Authentic Hungarian Pastries

Total Time: 1 hr Preparation Time: 40 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 16 ounces cream cheese, softened (do not use lite or fat free)
• 1 cup butter, softened (no substitutions)
• 2 cups flour
• 1 lb dried apricot
• 1 cup sugar
• water
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Recipe

• 1 prepare the fruit filling by putting the apricots in a saucepan. add water just to cover.cook until soft, being very careful not to let it burn. you may have to add more water to prevent this.
• 2 when fruit is soft, add the sugar and cook until thick. when thickened, remove from heat and puree in a food processor. let cool slightly, then put into a freezer bag. when you are ready to use the filling just snip off the corner of the bag. (you may have extra filling left over at the end- it can be frozen for the next time).
• 3 prepare pastry: mix the dough ingredients together with a pastry blender. roll out onto parchment paper or a lightly floured board to about 1/4" thick rectangle.
• 4 using a sharp knife (or a pie crust wheel), cut the dough into 3" x 3" squares.
• 5 with a sharp knife, cut the dough diagonally from each corner to within 1/2-inch of center of each square.
• 6 put about 1 teaspoons of the filling in the center of each square.
• 7 fold every other corner of the square to the center to form a pinwheel shape, overlapping the dough at the center and pushing down gently to seal in center.
• 8 transfer cookies to a lightly greased cookie sheet. (they dont really expand so you dont have to worry about leaving a lot of space in-between.).
• 9 bake at 350 for 20 minutes on a lightly greased cookie sheet. do not let get brown or burn.
• 10 dust with powdered sugar when cooled.