When I was a child, my great aunts used to get together and bake the day away. They made wonderful things from the heritages of Austria, Hungary and Croatia: Poppy Seed Strudel, Palatschinke and Kipfels filled with lekvar, a cookie they called something like "Linsen" (I've found similar recipes named "Linzerteig".) All of the recipes that I have were passed by word of mouth and written down by my mother more than 20 years ago. No one is around to help me with the recipes, and I cannot make one of the recipes turn out right. The cookies are a tasty, but crumbly mess.
My great aunts called the cookies something like "Ringlen", most certainly for its shape given by the use of a donut cutter. Every time I make the cookie, it is a crumbly mess. Something is clearly wrong in the recipe, and I'd love to fix it. Here is what was written down (very minimal) and passed to me...
Ringlen
1 lb. butter, softened
5 c. flour
4 egg yolks
5 T powdered sugar (yes, it was written down as "powdered" but I've wondered if this should be "granulated"???)
1 egg white
7-8 T powdered sugar.
Mix together first four ingredients. Set dough to the side while you prepare the topping. For the topping, beat the the egg white and remaining powdered sugar together with a fork until stiff.
Roll out dough and cut with donut cutter. (My childhood recollection is of a cookie that was about 1/4" think, but the dough thickness was not written down.) Put topping on the cookies and bake for 10 mins at 350 degrees.
The cookies taste correct to my recollection. It is possible to get them off the silpat in one piece, but they crumble to bits when you try to eat them. Thanks for any ideas on how to "fix" the recipe. Clearly, something was lost in the transcription of this one.
-- MM
