Butterhorns

These little tasty bites are my mom's favorite Christmas goody.  Let me tell you, though, I have to give her huge... er....I mean.. HUGE props for going through the process of making these every year.  This is the first year I actually made these...and my mom had said a few times: "Good luck" ... Hhhmmmmm...good luck huh?  How hard can they be?  Geez, it's like crescent rolls with strawberry preserves and walnuts inside!  And really, these were not the hardest thing I've made lately, it was just a bit time consuming and, well...seriously frustrating more than anything else.  You spend the time rolling out the dough, cutting the dough, filling the dough, rolling the dough...only to see the filling ooze out of the dough as it bakes!  So if you can get past that part, I highly recommend trying these out.  They are like little strawberry hand pies.

One bit of a suggestion, if you have a Silpat - USE IT.  The filling does not stick to it at all.  My mom also suggests quick release foil.  I actually used my Silpat on one batch and aluminum foil sprayed with non-stick spray on another, just to see how it worked and they both worked very well, but the Silpat is my recommendation - simple clean up if you want to do another batch on it, unlike the aluminum foil.  If you put these straight on the cookie sheet, you will not only have a mess, but you will have a hard time getting them up off!

Butterhorns
Recipe courtesy my Mom, Sharon
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 lb (2 sticks) butter, sliced
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup strawberry preserves
1/4 - 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, cut butter into the flour with a pastry blender.  Add the egg yolk and sour cream and mix well.  Cover and chill for a few hours.  (My mom divides the dough into 5 pieces, flattens them, than covers them in plastic.  You can than take out and roll out one at a time.)

When dough is chilled, roll out, using cinnamon and sugar mixture in place of flour. (I forgot to measure how much sugar and cinnamon I used, but it was about 1/2 cup sugar and 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon...mixed that together and then sprinkled it down on the counter and on the dough, instead of using flour so that it will not stick.)  Cut into pie wedges (you should get 12 wedges with each round.)

Mix together the preserves and the walnuts.  Place a small amount on each wedge. Roll from widest side, like a crescent roll.  Place on cookie sheet with Silpat or quick release Reynolds aluminum foil.  Bake about 20 minutes or until just golden brown.  Allow to cool.  Store in air tight container or freeze.  Enjoy!