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These Hungarian Nut Roll Cookies are a flakey, cream cheese pastry wrapped around a homemade walnut filling. The filling is sweet, crunchy, and caramelized around the edges!
Nut roll cookies, which are also called Hungarian nut horns, are crunchy, sweet, addicting cookies. In the Hungarian, slovak and polish traditions, they are made at Christmas time; however, they are delightful all year round!
The simple cream cheese pastry crust is the same one used in this apricot kolacky recipe but they taste remarkably different. Both would be a wonderful addition to a cookie platter alongside these pecan snowball cookies, chewy gingerbread boys, and chocolate peppermint kiss cookies!
Table of Contents
Why you will love these walnut roll cookies:
- They have an easy crust with cream cheese that can be made in one bowl with a hand mixer. There is no additional moisture, which makes a very rich, tender pastry.
- The homemade walnut filling recipe is sweet, nutty and can be stored in the freezer for future cookie baking!
- The dough is rolled out in granulated sugar, which creates a sumptuous caramelized crust on the bottom and a crunchy, sweet coating on top. There is no sugar in the dough, so this is a welcome addition!
Ingredients
All-purpose flour: Be sure to measure your flour by fluffing up the flour in the bag then spooning it into a measuring cup. Level it off with a knife. Be careful not to tap or compress the flour. Not measuring correctly, will lead to dry cookies
Kosher Salt: Kosher salt is less salty than table salt and a teaspoon weighs less than other finer ground varieties. It heightens the flavor here and will keep your pastries from tasting dull or flat.
Cream Cheese: I use original full fat 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 flakey, 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: The granulated sugar in the filling adds sweetness and caramelizes. There is additional sugar in the recipe for rolling out the pastry dough. This is optional but adds so much!
Walnuts: You can finely chop walnuts with a knife or pulse in a food processor until finely ground. I do not toast them for this recipe. They bake long enough to toast in the nut roll cookie!
Milk: I use whole milk for baking because it adds a richness to the final flavor and texture.
How to Make
The below instructions and photos will give you all the tips you need to make perfect nut roll cookies from the very first time! There are additional instructions and measurements in the recipe card below.
Make the walnut filling:
Step 1: Finely chop walnuts with a knife or pulse in the food processor.
Step 2: Add chopped walnuts, sugar, melted butter and ¼ cup hot milk to a medium bowl. Stir together. The mixture should be thick.
Step 3: Allow to sit for 10 minutes then add more milk if it is not a spreadable consistency. The amount of milk varies by how finely your walnuts are chopped. The finer, the more milk. I used all of the milk for the cookies pictured. Filling can be made ahead and frozen. Thaw before assembling.
Make the dough:
Step 4: In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter until completely incorporated and creamy (approximately 3-5 minutes).
Step 5: Reduce the mixer to low and add the salt along with small additions of flour. Adding too much at one time will overwhelm the dough and take too long to mix it. This will create gluten and tough, shrinking cookies! The dough will be soft but not sticky.
Step 6: 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.
Even though there isn’t any liquid in the dough, gluten will still form if overworked. Divide the dough with a knife or bench scraper rather than tearing it, and only gently press the pieces slightly to flatten. You will do the rolling later. Let it rest!
Assemble the cookies:
Step 7: Pre-heat the oven to 375°. Move the oven rack one setting higher than the center. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 8: 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” thick or as thin as possible. The thinner the better. If you roll them too thick, the bottom will burn before the inside has a chance to fully cook and puff up.
Step 9: 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 1/2 “ squares a possible, saving the scraps for later.
Step 10: Place a dollop of filling in one corner of each square. I used ½ teaspoon. Starting in the corner with the filling, roll the dough around the filling from corner to corner, gently pressing down as you roll. Grab the roll on both sides and pinch as you bend the roll to create a crescent shape. Move it to a parchment covered baking sheet, placing the Rolls no closer than 1” apart. You can offset them in a diagonal pattern to get more on a tray. Repeat with all remaining squares.
Step 11: Sprinkle the middles of the Rolls with just a touch of granulated sugar. Bake 12-14 minutes or until the bottom edges are a golden and you can smell them. They should puff up slightly in the middle. With experience you can see when the dough is cooked. Let cool slightly on the pan before moving them gently to a wire rack to cool completely.
Chef Lindsey’s Recipe Tip
Don’t chill the assembled cookies prior to baking them. This re-solidifies the butter in the dough and will cause them to puff too much. The extra puff will unroll the rolls!
This recipe is from June Meyer’s Authentic Hungarian Heirloom Recipes Cookbook with my technique tips.
Video Tutorial
Variations & Substitutions
Filling: These nut roll cookies are also delightful with apricot filling or a traditional poppyseed filling. Pecans can also be substituted for the walnuts.
Size: These can be made large or small depending on your preferences. They are very adorable when bite-sized but more challenging to work with.
How to store nut roll cookies:
Store baked, cooled cookies at room temperature layered between sheets of wax paper and then wrapped loosely in foil. I found that this will keep them as crisp as possible. You can also freeze them for up to three months.
