My family has a holiday tradition that I absolutely love. We wake up early Christmas morning, open presents, and then eat Romanian Kifla Cookies for breakfast. That’s right, cookies for breakfast!

These cookies are delicious, and you will enjoy them (for breakfast?) whether it’s Christmas or any other day of the year. The recipe I’m sharing makes 8 loaves, which are a lot, but we love giving them as gifts too. So feel free to cut the recipe in half if desired!

To make, you’ll need:

8 cups flour

2 cups butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 ounces yeast

2 cups sour cream

8 egg yolks

2 pounds finely diced walnuts

2 cups sugar

6 teaspoons cinnamon

powdered sugar

Begin by cutting the butter into the flour until it has the consistency of coarse gravel.

Then combine the salt, yeast, 1/2 cup of sugar, sour cream and egg yolks into a smaller bowl.

Stir the small bowl.

And add it to the coarse gravel (I promise, the cookies will be appetizing even if the directions aren’t!).

Then mix everything together.

Now divide the dough into 8 balls, cover in cellophane, and refrigerate overnight.

To make the filling, add the walnuts, remaining sugar (1.5 cups) and cinnamon to a bowl.

And then mix it together.

Now take the dough out of the fridge, and place onto a bed of powdered sugar.

Roll out the dough so it looks like this:

Then spread the filling out evenly on top of the dough.

Next, roll it up like a jellyroll.

And tuck in the sides as you go, like this:

You should end up with loaves that look like this:

Bake them on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. They are done when they have a nice golden color, like this:

To serve, cut 1/2 inch thick slices and enjoy.

I hope your Christmas was as good as these cookies!

~A