These cookies take some time to make, but they will reward you with their out-of-this-world, tender, and flaky deliciousness.

Butterhorns are crescent-shaped cookies made from an enriched, yeasted dough, with a small amount of walnut-meringue filling rolled up inside and a powdered sugar glaze on top. They are very sweet and perfect with a strong cup of coffee. There are three components to these cookies:

yeasted cookie doughmeringue fillingpowdered sugar glaze.

The yeasted dough is actually easier to make than it sounds. The original recipe contained fresh yeast, a.k.a. baker’s yeast or cake yeast, which can be difficult to track down. I’ve made these cookies many times using instant yeast instead, which is much more widely available (the SAF brand is my favorite). Colleen says that the fresh yeast makes a difference, but I think both kinds work equally well! Either way, there’s no need to bloom the yeast—it gets beaten right into the dough along with the butter, sour cream, and egg yolks.

How To Make Walnut Meringue Filling

The filling is a French-style meringue of egg whites and granulated sugar whipped until it is satiny and smooth. You’ll know it’s ready when you can rub some of the meringue between your fingers and not feel any gritty grains of sugar. I like to use superfine granulated sugar, as it incorporates into the egg whites more quickly than granulated sugar. If granulated sugar is what you have on hand, you can either use it as it is or pulse it in a food processor five to eight times to make superfine sugar. A few spoonfuls of ground walnuts are mixed in once the meringue is fully whipped. If you don’t care for walnuts, swap it with something else. You can use ground:

PecansAlmonds or even almond mealPistachiosHazelnuts

Don’t skip the filling! It helps hold the cookie together, adds sweetness, and turns puffy and crackly as it bakes, making for a textural contrast that’s hidden inside the flaky dough.

What To Do With Leftover Meringue

You will have about 1/2 cup of the meringue filling leftover. Fold it into a pancake or muffin batter for added sweetness and lift or make meringue cookies. Just drop tablespoonfuls of the filling onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for one hour at 200°F, then turn off the oven and leave them in there for another hour to fully dry.

How To Shape the Cookies

You’ll roll the dough out into circles, then cut it into wedges, spread each one with a bit of the filling, and roll them up like crescent rolls. (You can tuck the corners in to make the cookies u-shaped if you like, but Colleen leaves them straight.) The dough doesn’t have to be rolled into a perfect circle, and the wedges don’t have to be perfectly even either. Just do your best. The cookies always come out slightly varied in size, which is part of their charm. The dough is pliable but sticky; follow the tips below to get the best results:

Buy a big bag of sugar: Use lots and lots of powdered sugar on your work surface as you roll it out. The sugar will keep the dough from sticking, and some will absorb into the cookies giving them an extra touch of sweetness.A wooden cutting board is best: A large wooden cutting board is the most non-stick surface for rolling out this dough.Use the proper tool: To cut the circle of dough into wedges, use either a bench scraper, a chef’s knife, or a pizza cutter.

Once they’re baked, you’ll spread a generous amount of the powdered sugar glaze on top of each cookie, so they’re fully coated in a sweet, smooth topping.

How To Store Butterhorn Cookies

These cookies are best enjoyed in the first couple of days (and they never last beyond Christmas Day in the Morante house, anyway). They will keep in a tightly lidded container for up to 3 days at room temperature. To freeze: If you must make them more than a day or two ahead, wait until the glaze is completely set, then freeze them in a tightly lidded container for up to 3 months. To thaw: Place them in a single layer on a platter and leave them out for an hour or two.

Gingerbread Cookies Holiday Pinwheel Cookies Best Sugar Cookies Walnut Snowball Cookies Almond Crescent Cookies Thumbprint Cookies

2 egg whites 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional) 2/3 cup (135 grams) superfine granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 tablespoons (21 grams) very finely chopped/ground walnuts (use a mini chopper), or walnut flour

For the dough:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 1 teaspoon instant yeast 1/3 cup 80 grams sour cream 2 egg yolks 2 2/3 cups (333 grams) all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup powdered sugar for dusting the work surface and rolling out the dough

For the glaze:

5 cups (500 grams) powdered sugar 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 6 to 8 tablespoons milk

Add the sugar to the egg whites, one tablespoon at a time, whisking it in completely after each addition, for a minute or so if you’re doing it by hand, or about 30 seconds if you’re using an electric mixer. Add the vanilla, then continue to whisk at high speed, until the egg whites are glossy and silky in texture. Stop the mixer and rub a little of the meringue between your fingers. It should feel smooth and you should not be able to feel any gritty sugar between your fingers. Add the flour and salt in three batches, mixing slowly until the flour is thoroughly blended into the dough, about 10 seconds each time. You can gently bend the ends in to form a crescent shape or just leave them straight. It’s up to you. Transfer the cookie to the lined baking sheet. Complete this process with the rest of the dough, rolling out the three remaining balls of dough, cutting them into wedges, and rolling up the cookies with the filling, to make 32 cookies. You will have a good amount of filling leftover (a half cup or so). Spoon about a tablespoon of glaze over the top of each cookie, using a spoon to gently coax the glaze into dripping down the sides— you want to cover the cookies as much as possible. Let the glaze set for an hour or so, until it is no longer tacky.