Nut horns yes. a term that only my close friends and family will certainly recognize, others may. In my head [and the title] it's always one word.
First though I noticed a typo from yesterday:
-how happy I am the Obama will be president soon
This made me giggle so much that I couldn't bear to change it.
...back to Nut horns, which is the name my family uses for those cookies which are crescent rolls of barely sweetened yeasted dough with a walnut egg white filling. I know there are several other names for them like 'walnut horn cookies', 'kiffles' from the PA Dutch. When I glanced at the various recipes online I did not see one like my family's which came from some magazine and is dated April 7 1953. This recipe takes 6 cups of flour, a 'cake' of yeast and 2 cups of shortening.
If you are thinking this makes an insane amount of cookies you are right.
[Does yeast get sold by the cake anymore? I remember it that way when I was a child but now I buy it bulk from the co-op so I have no idea]
Nut horns are those not sweet cookies that most children, including myself at a tender age, did not care for and that all adults seem to love. I remember my mother making them I guess every year of my life. She does roll them in powder sugar to make them sweeter for those in the family who still prefer they should be sweeter. I have made them at least a dozen times in my adult life though I change the recipe a lot.
It's against my religion to use shortening apparently.
For a long time I made them with a friend who was allergic to walnuts so we used pecans.
I have made them with maple or agave syrup instead of sugar.
I have made them with ww pastry flour.
Considering the rate they are gobbled up these variations work fine.
This year though my mother is 39 which is her way of saying she is 82 and she just moved homes 3 days before xmas. No one was surprised that she did not have time to make cookies. [Of course no one knows but Dad that in 2006 I also did 90% of her baking for her. Just between us m'dears.]
Before we traveled for the holiday I did my annual ponder of the question: What do you give two wonderful sisters who basically have everything and love to receive presents?
Every year my mother has answered this question for herself by baking them nut horns which they love but do not have the time to make for themselves. I believe it is the kind of present they hide somewhere so that don't have to share them. My brain leaped, it pounced. My mum wouldn't be baking this year and so I could do it! For my sisters! It would be a relief for mum, my sisters would get presents and I would have answered the question for another year.
So I did. I brought white sugar, powder sugar and white flour into the house and used them. I paid a ridiculous price for palm oil shortening because I just could not buy Crisco. I took forever to roll out dough with my lovely marble rolling pin and made dozens of cookies and all the taste testers said they were yummy.
My one sister called so happy after she received them. She had figured out that mum wouldn't be baking and had felt down about that tradition going away. She loved them. --
She thought they could be sweeter. I adore my sissy so you know what honey? next year they will be! Just for you.
The ratio of dough to filling never comes out one to one with this recipe. So I froze the excess filling and stirred up a half batch of ww dough and baked up the rest yesterday. They are excellent. As is traditional in our family I had a bit of dough leftover with no nut filling left. These became apricot horns with the handy jam in the fridge if only mum weren't in CA she would love them.
First though I noticed a typo from yesterday:
-how happy I am the Obama will be president soon
This made me giggle so much that I couldn't bear to change it.
...back to Nut horns, which is the name my family uses for those cookies which are crescent rolls of barely sweetened yeasted dough with a walnut egg white filling. I know there are several other names for them like 'walnut horn cookies', 'kiffles' from the PA Dutch. When I glanced at the various recipes online I did not see one like my family's which came from some magazine and is dated April 7 1953. This recipe takes 6 cups of flour, a 'cake' of yeast and 2 cups of shortening.
If you are thinking this makes an insane amount of cookies you are right.
[Does yeast get sold by the cake anymore? I remember it that way when I was a child but now I buy it bulk from the co-op so I have no idea]
Nut horns are those not sweet cookies that most children, including myself at a tender age, did not care for and that all adults seem to love. I remember my mother making them I guess every year of my life. She does roll them in powder sugar to make them sweeter for those in the family who still prefer they should be sweeter. I have made them at least a dozen times in my adult life though I change the recipe a lot.
It's against my religion to use shortening apparently.
For a long time I made them with a friend who was allergic to walnuts so we used pecans.
I have made them with maple or agave syrup instead of sugar.
I have made them with ww pastry flour.
Considering the rate they are gobbled up these variations work fine.
This year though my mother is 39 which is her way of saying she is 82 and she just moved homes 3 days before xmas. No one was surprised that she did not have time to make cookies. [Of course no one knows but Dad that in 2006 I also did 90% of her baking for her. Just between us m'dears.]
Before we traveled for the holiday I did my annual ponder of the question: What do you give two wonderful sisters who basically have everything and love to receive presents?
Every year my mother has answered this question for herself by baking them nut horns which they love but do not have the time to make for themselves. I believe it is the kind of present they hide somewhere so that don't have to share them. My brain leaped, it pounced. My mum wouldn't be baking this year and so I could do it! For my sisters! It would be a relief for mum, my sisters would get presents and I would have answered the question for another year.
So I did. I brought white sugar, powder sugar and white flour into the house and used them. I paid a ridiculous price for palm oil shortening because I just could not buy Crisco. I took forever to roll out dough with my lovely marble rolling pin and made dozens of cookies and all the taste testers said they were yummy.
My one sister called so happy after she received them. She had figured out that mum wouldn't be baking and had felt down about that tradition going away. She loved them. --
She thought they could be sweeter. I adore my sissy so you know what honey? next year they will be! Just for you.
The ratio of dough to filling never comes out one to one with this recipe. So I froze the excess filling and stirred up a half batch of ww dough and baked up the rest yesterday. They are excellent. As is traditional in our family I had a bit of dough leftover with no nut filling left. These became apricot horns with the handy jam in the fridge if only mum weren't in CA she would love them.
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