Chef01311921's Recipe

Bushas Apricot Stars

Category: Cookies

Dough:
5 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 pound shortening (2 3/4 cups)
6 egg yolks
2 cakes yeast
1 1/4 cups milk
2-3 drops yellow food coloring

Nut mixture for rolling:
1 cup ground walnuts
3/4 cups sugar
Stir together

Filling:
1 pound ground dried apricots (I chop these in my food processor)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
Heat until well blended, stirring constantly. Cool filling before placing on dough squares/circles*.

Warm 1/4 cup of the milk and dissolve yeast. Mix liquid ingredients. Add rest of dough ingredients. Blend well but do not overwork, dough will be soft. Divide dough into 4 or 5 parts.

Take one part dough. Roll out on cutting board sprinkled with mixture of ground nuts and sugar. Roll out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut dough into 2-inch squares. Cut each square's corner about 1 inch towards the center. Place 1/2 teaspoon filling on center. Fold every other corner over to form a star. Place cookies 1 inch apart, bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

*Instead of forming stars I used a 3 inch round cookie cutter and pinched each circle of dough in three spots around the filling to form triangles.