The raw assembled cookies can also be frozen and then brought to room temperature prior to baking. I suggest freezing in a single layer then placing in a ziptop bag.
Freeze the dough packets and filling separately for later assembly.
Frequently Asked Questions
I do not suggest baking them from frozen or even refrigerated. This resolidifies the butter in the dough and will cause them to puff too much. The extra puff will unroll the rolls!
You can absolutely make as a large a batch as your mixer can handle. For larger batches, I do suggest making the dough in a stand mixer.
I do suggest chilling and re-rolling the scraps. They will shrink a little more than the first batch; however, the additional sugar in the dough from the first rolling makes them even more delicious!
Nut Roll Cookies (Walnut Filling)
Ingredients
For the Pastry:
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 8 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar for rolling
For the Walnut Filling:
- ½ pound walnuts finely ground
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup whole milk boiled
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter melted
Instructions
To make the Walnut Filling:
- Mix filling in a medium bowl using only ¼ cup of the boiled milk. The mixture should be thick.
- If the filling is not spreadable, use the rest of the milk. I used all of it. It will thicken as it sits.
- Note: 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 Walnut Rolls:
- Pre-heat the oven to 375F. Move the oven rack one setting higher than the center.
- Dust each side of the dough with flour. Generously coat a flat surface (countertop, marble board, etc.) with granulated sugar. Plop the dough on top and press gently to push some crystals into the dough. The sugar will keep your dough elevated off the rolling surface enough to keep it from sticking. Lightly coat the rolling pin with flour throughout the process, using as little as possible.
- 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 1/2 “ squares a possible, saving the scraps for later.
- Place a dollop of filling in one corner of each square. I used ½ teaspoon.
- Starting in the corner with the filling, roll the dough around the filling from corner to corner, gently pressing down as you roll. Grab the roll on both sides and pinch as you bend the roll to create a crescent shape. Gently move it to a parchment covered baking sheet, placing the Rolls no closer than 1” apart.
- Repeat with all remaining squares.
- Sprinkle the middles of the Rolls with just a touch of granulated sugar.
- Bake 12-14 minutes or until the bottom edges are a golden and you can smell them. They should puff up slightly in the middle. With experience you can see when the dough is cooked. 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.
- For a more traditional cookie, you can omit the granulated sugar and dust the final, cooled cookie with powdered sugar. I will warn you that it won’t be as divine.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Sweet Scrolls Wrapping Papers 24
[…] when I make them. She passed in 2007. She was all Hungarian. We continue to coo […]
Great recipe; I’ve used it since discovery.
My Grandmother and Grandfather were first gen Americans and my Mom, born in Hungari, baked like a true Austrian. Her cakes , cookies and spaetzile were incredible; her goulash to die for. Because of her I was popular in highschool for potential goodie trades at lunch. …rarely happened even though I knew I had more at home.
We were a military family in more than name. While in Asia during the Vietnam War my father, a fight engineer to Vietnam arrived shortly brfore Christmas at my remote base with koulaches and prune pinwheels from Mom. The cookies and weird visit ( as in, how the heck he got there) was the best Christmas I ever experienced.
Mom and Dad are gone, but I continue to cook Mom’s cookies every year for the rest of the family and they do not last.
As an aside, a good walnut roll is close to nirvana.
Hi Will! What a fantastic story! I love reading the comments on this recipe and the Apricot Kolaches more than any other posts on my blog. They inspire such vivid and wonderful memories of cooking with grandparents and parents. They make me smile every time. Thank you so much for sharing with me and also carrying on the traditions. Happy baking and Merry Christmas!
Thank you for this recipe. I’m originally Czech now married into a wonderful Canadian Jewish family. I find it fascinating how the cuisines of central Europe mash together and each country claiming it’s really theirs recipe 🙂
I found several recipes on your website to incorporate in my this year’s very special Christmas baking and at the end they all are “just” traditional Jewish recipes, because it was very frequently the Jewish community that owned small businesses, especially bakeries.
As I was reading your recipe I realized those were the beauties my mom used to bake for very special occasions, and the thing that rang the bell was the cream cheese in the dough. Thank you so much for posting this amazing recipe.
I recall eating those with poppy seed filling, or even better baker’s cheese (more dense form of cream cheese), always dusted with confections sugar, always :))))
I can’t wait to get baking
Does the 1/2 pound of walnuts equal to 2 cups once ground fine? Thank you so much..These look delicious and I am in the middle of making these..LOL
Hi Sissy! I’m not sure how many cups 1/2 lbs walnuts finely ground is but if you weigh 1/2 lb walnuts and then grind them, it shouldn’t matter! Happy baking!
Thank you…It came out just fine with the 2 cups of ground walnuts..LOL..Also, I made your Apricot filling from the dried Apricots, so, so good..Will never use a store bought brand again..Homemade is the way to go..Thanks for sharing all these wonderful recipes… Have a Happy Holiday Season to you and your Family & Friends..Thanks again..
Maybe someone knows… my grandmother made something very imilar to the walnut kolaches. However the ough also has e shaped them into a horn shape with the filling spilling out one end. My mother now in her 80’s so wants to taste that long remember Christmas treat.
