I am sending you warm greetings from my kitchen.
Because I luv ya!
And because the running oven makes it really, really warm in here.
The time before Christmas has a sweet and magical impact on me. I find myself in the kitchen even more often than usual.
Which actually means that instead of 14 hours a day I spend 20 hours here now.
Like yesterday, for example, I made 82 cookies and I don’t even know how that happened to me.
Strange.
Anyhow, these lovely Bowtie Cookies were one of those I made yesterday.
The dough has cream cheese in it. It remotely resembles puff pastry, but it is less layered and less fatty. And oh so delicious!
The dough is filled with jam. You wouldn’t believe how gorgeous that combination is.
Let me show you how I prepared them…
Here’s what we need.
1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and salt on medium speed until light, about 2 minutes.
2. Then on low speed, gradually beat in the flour just until mixed. A crumbly mixture will form.
3. Using your hands, pat the crumbly mixture together to form a dough ball.
Oh, and the face – I had to. Again. It’s addictive. Sorry!
4. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. Now, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a square or rectangle about 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick.
6. Cut the dough into even 2.5 x 2.5 inch (6 x 6 cm) squares.
I’ve found out that my pizza cutter works best when it comes to cutting pastry.
It’s perfectly sharp.
And pink.
I’m in love with it!
7. Place 1 teaspoon of the filling in the center of each square.
Use a really thick jam. There are even jam brands out there that are meant for baking. Get one of those, preferably.
Also, when I was making the first batch of these cookies I was a little too generous and placed a little more than one teaspoon of the filling in the center. And I also spread it.
I don’t recommend that.
Although the cookies looked amazing before baking, if there’s too much jam, it has a tendency to leak while baking.
In the second batch I was less generous.
And the cookies leaked less, they almost didn’t leak at all.
7. Back to the instructions… pull 2 opposite corners of the square into the middle, and pinch the edges together to seal.
Pinch the edges well, don’t give them a chance to open back into the square shape while baking.
8. Place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet, spacing them about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) apart.
9. Bake at 350 °F (175 °C) for about 12 minutes or until lightly golden.
10. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 1 to 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.
11. Dust the tops with sifted confectioner’s sugar while still warm, then let cool completely.
Enjoy, dear friends!
(This recipe was loosely adapted from Epicurious.com and makes 40 cookies.)
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Your food never ceases to amaze. Yummy as usual. And the photos are great as well. You should definately do another photography post of your step by step editing! Would really be helpful!
I just knew these would look and feel like magic when I read the post in my reader…WOW!! They are PRETTY!!
These are absolutely gorgeous – love the photos, love the cookies!
Truly a wonderful sight. You do take great pictures. Hope you don’t mind if I add them to my Blog. It simply takes them right back to you so you should be pleased. I can’t wait to make the cookies. Thanks for all your hard work.
Hi Jamie. You can use the pictures from this post for your blog. Enjoy! Petra
Beautiful and delicious!
All I can say you are Amazing…
Yummmy! I can’t wait to make these for my family…
Could you plz make a moist chocolate cake with chocolate sauce if u dont mind ??
Thanks
WOW – these are gorgeous. So simple but just stunning. Nice work and your pictures are amazing. New to your blog but i love it.
Oh so cute!!!
Looks easy and yum! How long do you think they’ll keep? Can I make them now for Christmas day? Thanks in advance.
Hi Beth! I’d make them 1 or 2 days ahead. Happy baking to you! And Happy Holidays! 🙂 Petra
Sorry, but something is wrong. I make the cookies step by step but all cookies were open after baking.
Recept mi nefunguje, vÅ¡echny šáteÄky se mi v troubÄ› rozlepily. Uf, jdu na druhý pokus, tentokrát potÅ™u spoj vejcem a budu doufat, že se nerozlepà 😀
Jakub, did you pinch the edges together stongly? Please do, that will help! (Translation: To je mi luto. Treba silno stlacit tie okraje pred pecenim! V recepte to je, asi si prehliadol… Dufam, ze druha davka sa podari.) 🙂
as strong as I can … hope that the second version will be fine 😀
These are a family tradition, called kolache. I made them this year with homemade apricot jam, and they were fabulous – but the jam was not so thick, so they did run a bit. And open up also… I’ve tried egg on the corners as well as cornstarch/water mixture, and really they stick best just plain and pinched very well. I substituted powdered sugar for flour during the rolling stage, and this worked great. Please try making them with a butter/sugar/walnut combo – even better than jam.
I think I will make them tomorrow. MAYBE reserve them for Friday, if I can fit it in. I’m gonna do a lot of pre-cooking cooking on Friday, so I’m nervous about waiting until Friday to bake them, but I’m scared to make them tomorrow, too! I don’t want them to be gross on Saturday because I cooked them on Thursday! Aughhh! Thanks for suggestions – we’ll see what I decide!
We call those kolachkies, a family favorite recipe.
Hi ,
Just tried this recipe today and it tasted really yummy..but i couldn’t make it as beautiful as yours….i guess i put in lotta butter…next time will try with less butter…thanks for this wonder ful recipe!
wow, I am surprised to see these here, this has been considered a family recipe for years in my family in Poland 🙂
test number 2: oh yeah, I made it 😀 … taste … emmm .. I mean good … 3/5 points :-)))
Lovely bowtie cookies. Merry Christmas! 🙂
I gonna save this recipe,
Thanks for sharing and your amazing step by step pictures,
That was really helpful!
Thanks. I will try this recipe. Looks good.
I will definitely be making these soon! They look so deelish!
But how did you roll out the dough so perfectly?
Thanks Lisa. Hm…could be better… 🙂 Petra
What brand of jam do you use? I’m looking for a thick jam for cookies and haven’t been successful. Thanks!
Hi James. I come from Europe, so brands would not probably help you. But what I recommend you is to ask in your local shop which jam or marmalade works best for baking. Hope it helps. 🙂 Petra
I followed your suggestion to “pinch well” but my cookies sprang back to square. Did I do something wrong? Was my dough too warm?
I just made these for Christmas. They are wonderful! I especially like the flavor of the dough. The jelly complements it well. Thanks so much for sharing. I’ll definitely be trying some of your other recipes 🙂
Hi,
Love these cookies, I have been making them for years but we slovak individuals know them as Kolacky cookies. I was looking to see how to change up my recipe but found only very slight differences. I use confectionares sugar instead of granulated sugar. It makes for a much lighter cookie. A very good filling besides preserves is a cheese filling. They are an all time favorite with everyone that tries them with me.
Cheese Filling:
1/2 lb farmers cheese (not ricotta because it is wetter)
1/4 cup cofectionaire’s sugar (add more or less to desired sweetness)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Blend well and place about tablespoon worth in dough.
Fabulous recipe!
These taste exactly like the ones I used to get at a lovely little European bakery. (Maybe even a bit better, to be honest. Especially when a bit warm.)
These look so good,, I am going to make them for a cookie swap meet. Question – how many does this batch make???
Thank you..
Hi, i substitute all-purpose-flour to Quinoa flour and sugar to agave nector. And everything the same. i have a problem. The dough became too crumbly and i cant seem to fold the corners at all. Im not sure what happen or what shud i do to add other ingredients to make a good consistency of the dough. Pls help! Thanks!