• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Chef Lindsey Farr logo
  • All Recipes
  • Trending
  • Dessert
  • Dinner
  • Breakfast
menu icon
go to homepage
  • All Recipes
  • Trending
  • Dessert
  • Dinner
  • Breakfast
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • All Recipes
    • Trending
    • Dessert
    • Dinner
    • Breakfast
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Home > Recipes > Cookies

    Apricot Kolaches

    4.67 from 6 votes
    Published: Dec 16, 2013 | Modified: Aug 13, 2022 - 201 Reviews

    PinShareYummlyTweetEmail

    Apricot Kolaches are a traditional Hungarian Christmas cookie. A flakey cream cheese pastry dough is rolled in sugar then filled with an easy apricot filling! These Apricot Kolaches are sensational! These two-bite Hungarian Christmas Cookies (Apricot Kiffles / Kolaches) are sweet, crispy and addicting. The apricot filling is just the right amount of sweet to set off the flakey, buttery pastry.

    Jump to Recipe
    Traditional Hungarian Apricot Kolaches

    Before I posted this recipe back in 2013 I made dozens of batches to get the perfect texture and filling ratio. Some were too thick, some too thin, but all had that delicious sugar crust on the bottom. That is the secret to making the best apricot kolaches.

    The sugar caramelized on the bottom and the resulting flavor combination is something I’ve never experienced. They are truly something special, which is probably why these little cookies along with their cousins The Hungarian Walnut Rolls are two of the most popular recipes on CLF.

    I made a traditional Hungarian apricot filling from the Paprikas Weiss Traditional Hungarian Cookbook, but next time I’m going to try apple and cherry (in addition to apricot, obviously)!

    Table of Contents
    • Frequently Asked Questions: Kolaches
    • Ingredients
    • Substitutions for Apricot Kolaches
    • Variations on the Apricot Kiffles
    • Recipe
    • Comments

    Frequently Asked Questions: Kolaches

    How to keep Kolaches from opening?

    Kolaches pop open in the oven when they have too much filling, the dough was chilled before baking, or they are not properly sealed. A firm press to seal should do the trick but others swear by a little bit of water or egg wash. This dough is flakey and if chilled, it will puff excessively like puff pastry in the oven. Sometimes this is desirable, but here we want those cookies to stay shut!

    Are Apricot Kiffles and Kolaches the same?

    Apricot Kiffles and Apricot Kolaches are a cookie by many names. Multiple Eastern European cultures lay claim to these cookies and they each call them something different. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia kolaches are a type of sweet bread some of which are yeasted. Hungarian kolaches or kolachy are cookies made with a sweet pastry dough and a variety of fillings. In other parts of Eastern Europe and some parts of Hungry call these same cookies apricot kiffles. By any name they are delightful!

    Can you freeze Apricot Kolaches?

    Yes! You can freeze fully baked apricot kolaches for up to three months. I layer mine between parchment paper or waxed paper inside a ziptop bag. You can also layer them between waxed paper in a cookie tin like my grandmother, RoRo, used to do.

    Traditional Hungarian Apricot Kolaches | My Hungarian husband's favorite Christmas Cookie recipe! He says they taste just like his grandma used to make!

    Ingredients

    • All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour has just the right amount of gluten to make a flakey, tender apricot kolaches.
    • Kosher Salt: Kosher salt is lass salty than table salt and a teaspoon weighs less than other finer ground varieties. . It heightens the flavor here and will keep your pastries for tasting dull or flat.
    • Cream Cheese: I use original Philadelphia Cream Cheese for all my baked goods. Working the cream cheese into the dough adds fat and a little bit of tang. Cream cheese does not behave the same as butter when baked and will create a soft, tender cookie.
    • Butter: I use unsalted butter for baking, because you want to control the amount of salt you are adding. Every brand is different and it makes adjusting the recipe a challenge.
    • Granulated Sugar: Rolling out the dough in granulated sugar will add a bit of sweetness and crunch but it will also caramelize on the baking sheet for added complexity of flavor.
    • Dried Apricots: I use sulphered dried apricots because they have that beautiful color. Un-sulphered will be dark brown. I use Turkish Apricots because they are plump, sweet and generally have more retained moisture than other varieties.
    • Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens and thickens the filling. You could reduce it by half and still have success with these cookies. The sweet filling balances the savory pastry for the perfect bite.
    Traditional Hungarian Apricot Kolaches | My Hungarian husband's favorite Christmas Cookie recipe! He says they taste just like his grandma used to make!

