Ingredients:
- 1 cup unsalted margarine
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup orange juice or milk
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 4 cups, approximately, all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- EGG WASH
- FILLINGS (Chocolate Hazelnut Paste, Cherry, Apricot, Prune, or Poppy)
- OPTIONAL: REGULAR OR COARSE SUGAR
Directions:
- Cream the margarine and sugar, add eggs and blend until smooth (If mixture is hard to blend or seems curdled, add a bit of the flour to bind)
- Stir in orange juice or milk and vanilla, fold in flour, salt, and baking powder and mix to make a firm but soft dough
- Cover dough and let rest ten minutes
- Divide dough into two or three flattened discs. Work with one portion at a time. (Wrapped in plastic, dough can also be refrigerated for 2-3 days.)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Roll out dough on lightly floured board to a thickness of 1/8th inch
- Use a 3 inch cookie cutter and cut into rounds and brush rounds with egg wash
- Fill with a generous teaspoon full of desired filling and draw three sides together into center
- Brush pastries with egg wash. If desired, sprinkle with regular or coarse sugar
- Bake until golden brown, about 18-25 minutes
- If you prefer, this dough can be made ahead and refrigerated (up to 2 days) or frozen (in either a disc of dough or already formed as filled pastries for a couple of months)
- If refrigerating, allow dough to warm up before rolling out. For frozen pastries, bake without defrosting.
- Recipe doubles well. About 4-6 dozen pastries.
