Kossuth Kifli (Hungarian Lemon Walnut Crescent Cakes)
Kifli translates from Hungarian as “crescent”. Which makes these little cakes perfectly named. They are a simple butter cake with a little hint of lemon, topped with chopped walnuts. But once they are baked and cooled they are cleverly sliced using a basic biscuit cutter into crescent moon shapes and dusted with powdered sugar to make for a lovely presentation.
My favorite part of making them was cutting out the little moon shapes with my circle biscuit cutter, and then figuring out what to do with the stray centers and edges… in case you don’t want to be left in suspense, I immediately ate them. That’s the cook’s prerogative. Cake scraps, extra bacon that doesn’t quite fit on a BLT, the first slice of a homegrown tomato, the end of a freshly baked loaf of bread. No one will miss them. And it brings me a furtive kind of joy.
As for the Kossuth in the cake’s name, according to the internets it is named after someone who came to adore the cakes, and the cakes came to take on his name…
“The name is paying homage to Lajos Kossuth, lawyer, journalist, politician, statesman and Governor-President of the Kingdom of Hungary during the revolution of 1848–49.
Kossuth became very fond of these little delicacies, so much so that the cakes got named after him.”
Kossuth Kifli (Hungarian Lemon Walnut Crescent Cakes)
Adapted from Hungarian Tidbits
8 oz (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
4 medium eggs, whites and yolks separated
pinch of salt
1 ¼ cups superfine sugar
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 heaping tsp baking powder
grated zest of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp lemon juice (from half or one lemon)
1 cup walnuts finely chopped
2 Tbsp of powdered sugar, for dusting
1. Line the bottom of a square cake pan (about 9x9 inch) with parchment paper, butter and dust with flour. (If you prefer thinner cakes, you could do this in a larger rectangle pan.)
2. Preheat oven to 350°F.
3. Beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.
4. In another bowl beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale.
5. One by one add the egg yolks to the butter and sugar cream, then the lemon zest, with the lemon juice.
6. Mix the sifted flour with the baking powder, then add to the mixture.
7. Fold the beaten egg whites into the sugary butter mixture. Try to retain the air bubbles in the egg white as much as possible.
8. Pour the batter into the baking tray, spread it evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle with the chopped walnuts.
9. Bake in the 350°F oven until golden and cooked through, about 25-30 minutes.
10. Let it cool completely, then with a round cookie cutter cut cake into crescent shapes. (Don’t throw away the scraps! Chef’s prerogative what you do with those ;) )
11. Dust lightly with powdered sugar to serve.