My recipe is nut cookies, the dough is butter, sour cream and flour and filling Egg whites ground nuts and sugar. The dough is put together like pie crust and form small balls and rolled out in a circle and a dolip of nut filling put in Center and folded over , pinched, and curved to form a crescent and after taken out of oven, sprinkled with powdered sugar! My grandmothers family has made them for years, and I likewise. They are delicious !
My mom always cut the rolled dough into 8ths and rolled them like crescent rolls, the filling will spread out of the ends and crisp a bit.
I will have to try making it into squares like this recipe to see if I could get a more uniform shape
I can see rolling these like crescent rolls. And I think that would be delicious. I think the filling that spills out and caramelizes is the best part!
Hi Casey,
Sorry I just saw this. I hope you went ahead and used them, I bet they still made a delightful filling. IF you didn’t and you still have the grounds you can use them in place of almond meal in recipe for a walnut twist or you can keep processing them into walnut butter!
Hi Mary, A bottle of pineapple preserves sounds fantastic in the filling. A really nice substitute for granulated sugar. I think it is fascinating how much of Eastern Europe made a cookie similar, if not the same, as this one!
Hi Cathleen, What a heartwarming comment. Thank you so much for taking the time to post your experience and also your memories. I am so glad to have brought you and your family joy during the holidays!
I hope you have too, Thomas!
They came out great, though small. Not a bad thing though. The crust to filling ratio gives a different taste.
Turns out it’s not the same recipe. Right after I made these, a distant relative posted they had made the right one and I now have that recipe too. The name I was after is Rozkī.
Difference in the cream cheese and sour cream is minor, though the sour cream add a tang. They are less sweet (no sugar in filling) but your recipe is creamier with the butter and milk. I plan to make a small batch (1/3) and then start tweaking to merge the two.
Rozkī.
Dough:
6 egg yolks
6 cups flour
1lb butter
1 pint sour cream
pinch of salt.
Filling:
6 egg whites
1lb finely chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Roll 1″ balls of dough in powered sugar. Fill (~!tsp) roll up and bake @ 350 for 15-20 min
I can’t wait to try that! I think a little tanginess with the sweet filling would be welcome
Well, I’m sorry you had trouble with the recipe. Perhaps just a measuring error.
The dough gets soft and sticky when it gets warm. You have to keep it cold and work fast.
I just cut with a straight line, not serrated. I put the seam down, and no issues breaking.
They are small and yes, sweet. see below for a less sweet, egg based variation.
Oh, and no matter what they look like they taste great. The mistakes/error are what you keep for yourself, or give to a shelter. I’d never throw food out because it didn’t look pretty.
Hi Gail, It is in the main post right above where the comments start.
YOu are most welcome! I hope they were just as good as you remembered!
Hi Mary Ann, I usually just pinch but you could use a little egg wash or heavy cream to try to adhere them better. Happy baking!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your memories Eugene! I hope you try these and they remind you of your grandmother. Happy baking!
Hi Sissy, That is a great question. I don’t think that I measured them in cups after. I just used a bag that was 8oz walnuts. My notes from work say that 2 cups of walnuts are 225g, which is 7.9oz.
Hi Jenn, When I originally made this recipe I just used an 8oz bag of walnuts but my notes from work say that 2 cups ground walnuts = 225g = 7.9 oz, so I would say using 2 cups ground walnuts is a good substitute for weighing them. Happy baking!
I’ve made Tyra cookies for like 44+ years. I was taught by my husband’s grandmother who was Czechoslovakian how to make them and still make them every Christmas. Have become a family tradition! Also like her recipe for Czech fruit dumplings
Truly Linda Seidl
What wonderful memories to cherish, Linda! I’ll have to try the fruit dumplings!
Another reader said the same thing! I can’t wait to try that!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your family’s tradition and recipe! I am still blown away how many people have memories making these types of cookies!
Oh wow my mother passed in 1974 and ive been searching for this recipe and hints to make this year for christmas! Its been that long since ive tasted them!! Im sure ill be crying in my kitchen cause youve taken me home!! Iwas 25 then im now 67!!! Im so grateful they look just like my sweet Hungarian moms soecial christmas cookies!!! Im so geecked!!
Hi Jerrie! What a touching comment. I’m so glad that my recipe could bring you a little bit of joy this holiday season. Please don’t forget to report back and let me know how it goes! You can also freeze extra filling for later in the year 🙂 Happy baking!
The ad at the bottom of the website covers your copyright. I have no website.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t there….
Thanks for tweaking and tweaking, and giving us such accuracy. I, too, recall these, and have familial glee associated with them, which you have enough of, now. I’m making your version RIGHT NOW and need to ask about the filling. Mine is gritty from the sugar, which I don’t recall.
While I have both of the “parts” made, next is assembly, and I’m going to have faith the sugar will dissolve during baking.
And I’ll report back in an hour or so.
But thanks again for taking care to pare down quantities for us. I feel good about your kitchen chemistry.
Wish me luck.
Anne
Hi Anne! I do recall the filling being gritty from the sugar before it baked. Mine melted when it baked and didn’t taste gritty afterwards! How did it go? Happy baking!