The Holy Grail of any gluten free baker worth their salt hailing from South Bend, Indiana: The Kieflie, a crescent shaped pastry cookie with a walnut filling. Also spelled kiefle or keeflie and pronounced “key-flee.” They are lightly sweet (the only sugar is in the filling), buttery, tender, flaky, and the epitome of Christmas cookies for those who live in northern Indiana.
Happily, they are a labor of love when I bake them for my family and friends during the holidays. As they were when my mother and grandmothers made them. I don’t know how far back in my family tree I can trace the kieflie but I do know its been a family tradition for generations.
These cookies take time and are best made a few days before Christmas on a cold blustery day. I grew up listening to my grandmothers and mother discuss what day would be their “kiefle day.” Yes, they spent all day on them. They also made double and triple batches to give as gifts, but mostly they were distributed amongst the family. It’s funny but I recall receiving the cookies from my grandma even though we had a ton of our own. I suppose my mom gave some to my grandma as well.
My dad is notorious for stashing some away in his hidden cabinet spot and then trying to sell them to fellow family members come late January or February when someone was in a state of woe over the last of the kieflies being eaten. 20 years ago they easily went for $1-2 a cookie.
I refer to them as a Polish cookie but I do believe this version is more a South Bend, Indiana cookie than anything. Google does not produce many results but leads me to believe the recipe is based on a very similar Hungarian crescent shaped cookie. My family has a fairly strong mix of Polish and German and both sides of the family, the ones with long ties to South Bend, have been making these cookies for as long as anyone can remember.
Every year I tell myself I’m not going to make them and every year I realize it does not feel like the holidays until I do. It takes time and patience to roll out every single one, add the dab of filling, roll, shape, and bake them.
Perhaps Christmas cookies made from scratch instead of purchased from the refrigerated section or made from a box, not only taste better but remind us to slow down. Take a breath. Enjoy the holidays and the moments. We don’t need to speed through holiday baking just to check it off our lists and move to the next to-do item. Let’s enjoy this.
- 1½ cups finely ground almond flour
- 1½ cups tapioca flour
- 1 cup white rice flour plus more for rolling
- 1½ teaspoons xanthan gum
- 1-lb butter (4 sticks)
- 6 large egg yolks (keep the whites for the filling)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 6 egg whites
- 24 oz walnuts
- 1-lb powdered sugar (approx 3¾ cups) plus more for dusting
- The day before, in a large bowl, combine almond flour, tapioca flour, white rice flour, and xanthan gum. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives criss-crossed work the butter in until it's the size of peas. (if you're lucky enough to have a food processor it'd probably be a lot easier/faster here). In small bowl whisk together egg yolks and sour cream until smooth. Pour into flour/butter mixture and mix until smooth.
- Pinch off dough and roll into balls about the size of a golf ball. Cover and refrigerate dough for 24 hours (the best is 24 hours, the bare minimum you can get away with is 3 hours).
- Prepare filling (day of or day before, either is ok, just be sure to refrigerate it when not in use): Whip egg whites to soft peaks. Coarsely grind walnuts in food processor or blender. Fold walnuts and powdered sugar into the egg whites.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- On rice floured wax paper roll out dough balls into a ¼-inch thick circle. TIP: I used my tortilla press instead of a rolling pin - best.idea.ever. Keep the dough cold! It's very easy to work with when chilled but once it starts to warm up it gets sticky. I take out only 5-6 dough balls at a time while keeping the others in the fridge until I'm ready for them.
- Add 1-2 teaspoons filling off-center, then roll jelly roll style. Pinch the ends closed and curve cookie into a crescent shape.
- Bake 18-22 minutes until light golden brown. Remove immediately to a wire rack. Cool completely then dust with powdered sugar.


















Can’t wait to try this one. I’m from South Bend but, know living in Michigan. I have an allergy to gluten so, when I saw this recipe I was happy because I do love my kieflies. I will let you know what I think of these. I have to go and get some rice flour.
