Hungary · 60 min · Vegetarian · Baking · For confident cooks
Kossuth-kifli
In German: Kossuth-Kipferl · In English: Kossuth crescent
For 10 servings · US units
Buttery walnut sheet cake, cut into crescents after baking
Kossuth-kifli is a Hungarian bake that keeps things wonderfully simple: a light butter sponge spread across a sheet pan, scattered thickly with chopped walnuts, that only takes its shape once it comes out of the oven — crescents stamped out with a round cutter. Lemon zest and a spoonful of rum perfume the batter, while stiffly beaten egg whites keep it airy. Dusted with icing sugar, it belongs next to a cup of coffee, and it's just as welcome in January as in July.
Ingredients
- 8¾ ozbuttersoftened or melted
- 8¾ ozsugargranulated or icing sugar, part of it for the egg whites
- 8¾ ozfloursifted
- 5eggseparated
- 4¼ ozwalnutschopped or ground, sprinkled over the surface
- ⅓ ozbaking powdermixed with the flour
- 1lemongrated zest, in some versions also the juice
- 1 pinchsalt
- 1 tbsprumto flavour the butter mixture (optional)
- ⅓ oz (optional)Sugar flavoured with vanilla or vanillin, usually sold in small sachets.Substitute: For one sachet, use about a heaped teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract, which makes little difference in doughs and creams. Extract is not suitable for dusting, because it makes the sugar damp. For that, leave scraped-out vanilla pods in a jar of sugar for a few days.Read more
- icing sugarfor dusting before serving (optional)
Method
- Prepare oven and baking sheetHeat the oven to 355 °F. Line a baking sheet with parchment, or butter it and dust it with flour.
- Cream the butter mixtureBeat the softened or melted butter with most of the sugar, the vanilla sugar, the grated lemon zest, the rum and a pinch of salt until pale and fluffy.
- Beat in the egg yolksAdd the egg yolks one at a time, stirring until the mixture is smooth and light.
- Whisk and fold in egg whitesWhisk the egg whites with the reserved sugar to stiff peaks, then fold them gently into the butter mixture so the air stays in.
- Fold in the flourMix the sifted flour with the baking powder and fold it in a little at a time.
- Spread batter and add walnutsSpread the batter evenly over the baking sheet and scatter the chopped or ground walnuts across the surface.
- Bake until goldenBake for 15 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. A skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean.
- Cut crescents and dustLet the cake cool, then stamp out crescents with a round cutter. Dust with icing sugar before serving.
Tips and variations
Ground almonds work just as well as walnuts on top, and if you like a brighter flavour, add the lemon juice to the batter along with the zest. Some bakers start at 200°C and drop the heat to 175°C partway through, and switching on the grill for the last couple of minutes toasts the nuts nicely. You can cut the crescents while the cake is still lukewarm, or slice the sheet into strips first and stamp the crescents from those. Serve them dusted with icing sugar, ideally with coffee or tea.
Allergens
Contains: Eggs, Cereals containing gluten, Milk (including lactose), Tree nuts
Not every ingredient in this recipe has been checked, so nothing is promised as free from.
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
