Recipe: KOLAAKY (with special thanks to Meem and Betty Ann)
Ingredients:
2 sticks (1 cup) butter (preferably unsalted)
8 ounce package cream cheese
about 2 tbsp of sugar, give or take
vanilla, about a half to one tsp depending on how
much you like vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
Filling: apricot (See recipe below), raspberry, poppy seed (most traditional), apple, etc. (If you don't want to make your own filling, you can use canned cake and pastry filling such as Solo.)
Directions:
Soften butter and cream cheese to room temperature
Mix cream cheese and butter (it's easiest if you
have a Kitchen Aid mixer, but if not, do it by hand)
Add sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, salt, mix, then add
baking powder and flour
Make a ball of the dough and chill for a couple of
hours or overnight
Take out and roll dough out to about ¼ inch. Cut
rounds out --I use a juice glass which I dip in water periodically. You might want to flour the surface and the rolling pin to keep the dough from sticking.
Place rounds on ungreased baking sheet. Top with
a small spoonful of filling. Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes (until edges begin to brown slightly).
Put on cooling rack. When completely cooled,
sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Apricot Filling
Ingredients:
16 ounces dried apricots
3 cups water plus more as necessary
1 cup sugar
Pinch kosher salt
Juice of 1 lemon
Directions:
Combine all ingredients except the lemon juice in a 2-quart, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, uncovered, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.
As the water reduces, the resulting syrup will thicken. Reduce heat as necessary and stir more frequently. Add more water, a tablespoon or two, at a time as necessary to prevent burning.
As the apricots soften, break them up with a wooden spoon or a potato masher.
Simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours until the filling is thick and the apricots are uniformly broken up. The filling will resemble jam.
Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice.
Cool and then refrigerate. The filling will thicken in the refrigerator.
