Cream Cheese Cookies With Lekvar Filling Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease cookie sheets.
• In a large bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in flour until well blended. Drop dough by spoonfuls or use a cookie press to place onto prepared cookie sheets. If using floral cookie press design, make an indentation in the center with a thimble, fill with preserves, or press candy into center.
• Bake for 15 minutes in preheated oven. Cookies should be pale.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Shape into two 12-in. rolls; wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. , Unwrap and cut into 1-in. slices. Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheet. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately make an indentation in the center of each cookie using the end of a wooden spoon handle. Remove to wire racks to cool. , In a small bowl, combine the filling ingredients. Place 2 teaspoonfuls in the center of each cookie. Let stand until set. In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and butter; stir until smooth. Drizzle over cookies. Store in the refrigerator.

Steps:

• Blend in bowl with a wire pastry blender until dough forms together. Roll out like pie crust on a lightly floured surface. Cut in 2 X 2 inch squares. Put a dab of Apricot or Prune Lekvar in the middle of square. Filling: 1 lb. of dried Apricots -OR- pitted dried Prunes water to just cover 1 cup of sugar It is easy to make the fruit filling for Kipfels and filled cookies. Take a pound of dried fruit, either apricots or prunes, and put them in a sauce pan to cover with water and set them on the stove to cook. Do not let all the water evaporate or the Lekvar will burn. Add a little more water to keep this from happening. Once the fruit is soft add to the fruit one cup of sugar and further cook until thick. Remove from pot and puree with a food mill or a cuisinart. The puree will should be thick, not runny. If it is runny, cook till it is thick. Ladle the puree into pint sized freezer bags. These bags can be frozen until you need them or used right away. By cutting off a small corner, the bag now becomes a pastry bag which can be used to squeeze the puree onto the kipfel before it is rolled or folded up. This saves a lot of time and mess. You will want to make both prune and apricot. You will have some filling left over that be kept frozen until you need it. Then just cut off the corner of the plastic pouch and you are ready to go. Lekvar is also used as fillings for cookies. Take up two of the opposite corners and bring the two corners together with a squeeze over the dab of Lekvar. Note: If you have a pie crust trimmer with a crimped wheel, you can use this to cut all the 2 X 2 squares. It makes a beautiful presentation. All the pastry edges have serrated edges. Bake on a buttered and floured cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Do not let burn. Dust with Powdered Sugar.