Szamárfül was a popular cookie during the second world war in Hungary; my mom always said it was because it had no eggs, although it does have butter (I don’t really understand the rationale, were eggs harder to come by than butter?). And I am not entirely sure of where the recipe originally came from, it was handed down to me by my mother, she had entered it into her first computer using DOS in the early 80’s and had several printouts which I inherited (I can find no other reference to it on line).
I posted this recipe quite a few years ago (December 2007), and I really don’t care for the photo anymore, so I decided to re-post with new photos! Tonight I am making the cookies for my nephew (Jack, 11) who adores them — we’re spending Canadian Thanksgiving with his family at their cottage this weekend. His Dad (my brother) is an amazing cook, but hasn’t mastered the art of baking, so every Thanksgiving, I bring about one hundred of these cookies (and believe it or not, they polish them off, lock, stock and barrel!).
The recipe is really no fail, you just need a little patience. The cookie is a simple yeast dough, with a little butter. It is rolled to about 2mm thick, cut into circles, and a small dollop of jam is placed in the centre. You then take this round cookie and fold it in half, then you pinch the edges tight. The challenge in making these delicious cookies is to pinch them down so the jam doesn’t escape and ‘burn’ while baking. Of course, as children, we always LOVED this melted jam because it caramelized to a wonderful candy coating. The cookie’s sweetness comes from the European Jam (which is generally thicker and with less pectin than the North American jam) and the confectioners sugar coating once they are baked. They are not an overly sweet treat.

A few years ago, I discovered that the thickest roller on my Kitchenaid Mixer Pasta Roller attachment is really the best and only way to go — it gives you the most consistent thickness of dough, and it avoids over working it. The dough renders a beautiful, flaky cookie pastry.
This year, JT offered to help, so I set up two stations on the island, and while I ‘rolled out’ the dough, he cut, filled and pinched. I did my share of cutting, filling and pinching too…but this dough is like the fishes and loaves, it is never ending…you keep taking the leftovers and re-rolling them…never ending! I am so lucky he helped tonight, otherwise it would have taken me a couple of hours to finish (we were done in 45 minutes). He even said he had fun doing this with me :-). His cookies stayed closed better than mine!


Donkey Ear Cookies:
(Szamárfül) makes about 100-130 cookies (we used a 5cm round cookie cutter this time and yielded 102)
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp quick rising yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water + 1 tsp sugar
- 600 g flour (3-4 cups)
- 240 g unsalted butter (1/2 lb)
- 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt
- Thick European jam (we used cherry for this batch)
- 1-2 cups confectioners sugar (for dusting)
Directions:
- Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar, proof for about 3-5 minutes.
- In an electric mixer with the scraper hook, mix butter and flour until crumbly. Change to dough hook.
- Add yeast and enough sour cream and knead with the mixer until a shiny dough forms.
- Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for 1/2 to 1 hr (you may also do this step in the fridge overnight if you won’t be making the cookies the same day. Allow the dough to get up to room temperature before you begin to work it).
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Roll out the dough into 1 mm thickness (or #1 of the Kitchenaid Pasta Machine) and cut with a 5-6 cm round cookie cutter.
- Fill each round in the centre with about 1/4 tsp of jam.
- Fold each circle in half and pinch edges really, really, really well (this dough has a tendency to pop open like a clam!).
- Bake at 350° F for 10-12 minutes (dough will be slightly golden), jam may have oozed out, it’s OK, really!
- Immediately put cookies into a large bowl with icing sugar and dust generously. Or dip each side into a small bowl filled with icing sugar.
- Remove to a wire rack and cool.
- Enjoy!
Notes:
- You may half the dough recipe, I’ve done it several times and you yield about 50 cookies!
- Dipping your finger in lightly beaten egg whites and running along the outer edge of the rounds before pinching them closed will help keep them closed tight while baking.
[…] This year’s treats included the Cheez-itz from my friend Ann (who no longer blogs), Hungarian Donkey Ear Cookies and a more recent addition Hungarian Cherry Squares. After having her first bite of the Cherry […]
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Just ran across a mention of something called Barátfüle or monk’s ears which reminded me of this post.
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I’d love the link, Maria, I haven’t seen any reference to these cookies on line or any Hungarian cookbooks.
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There were a number of links which I’ve now deleted but this one had nice pictures and a recipe. All in Hungarian, of course. 🙂
http://ecet-es-olaj.freeblog.hu/archives/2008/09/08/Baratfule/
I figure I could just use my recipe for rugelach (cream cheese pastry recipe) and fill them with a plum jam.
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Those don’t really resemble the donkey ear cookies, but they do look delicious! This recipe includes szilvalekvár (plum jam which is cooked for a long time without sugar). The Hungarians are not much for the super sweet desserts, but they will douse everything in icing sugar!https://wordpress.com/
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Hey .. me again.
I found that milk tart recipe I mentioned that my SIL thought was exactly what she had remembered her mother making. It’s a Portugese recipe which I found amusing. 🙂
http://fullbellies.blogspot.com/2008/06/queijadas-economicas-milk-tartlets.html
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Thanks Maria.
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I look forward to your blog on Hungarian food. Are you going to do Rakott Krumpli?
Even though my family is from the former Yugoslavia (Romanians) near the border of Romania in what is now Serbia, I’ve found that a lot of the dishes my mom made for us was similar to Hungarian dishes that my SIL recognized. There are some variations of course, and I won’t even TRY to reproduce most of the names. 🙂
There were the common dishes that everyone knows, ie cabbage rolls, goulash and paprikash, poppy seed rolls (cozonac in Romanian) and palacsinta (scoverdze in Romanian), but there are more obscure dishes like plum pierogy and those wonderful biscuits made with pork cracklings that my mother made on very very rare occasions. And langoz … I don’t know what they’re called in Romanian but my mother made them from the trimmings of home made strudel dough and cheese strudel filling.
