Food

Hungarian Kifli cookies at the Bakehouse

Hungarian Kifli cookies

I wrote about these incredible little cookies in the last newsletter, but they’re so good that I’m bringing them back. Each time I taste them I like them even better than the last. Slightly crumbly, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth almond cookies, they’re the kind of cookie I could eat almost every day!

I sent a box to my friend Alex Carbone out in California. Her response was so poetic that I have to share it: “When I opened the package I had a Proustian moment,” she wrote, “wherein for a second I remembered the smell of the Polish cookies my Aunt Helen used to make at Christmas. I drink a lot of tea and sometimes coffee, and I like to just have a little something, not a big guilt inducing something, but just a tasteful, ladylike cookie, and these were so dainty and so crumbly and so not too-sweet. They were a lot like the Spanish Torta de Santiago, which is one of my favorite desserts, but in a crumbly cookie form. And I liked the hit of salt at the end. Yum! The other folks I served them to also loved them, including a guy whose wife is Hungarian. He was wondering where to get them because they tasted just like stuff he’s had in Hungary. A smashing success all around.” I agree completely with Ms. Carbone. The kifli truly are terrific. Ask for a taste next time you’re in the Zingerman’s Bakehouse.

See a complete list of Hungarian treats here.