Kifli crescents

12/3/2002

6 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

3 sticks butter

2 sticks Imperial Margarine

5 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 pint sour cream

Egg wash

Confectioners' sugar

Fillings:

Apricot butter or

European raspberry or

8 ounces ground walnuts mixed with 2/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup milk

In small bowl with egg yolks, stir in vanilla. Add sour cream and mix well. Sift sugar and flour. Cut in butter and margarine. Make a well and add egg mixture to form a dough. Shape into a log and divide dough into 8 pieces. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours. (If you refrigerate overnight, let warm the next day at room temperature.)

Roll out pieces like pie dough until 1/8-inch thick. Cut with 3-inch round cookie cutter. As you roll out each piece, add whatever scraps you have to the next piece.

In center of each round, place 1 teaspoon fruit filling from a pastry bag, or place 1 teaspoon of nut filling. Fold over in half and notch ends with knife to seal the open end. Transfer to parchment-covered baking sheet, then twist each end with thumbs to form a crescent. Don't mix pastries with fruit filling and those with nut filling on the same baking sheet because they bake differently. With a pastry brush, brush egg wash (1 egg with 1 tablespoon of milk) across tops.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. For even browning, turn pan and bake 8 to 10 minutes more until golden brown on top and bottom. If you are baking two pans in the oven at a time, exchange the pan on the top rack with the pan on the bottom rack halfway through baking. When done, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

Yield: 20 dozen

Source: Marlene Danko, Berry's Goods