Sibling Cutlery

My dad requested these little pastries this year, and it took a while for my mom and I to figure out what he was talking about, not that that’s unusual. He calls them pineapple kipfels, and apparently they’re Polish. Now I find it a little tough to believe that the Polish found enough pineapples in Poland to make a pineapple pastry a tradition, but if coconuts can migrate, who am I to say that pineapples can’t? We finally found them under the name “Cream Cheese Kolacky.” I’m not sure if they’re exactly the same thing, but Dad seemed to appreciate them. The pastry is not especially sweet, but that’s a good thing, since it balances out the pineapple preserves perfectly. I was skeptical when I tried the preserves out of the jar, but after these bake, they’re a very well balanced treat. They’re also super cute, like a little hug of fruit.

Another great thing about these is that they use about the same dough as the pecan tassies, so if you make the dough for these just before you make the tassies, you don’t have to clean the bowl of your mixer. I sure didn’t.

Your ingredients:

You can use any type of jam you like. Raspberry would be especially good, I think. Dad, however, requested pineapple, so that’s what we used.

Your butter and cream cheese should both be softened at room temperature. Go ahead and toss them in a bowl together. Hi there butter, this is cream cheese. Cream cheese, this is butter.

You’re about to get to know each other very well.

Are we all friends now? Good. Time to meet flour. I’ll let you guys get aquainted nice and slow.

Keep these guys mixing until they start to form up into a dough ball, then actually shape the dough into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap to chill overnight.

The next day, roll out the dough to about 1/16″ thick. Actually, make your mom do it. Cold dough is tough!

Such determination! The recipe actually called for the dough to be rolled to 1/8″, but we tried that, and the dough puffs too much and forces the pretty edges apart. A bit thinner should do the trick. Once you’ve got the dough rolled out, it needs to be cut into 2 1/2″ squares, though I don’t think you need to be quite as precise as Mom was. I guess Garrick had to get it from somewhere.

When the squares are cut, spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of preserves or jam onto each square and pinch the opposite edges together.

Learn that you’re apparently doing it wrong, and reluctantly change your method for the rest of the squares.

When they’re all wrapped up and cozy, bake them at 350 for 10-15 minutes. At 10, we found them to be a little light, but at 15, they were lightly golden brown. Also, our first batch actually looked nothing like this. Because we rolled the dough out too thick, all the little edges popped apart and we had lots of little squares in varying degrees of flatness. If you also encounter this problem, I encourage you to cheat like we did and poke a toothpick through the overlapped edges to hold them together as they bake.

Allow the cookies to cool on a rack, then dust them with a little powdered sugar, just so they don’t come off as too healthy.

Pineapple Kolacky

Adapted from All Recipes

3 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup of butter, softened

1 cup flour

1/2 cup pineapple preserves

Powdered sugar for dusting

Mix the cream cheese and butter until blended. Slowly add flour and mix until dough begins forming. Shape into a ball and wrap in plastic to chill overnight. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough on floured surface to 1/16″ thick. Cut into 2 1/2″ squares. In the middle of each square, spoon about 1/2 teaspoon preserves, then fold opposite edges over and pinch together. Secure with toothpicks if desired. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on rack, then dust with powdered sugar.