    Substitutions for Apricot Kolaches

    • Cream Cheese: The cream cheese is the only moisture in this dough, so if you omit it or reduce it, add water to make a cohesive dough. This will change the consistency and texture of the final cookie. Reduced fat cream cheese can be used but not whipped. Be aware that these changes will affect the final results.
    • Dried Fruit: You could certainly use a different dried fruit for the filling. You might need to adjust the amount of sugar or water you add in order to get the necessary consistency.

    Variations on the Apricot Kiffles

    • Pastry Cutter: Use a fluted or a straight edged cutter for a different look. A fluted cutter makes a ruffled edge that is very festive without any additional work!
    • Change the Size: You could make these apricot kiffles larger without much adjustment beyond the bake time. I would not suggest making them smaller, because the smaller the kolaches, the more likely to pop open.
    • Change the filling: Apricot, cherry and poppyseed are three of the most popular traditional fillings. You could also make the walnut filling from my Hungarian walnut rolls as well!

    Recipe

    Traditional Hungarian Apricot Kolaches | My Hungarian husband's favorite Christmas Cookie recipe! He says they taste just like his grandma used to make!

    Apricot Kolaches

    4.67 from 6 votes
    Lindsey
    Apricot Kolaches are a traditional Hungarian Christmas cookie. A flakey cream cheese pastry dough is rolled in sugar then filled with an easy apricot filling!
    Prevent screen from sleeping
    PRINT FAVORITESAVED! Pin Recipe REVIEW
    Prep Time 20 minutes
    Cook Time 12 minutes
    Total Time 1 hour 32 minutes
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine Hungarian
    Servings 36 Cookies
    Calories 158 kcal

    Ingredients
     

    For the Pastry:

    • 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
    • ½ teaspoon salt
    • 8 oz cream cheese
    • 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
    • ½ cup granulated sugar for rolling

    For the Apricot Filling:

    • 1 lb dried apricots
    • 1 cup sugar
    US Customary - Metric

    Instructions
     

    To make the Apricot Filling:

    • Place dried apricots in a small saucepan and pour in just enough water to cover the apricots. Boil until the apricots are soft. Do not let all the water evaporate. Add a little bit more to keep the filling from burning.
    • Add the sugar and continue to cook until thick.
    • Either puree in a food processor or with an immersion blender in a bowl. If the filling is too runny, return it to the sauce pot to continue to cook.
    • You can make the filling ahead of time and freeze it until you are ready to use it. Just thaw at room temperature when you are ready to use.

    For the Pastry Dough:

    • Sift flour and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
    • Beat the cream cheese and butter together with a stand mixer or a hand mixer until completely incorporated and creamy (3-5 minutes).
    • Reduce the speed of the mixer and slowly add in the flour. I used 5 additions and completely mixed in the flour each time. The dough will be soft but not sticky.
    • Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and flatten each to ¾” thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until hard, at least 2 hours.

    Assembling the Kolaches:

    • Pre-heat the oven to 375F. Move the oven rack one setting higher than the center.
    • Take one of the disks of dough from the refrigerator and lightly flour both sides. Spread granulated sugar on your pastry board or work surface. Place the dough on top and roll out pastry to 1/16” to ⅛” thick. Most recipes say ⅛” but my Husband remembered them being thinner.
    • With a pastry wheel or sharp knife, trim the dough into a square and then cut the square into 16 smaller squares. My dough never rolled out into a perfect circle so I would just cut as many 1 ½ “ squares a possible, saving the scraps for later.
    • Place a dollop of filling into the center of each square. I used ½ teaspoon to ¾ teaspoon for each.
    • Gently grab two opposite corners and fold one over the other, gently pressing down to try and seal them together. Gently move it to a parchment covered baking sheet. Repeat with all remaining squares.
    • Sprinkle the middles of the kolaches with just a touch of granulated sugar.
    • Placing the kolaches no closer than 1” apart.
    • Bake 12-14 minutes or until the bottom edges are a golden and you can smell them. Let cool slightly on the pan on a wire rack and then move them gently to a wire rack to cool completely.
    • Repeat with all remaining dough. Refrigerate and re-roll your scraps. Amazing.

