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.
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
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!
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!
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.
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.
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
Apricot Kolaches
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
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
Carol says
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.
Lindsey Farr says
So happy you and your family enjoyed! Happy baking! ????
Victoria A Perez says
How many does 1 batch make?
Lindsey says
It depends on the size, but around 25, 2" cookies
Vivian says
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!
Lindsey says
Hi Vivian! I honestly just use whatever is stocked in my local grocery store at the time!
Maythe says
Super delicious recipe! Thank you for sharing. They turned out better than I expected!
Lindsey says
Great! Happy to hear that!
Michael says
These are awesome! Thank you
Lindsey says
THank you!
Naomi says
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!
Lindsey says
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!
Susan Swearengin says
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!!
Lindsey says
Happy to hear it, Susan! I think that is half the fun! Happy baking!
J says
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!
Lindsey says
I'm so happy! ENJOY!
Fiberscope says
Looks yummy!
Thomas James says
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!
Pavithra Sundar says
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?
Lindsey says
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.
Claudia says
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. 😀
Lindsey says
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 😉
Claudia says
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
Lindsey says
You are most welcome, Claudia! Happy baking!
Alexandra says
Thank you for the lovely recipe. Can these be frozen after baking? Do they freeze well?
Lindsey says
They do freeze well! Happy baking Alexandra!
Williams Chris says
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.
Vickie says
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!
Josiane Melo says
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.