Now I’m getting hungry. 🙂
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My sister-in-law is Hungarian. I’ll have to try these out and serve them to her. She also loves Hungarian milk custard (pie) or Tejes Pite Maskepp … the small tart version.
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Interesting. I’ve never heard of this! My parents (both gone now) were young during the second world war, Mom was a baby and Dad a teen! Chances are things like milk and eggs were rationed, and perhaps their Mom’s never made it. Do you blog? I’d love to see the recipe.
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Both my SIL’ s parents died more than 20 yrs ago and what she describes is a crustless tart version. Since she has no recipe and doesn’t bake herself, it took a lot of searching to find something similar to her description.
I don’t blog as I have neither a camera not the time to do a blog justice but I am an avid reader and commenter on other people’s blogs.
Here’s one recipe that I located which seems close though it’s baked in a pan not in tart shells. I have NOT tried it though some years ago I made something which she liked and which I lost the recipe for.
NOTE: I’m not sure what size baking pan should be used. There were no instructions but it said to cut the pie into squares. It is possible to do it in a 8×8″ pan based on number of servings but it may end up being too thick, while in a 9×13″ pan it may be too thin, or in a 9″ cake pan but then you’d have to cut it into wedges. Also, it said to bake the pie at 280 deg Celsius for 1 hour … that’s 536 deg F so I think there was a typo. I’ve corrected the baking temperature to 300 deg F instead.
Hungarian Milk Pie
4 1/4 cups milk
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tbsp lemon zest
Butter or margarine to grease baking pan
Apricot jam, confectioners sugar for decoration
Heat oven to 300°F.
In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, sugar and vanilla. In a small bowl combine well beaten eggs and milk. Add egg and milk gradually to flour mixture, beating to a smooth pancake-like batter, just a bit thicker. Fold in the zest of one lemon.
Coat the bottom of the baking pan with margarine or butter and pour the dough into it. Bake it for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
When the pie is done, cool for a few minutes, then cut into 8-10 bars. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar and add a spoonful of apricot jam or/and bottled apricot.
Yields: 8-10 servings
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Thanks so much! I’m going to do a blog week on Hungarian food when we get back from Morocco next month. I’ll definitely try this!
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PS:
RE: Hungarian milk pie (Tejes Pite) … the Maskepp seems to refer to ‘other’ or ‘different’ as in ‘a different hungarian milk pie’ and was incorrectly included in the title … I checked back to the original source and found this note.
” It’s best baked in a thin layer, so that the dough cooks through.”
So, I think it would be best to bake it in the 9×13″ baking dish.
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Thank you. Sorry but your email doesn’t include your first name. I’d love to know where you are from.
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130 cookies?!?! Oh my… I love the name… it begs the question – is that cookies made from Hungarian donkeys’ ears, or just Hungarian cookies named after donkeys? 😀 Great looking recipe I’ve never heard of before – thanks for sharing!
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Love your take, Charles! Just called donkey ears, sadly!
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That is such a good idea to use a pasta roller for the dough. You’re so smart! 🙂
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Hi Sook, thank for dropping by. Years of experience teaches you a few things!
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These family recipes are the best, aren’t they? Not only are they tasty — who’d bother if they weren’t? — but they evoke such great memories. I, too, have the pasta roller attachment for my KA mixer. You are so right about the loaves and fishes comment. Sometimes I think I’ll never use up all of the dough!
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Yes John! That’s true about the memories and the never ending dough. Of course, the extra pair of hands certainly helped save time!
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These look wonderful-even down to the name. I actually saw a gorgeous donkey in Edmonton-called donkey and I wanted to keep him! 😛
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That’s really cute, Lorraine. I have an affinity for the big eared creatures myself; I had a bunny for most of my life (although, right now, I am pet free)!
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Hi Eva! It looks delicious and I hope you have a GREAT Thanksgiving!
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Thank you Ann!! It looks like it’s going to be a very warm weekend!
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Those are too cool and now I’m sitting here pondering the butter eggs dilemma. Saw this and thought of you: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/dining/two-directions-for-moroccan-cuisine-modern-or-classic.html?hpw
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Thanks, Greg. What an interesting article, thank you for thinking of me! Don’t kill yourself over the butter/egg thing, it was probably some crazy Hungarian logic!
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Love those cookies…even the name sounds so cute.
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Angie, I may have to dip them in blood/ strawberry jam for Halloween! Loved your finger cookies.
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With my affinity for cookies I do believe that I could make a healthy dent in one batch of cookies! 😉 Thanks for sharing such a unique family recipe.
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Thanks Jed, that made me smile!
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What a fabulous recipe Eva! I’m reading this with Miss A, and the name of the cookie alone sold her. She giggled and giggled. I have a pasta machine on my wish list…as soon as I get it, we’re making these! That jelly looks delicious! 🙂
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Thanks Kristy. I remember helping my makes these cookies as a child. I had my own little rolling pin and cookie cutters! You can make them the old fashioned way, with a rolling pin, but the pasta machine is way easier!
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Oh those cookies look like so much fun to make and eat! I love the shape to them- guess that is why they call them donkey ears. Never heard of this recipe before but so willing and ready to try it- considering I am a cookieaholic- I am sure I will love them!
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Thanks Jessica. They are very nice particularly because they are not melt your teeth sweet.
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