    Video Instructions

    Notes

    Notes: You will have lots of filling left over. If you don’t want to freeze the remainder, you can probably halve the recipe above. You can also use prepared pastry, not pie, filling, but there are so many additives that the minimal extra effort is totally worth making homemade.
    For a more traditional cookie, you can omit the granulated sugar and dust the final, cooled cookie with powdered sugar.
    Keyword apricot cookies, Hungarian apricot filling, kiffles
    Tried this recipe?Mention @cheflindseyfarr
    PinShareYummlyTweetEmail

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Comment! Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Comments

    1. Carol says

      December 13, 2021 at 12:08 am

      5 stars
      These were a new favorite last year, and the first cookie requested by my daughter this year. I was looking for something to remind me of baking with my grandmother, and this definitely fit the bill. Delicate and full of flavor. I recommend lighter golden apricots, not the natural brownish ones - they tasted fine, but not as pretty. THANK YOU for a great recipe and all your useful notes.

      Reply
      • Lindsey Farr says

        December 13, 2021 at 10:27 am

        So happy you and your family enjoyed! Happy baking! ????

        Reply
    2. Victoria A Perez says

      December 12, 2021 at 2:32 pm

      How many does 1 batch make?

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        January 22, 2022 at 10:11 am

        It depends on the size, but around 25, 2" cookies

        Reply
    3. Vivian says

      May 14, 2021 at 3:14 pm

      Is there a particular brand of apricots that you are using? Someone said that the CALIFORNIA APRICOTS are much tarter. Most of the ones that I have been buying are pretty sweet without adding sugar!

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        May 27, 2021 at 8:44 pm

        Hi Vivian! I honestly just use whatever is stocked in my local grocery store at the time!

        Reply
    4. Maythe says

      December 27, 2020 at 12:16 pm

      5 stars
      Super delicious recipe! Thank you for sharing. They turned out better than I expected!

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        December 30, 2020 at 12:55 pm

        Great! Happy to hear that!

        Reply
    5. Michael says

      December 16, 2020 at 12:44 am

      5 stars
      These are awesome! Thank you

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        December 21, 2020 at 11:20 am

        THank you!

        Reply
    6. Naomi says

      December 15, 2020 at 3:42 pm

      3 stars
      I have made these for three Christmases in a row and I just cannot get them to work.
      The dough ends up really sticky and I have to use so much flour to try and stop them sticking to the bench.
      Then, when I cut them in to squares, I have to use a knife to try and unstick them from the bench to get them on the tray. I fold them over the jam and then they crack. (So the dough is sticky and crumbly at the same time... I didn't even think this combination could exist!).
      When I first get the dough out of the fridge, it is super hard and crumbly so I have to knead it to get it workable, and that's when the stickiness recommences. Urgh! I always make half the biscuits and throw the rest of the raw batter in the bin in frustration. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
      The biscuits tastes nice and the kids like what ugly biscuits I produce (since they are very ugly - not cute little folded shapes like in the pictures!), but I don't think my confidence can handle a fourth failure next year!

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        December 15, 2020 at 6:32 pm

        Hi Naomi! How frustrating! Do you own a kitchen scale? Weighing everything might help and definitely work it into a cohesive dough in the mixer or with the hand mixer first. I did post a video on YouTube so you can see, if that helps. I'll update the recipe with weights in grams so you can try that if you have any more try left in you! Cheers!

        Reply
    7. Susan Swearengin says

      December 05, 2020 at 3:17 pm

      5 stars
      I made these today. My first batch didn’t all stay overlapped, but I learned from what I’d done and my second batch was perfect! Love how tasty and simple the apricot filling is. The cookie is tender and flaky. Delicious!!

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        December 07, 2020 at 7:25 pm

        Happy to hear it, Susan! I think that is half the fun! Happy baking!

        Reply
    8. J says

      November 07, 2020 at 5:45 am

      Thank you for this post! My husband is Hungarian, and I've been looking for a recipe for Kiffles that resembled my mother-in-law's delicious recipe. This is it! This is the go-to cookie during the holidays! Yum!

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        November 10, 2020 at 5:26 pm

        I'm so happy! ENJOY!