Just made them and they are great. Has a nice buttery crust. This is a keeper. Thanks for sharing your recipe. I did add 1-tsp of vanilla to filling. I used saran wrap when I rolled out dough with rice flour and it worked great.
So glad you liked them! They are my favorite holiday cookie. I like the idea of adding vanilla to the filling, I might try that next time!
Can’t wait to try making these myself. I went to the Covered Bridge Festival this last weekend and bought some of these from a baker’s booth in Bridgeton, IN. Loved it and had to hunt up a recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for posting this. I use my mother in law’s recipe, but did not really realize it was a South Bend tradition, but that is where she was born and raised and my husband also grew up there. Hers is not the gluten free recipe, but delicious just the same.
I grew up in South Bend, born in ’52 and left in 67 and have been eating these flaky, buttery Kifli my whole life. I have lost my ages old recipe and cannot find one like it anywhere. this comes close but my grandmother and my mom used butter, flour, egg yolks and heavy cream in their dough. I know it was a dozen yolks, a lb of butter and 1/2 pint of heavy cream with flour. I just cannot for the life of me remember the order of mixing. I do know the butter was just softened and not melted. Do you have your non gluten free recipe available?
Everything in the gluten free recipe is the same except the flours. So instead of the flours, starches, and xanthan gum, use 4 cups of regular flour and you have the original recipe that I have. I’m thinking the heavy cream in your recipe must be the sour cream in mine. Order of mixing is the same as the recipe here. I hope that helps some! It never feels like Christmas until I make these cookies 🙂
My recipe uses a full dozen eggs. I cream the butter, add yolks one or two at a time, then sour cream and finally the flour. Recipe is as follows:
KIEFLIES (yields about 140)
Oven – 375˚
Dough Ingredients
1 lb. SWEET unsalted butter-DO NOT USE MARGARINE
1 dozen egg yolks (JUMBO size)
1 pint sour cream
5 cups unbleached flour
Filling Ingredients
1 dozen egg whites (JUMBO size)
½ teaspoon of cream of tartar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ -2 boxes (2 Ibs.) powdered sugar
2 Ibs. ground walnuts
Powdered sugar to sprinkle on kieflies after baking – about ½ box (½ lb.)
Dough
Soften butter and beat until creamy. Add egg, one at a time, so that the dough stays fluffy. Add sour cream and beat. Add flour one cup at a time. Roll into little balls, and refrigerate for at least four (4) hours (or you can freeze them).
.
* Do not make the balls for the dough large. A teaspoon of dough is about right for one ball.
Filling
Beat egg whites until stiff (very stiff). Add cream of tartar and vanilla to egg whites and beat. Add sugar slowly (test after adding 1 ½ boxes. Add more sugar if you prefer a sweeter filling). Add nuts and mix well.
Roll balls, fill and roll into crescents. Bake until golden in a 375° oven. Remove from oven, place on wire racks to cool, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
NOTE: DO NOT put in storage containers until completely cool.
I too was born in South Bend and started making Kieflies with my mom when I was just a little girl. Recipe is as follows:
KIEFLIES (yields about 140)
Oven – 400˚
Dough Ingredients
1 lb. SWEET butter (not salted) DO NOT USE MARGARINE
1 dozen egg yolks (JUMBO size)
1 pint sour cream
5 cups flour
Filling Ingredients
1 dozen egg whites (JUMBO size)
½ dash cream of tartar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ -2 boxes (2 Ibs.) powdered sugar
2 Ibs. ground walnuts
Powdered sugar to sprinkle on kieflies after baking – about ½ box (½ lb.)
Dough
Soften butter and beat until creamy. Add egg, one to two yolks at a time, so that the dough stays fluffy. Add sour cream and beat. Add flour one cup at a time. Roll into little balls, and refrigerate for at least four (4) hours (or you can freeze them).
.
* Do not make the balls for the dough large. A teaspoon of dough is about right for one ball.
