longer time, perhaps prohibitively so. Here’s some info: https://www.talkfood.com/forum/showthread.php?2927-How-do-you-sieve-cottage-cheese
Deb, I was thinking of a slightly savory variation on this using rosemary’d, roasted walnuts, minced and mixed with a touch of mint and a little sugar, so I was glad to CTRL+F and see that others do this kind of thing as well. I’m planning on doing this for a cookie exchange with a friend. Thanks for the recipe.
Ok Deb I made these and they were delicious BUT I have to stick to the very simple Polish family recipe for Kolacky as we call them: 1 stick butter, 3 oz cream cheese, 1 c flour. Fill w Solo brand fruit filling. Apricot is the best, of course! Thats it!!!
I found this dough too sticky to work with! Also we just fold in 2 opposite corners and press down in center – allows you to see what flavor youre getting!
I was searching for where to buy either Farmer’s or pot cheese and found an easy recipe for making it. I am going to try this!
These were very delicious but were the hardest most tedious cookies I ever made. I halved the dough (good thing!) and only used half of that. I threw the rest of the dough in the garbage. I also made the last 10 into a kolachky shape.
I just took the first batch out of the oven- wow, tasty! They do remind me of mini-turnovers. I cannot seem to keep in in the crescent shape and I need to work on my crimping game, but practice makes perfect, right?
I couldn’t find farmers cheese, and didn’t have the patience to make it so used part skim ricotta instead. The outside of my pastries are light and flaky and amazing just like yours, but the parts rolled in the middle are still raw :( I know this recipe has potential since I love the outside. If I bake them enough to cook the inside, the outside is burned. Could the ricotta be the culprit? I used chestnut paste made with maple syrup and it’s delicious.
Try a lower temperature if it’s getting too dark before setting in the center; it might do the trick.
Loved making these for Christmas this year! Found the Farmers Cheese at Publix near the cream cheese. I refrigerated my dough overnight so I had to let it “relax” a bit before I could roll out. I would say these are like a fancy pop tart. My hubby was reheating a few in the toaster oven and it reminded me of a pop tart toasting…. a very good thing! Great with a cup of coffee in the morning.
Thoughts on how lemon curd would blend as a filling?
If wrapped well, it might work. I rarely had jam leak out…
I’m planning to make these for a bake sale we’re having at work. My question – can I make the dough a day ahead and roll them out the next day? I’m trying to work making them into a busy work schedule and have them be as fresh as possible.
I got away with one less step: I did not sieve the Friendship’s farmer cheese because it seemed smooth enough. An overnight stay in the fridge before rolling the dough did not hurt it either. The baked dough was fantastic, very puffy. But all the crescents leaked despite some serious crimping. Not sure what to do there. My colleagues loved them nevertheless and this recipe goes in the rotation, joining I don’t know how many other cookie recipes from SK. Thanks!
Second try worked perfectly. I wetted the edges before folding and crimping. No more leaks. The uncooked cookies freeze nicely.
made these with a homemade pear jam filling and bit of toasted walnut for added texture! amazing–not too sweet and perfect with coffee!
Has anyone tried this with the “Easier way to make cookies” technique? I’m thinking of making it tomorrow, and I think I’ll roll it out before refrigerating, but I wanted to know if someone else had tried it.
No, I haven’t, however! I have made rugelach with it and this is a similar dough so it might work. Here’s the rugelach update.
I would like to make these cookies, but wondering if I could use Ricotta instead of the farmers style cottage cheese.
I have a similar recipe called Cream Cheese Pillows I’ve had since the 70’s. It has cream cheese in place of your farmers cheese and I also use raspberry jam, (seedless, of course,) to fill them. The proportions are a bit different and if you’d like the recipe I can give it to you.
Thanks for always giving me great ideas in the kitchen!
Ann
Hi! do you have suggestions for any other uses for farmer cheese? Just bought some and now don’t know what to do with it so scouring my favorite sites for recipes. Thanks!
I love this cookie and the end result, however I had a few problems with technique and rolling. My friend and I made this and it is one of her favorite cookies to make, and I can see why!
First, the end result: the cookie is a breeze to make in terms of making the dough. I used a farmer’s cheese, on the drier end, and pushed it through the sieve. I love that the dough has ZERO sugar. All of the sweetness comes in the jam and dusted powdered sugar on top.
The cookie is tender and flaky at the same time, very similar to what the author has mentioned a cross-section of croissants and rugelach.
We made one with rosemary orange jam, and unfortunately the jam leaked out and created fruit leather underneath the cookie itself. We also made one with jalapeno jelly, 1/2 tsp of goat cheese, and brushed with milk and dusted with freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of kosher salt per cookie.
Which leads me to some questions about the instructions:
1) How thick do I roll out the dough in terms of centimeters/inches?
2) How long of a square/rectangle am I rolling out each dough piece?
Am I rolling it out to 1/4 inch thickness to a 9×9″ square? This would have been EXTREMELY helpful to know ahead of time, and I was mildly frustrated that I had to guess how long to roll out based upon the size of each cookie dough. :(
3) The instructions to press down firmly for the dough could be more clear. What worked for me in my head was to think of pressing down to seal the dough tight, so that the filling would not leak out.
4) Baking times are generous, but we tried to baking times–just until the edges of the cookie were golden. Second batch I baked until golden brown at the edges and golden in the center of the cookie, which for my oven was about 20 minutes total. I rotated the cookies halfway through.
Thank you for sharing what is a fantastic cookie recipe. It’s very labor intensive and fussy, however the end result is very elegant and delicate. The ability to riff and change the profile of the dough makes this super versatile, and something that is going into my cookie baking rotation. I loved the savory experiment that I made and can’t wait to go further off into that land.
I made using low fat cottage cheese and Lillikoi jam – and they were fantastic. Thank you for another great recipe.
Caramel?
I made these today. I was disappointed and I make Smitten recipes ALL the time. First of all the farmers cheese ( and I used the Friendship brand as suggested) never came through the sieve as told to do. I tired and tried. I finally gave up and mixed it in really well by hand. I do not know based on the photo how you get that perfect rectangle as shown and I roll out dough all the time. Had to fudge that part as well. At the end of the day I thought they tasted just okay. To me your rugelach recipe is by far a better recipe. Sorry….never have done this before but I wanted to give my ” comment