Hungarian Kifli Cookies

OK, folks...inevitable Christmas cookie recipe follows; this is very easy and very good.

Kifli (pronounced kee-flee)
2 8 oz. package cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese
2 sticks (1 cup) of butter, cut up and softened
2 cups of unbleached flour

• Blend all ingredients together in a bowl with standing mixer or by hand (using pastry blender). I wimped out and used my Bosch kitchen machine on the highest setting to blend: it will take a while but it will stick together in the end.
• Roll it out on floured pastry board; you might want to cut it in half first and roll out one half after the other if you do not have a gigantic board worthy of your grandmother's legacy (like the one I had to leave in Hungary ::sniff, sniff::).
• Cut into 2x2 inch squares.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• Put a dab of apricot or other not too sweet fruit jam in middle of each square. I used 100% apricot and blackberry fruit jam, but it's really up to you. Other alternative filling is the mix of 1 cup of walnuts and 1/2 cup of brown sugar.
• Now the hard part: pull up the two opposite sides of the rectangle and pinch them tightly together. Squeeze it over the filling. Bend the little things into a crescent shape. Put them on the cookie sheet, and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 15-20 minutes. Check so they do not overbrown. The jam filling WILL bubble out a bit, it's inevitable. Do not panic. There's nothing you can do, but squeeze the next batch harder.
• While still warm, dust with powdered sugar.
• A fair warning: you might want to make a double batch next time: if you have a significant other they WILL eat these while still warm.

Have fun!