Filling
Beat egg whites until stiff (very stiff). Add cream of tartar and vanilla to egg whites and beat. Add sugar slowly (test after adding 1 ½ boxes. Add more sugar if you prefer a sweeter filling). Add nuts and mix well.
Roll balls, fill and roll into crescents. Bake until golden in a 400° oven. Remove from oven, place on wire racks to cool, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
NOTE: DO NOT put in storage containers until completely cool.
I was raised in South Bend and my mother used to make Keflies for Christmas. I am so glad to find this recipe!
I must admit I have never heard of these cookies, but instead used the dough for mincemeat pies…..( the little half moon shaped ones, not too unlike your kieflies) Oh what a joy to eat flakey, rich filled pastry!! And the glutonous people liked them too! Thanks!!!
I’m so happy to see this!! Honestly I don’t intend on using he recipe as my great grandmother woulf roll over in her grave if I made them with any recipe besides hers, but I love the write up and all the beautiful pictures highlighting this unique cultural treat!
I’m also from South Bend (currently in school in Grand Rapids, getting tired of all the Dutch), so I particularly like this for that reason. I intend on making these for an International Dessert Night that we’re having at my college, but I’m sure it will feel like Christmas when I smell them in the oven! I cant wait!
What is your Grandma’s recipe? 🙂 I’ll check back!
What brand walnuts do you use? I’m having trouble finding gluten free nuts.
I’ve been using Fischer’s Nuts. They do not say GF on them but my husband and daughter have seemed ok with them. Otherwise I’ve actually found some of the generic grocery store brands will say GF on them (I know Kroger does).
I too grew up in South Bend and now have a daughter and son-in-law there. I am delighted to have a gluten free version of the recipe my grandmother used to indulge her family with every Christmas! It is such fun to read this, hear about all these folks who grew up in S.B. and remember the same traditions that my family had! Thank you for sharing and for the wonderful memories!
Is it ok if I fill these pastries with jam rather than the walnut filling and what jam would you recommend?
My great aunt in South Bend uses apricot jam in place of nuts.
Thank you so much for this recipe gluten free. My grandma made these and so does my mom. We called them “Keh-full” cookies. I think the spelling was more like Kiefels. Maybe someone in our family was dyslexic before that was a thing. Lol. My grandma never made the walnut paste, she just added chopped walnuts into the batter, rolled them into balls and baked. Her “easy” version. Mom always double batches them, usually twice. 🙂 she always puts them on giveaway cookie plates and it is not Christmas without them. Since discovering a gluten intolerance, I have missed them. So thank you!!
Kiflies actually Hungarian, but made by both Hungarian and Polish. For those of you making them, try putting rum in the filing in lieu of the vanilla…so much better!
i grew up in south bend and lived next door to my grandma, who made kiefles every christmas.
i also have carried on the tradition of making this very good cookie and the family will fight over them.
so, i usually package some up for each member of the family, to keep peace. i use apricot preserves in
the filling to keep them moist, the walnuts seem to dry them out.
These are in fact a Hungarian cookie. Our neighbor was from Budapest Hungry and she gave my mother the recipe! Glad you could convert them to gluten free!!
I made these this past weekend for my mother in law who had not had any for over 25 years due to celiac. They were absolutely wonderful! She said she could close her eyes and not know she was not tasting the “real thing”. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
The recipe did not make 56 for me – I think I don’t know what golf-ball size means and made them too big. They still worked. Also, I made 2/3 of the filling recipe and had exactly enough to fill all the kieflies with about 2T left over.
I need to know how to freeze them so I can make them for my daughters wedding reception. we are introducing her new husband to the polish style wedding, so I want to add some other favorite polish foods. Funny thing is I am also from South Bend. We should all get together and start our own Polish Blog of South Bend
It’s interesting the variety of names on this cookie. My Slovak Grandma, 1st generation born and raised in Missouri made these. I had to search through her old cookbooks to find the handwritten recipe to find the name and were Kolacky. Unfortunately I have texture issues and unable to eat them gluten or gluten free.
I have lived in South Send for 30 years and was always told that kieflies were Hungarian.