Hungarian recipes Parisian sticks - Walnut cookies with meringue topping
Submitted by janiebakes on November 02, 2005 at 11:11 am

This cookie is known by several names. In Hungarian it might be called Dios Rudacskak which means Walnut Sticks. I've also heard them called Parisian Sticks or Piano Keys. It is similar to the Dios Szelet (Walnut Slice) in George Lang's Cuisine of Hungary.

For the cookie dough you will need:
3 egg whites
1 cup of sugar
1 1/3 cup of ground walnuts (walnut meal/flour)
1 tsp grated lemon rind

Mix the egg whites and sugar until well blended. Add the ground walnuts and lemon rind. Knead it into a smooth dough. Keep cool or it will become oily. Roll the dough out into a rectangle. It should be 1/4 inch thick and 4 inches wide. Spread with the meringue topping. Cut it into sticks with a wet knife. Let it dry for 30 minutes and cut again if the meringue has flowed together. Dry in a 250-275 degree oven until it starts to turn light around the edges.

Meringue Topping
2 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 or 2 tsp of lemon juice

Beat all of the ingredients together until a very thick white paste is formed.

For "piano keys" spread the frosting on one third to one half of the cookie dough. It is supposed to resemble the black and white keys of a piano.