        Reply
    9. Fiberscope says

      June 01, 2020 at 3:49 pm

      Looks yummy!

      Reply
    10. Thomas James says

      March 05, 2020 at 10:10 am

      Look yummy! One of my favorite Apricot Kolaches, nice to see your recipe, easy to follow, will cook this for family this weekend. Thanks you!

      Reply
    11. Pavithra Sundar says

      December 20, 2019 at 7:48 pm

      I made these and they were delicious. I followed your recipe and cut my dough into 1.5 inch squares like you said, and they were very small. I loved how cute they looked and it made A LOT of tiny little cookies. I was only able to use a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of filling in one though. Did I make them too small?

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        January 27, 2020 at 1:11 pm

        I did make small ones but you could certainly make them larger. Sometimes the dough does shrink and so perhaps they were a bit smaller than intended.

        Reply
    12. Claudia says

      December 17, 2019 at 10:11 am

      I made this recipe many times, and it's absolutely amazing! It worked every time! But my cookies open up no matter how much I try to fold them... They taste wonderful, but about half of them or more open up... Any tricks to prevent that from happening? I don't feel like I do anything special to some of them. 😀

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        February 10, 2020 at 5:41 pm

        That is the question on all of our minds! Some people swear by water, but not too much; some swear by egg wash, but not too much; but I just squish the two together and don't overstuff them. There will always be some rebels that pop open, but I just claim those for myself 😉

        Reply
        • Claudia says

          February 11, 2020 at 12:01 am

          You are so funny, Lindsey!! Yeah, I may be overstuffing them. I can't wait to make them again and try your suggestions. Thank you so much for your reply!! <3 <3 <3

          Reply
          • Lindsey says

            February 17, 2020 at 12:30 pm

            You are most welcome, Claudia! Happy baking!

            Reply
    13. Alexandra says

      November 17, 2019 at 4:13 pm

      Thank you for the lovely recipe. Can these be frozen after baking? Do they freeze well?

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        November 21, 2019 at 10:40 am

        They do freeze well! Happy baking Alexandra!

        Reply
    14. Williams Chris says

      November 02, 2019 at 12:38 am

      Apricot Kolaches – An Hungarian Christmas Cookie is great! To be honest, I'm not good at cooking but I like them, they give me joy and excitement every time I finish the dishes, which is a great thing. With your recipe, I just need to follow the instructions and the rest is simple, Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    15. Vickie says

      October 29, 2019 at 10:12 am

      Hi, I have my grandma's recipe, she was Slovak and a well known baker.
      We called these cookies Kolaches and always rolled the dough in granulated sugar only. Apricot were always made along with cherry and walnut.
      We used an egg white wash to seal those corners together.
      The secret is that you must only use a dab of filling in the middle, this prevents the oozing.
      Have your dough chilled well and keep the cookies chilled before baking for a flaky cookie.
      The cookies burn easily from rolling out in the sugar, so take them out of the oven when they are just done before browning at all.
      I'm in western PA, these are a huge Christmas traditional cookie here. One of my Dads favorites from his mom.
      My mom would hate making these as they always opened up on her.
      It's a process but well worth the effort.
      I hope this helps and thank you for sharing!

      Reply
    16. Josiane Melo says

      October 03, 2019 at 6:00 am

      OLÁ, MORO NO BRASIL AQUI FAZEMOS ESSE COOKIE , É BEM PARECIDO MAS NO MEIO COLOCAMOS GOIABADA.E PARA NÃO SAIR RECHEIO BELISCAMOS AS PONTAS.
      ADOREI A RECEITA IREI TESTAR, ABRAÇOS.

      Reply
    « Older Comments

    Primary Sidebar

    Hi, I'm Lindsey! I am the baker, recipe developer, writer, and photographer behind Chef Lindsey Farr. I believe in delicious homemade food and the power of dessert! 

    More about me →

    Join our Newsletter

    Latest recipes, videos, and tips

    Footer

    About

    • Home
    • About
    • Newsletter
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy

    Browse

    • Recipe Index
    • Dessert Recipes
    • Breakfast Recipes
    • Lunch Recipes
    • Dinner Recipes

    Our Brands

    • Pastry Creations

    Follow

    • Instagram
    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube

    Copyright © 2022 Chef Lindsey Farr, LLC

    Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

    Email sent!