Preparation Time: 30 minutes - 1 hour       Cooking Time: 1 - 2 hours        Serves: 25
Category: Dessert       Sub-Category: Pastry        Cuisine: Eastern

 Ingredients:

These jelly bars come from my great-grandmother, who was born in Hungary in 1895 (this is as far back as we can definitively trace the cookies - it may very well have been her mother or grandmother's recipe but we can't be sure).
This recipe was passed down to my grandma (her daughter-in-law) and then to my mother (my grandma's daughter-in-law) and then to me by an almost-purely oral tradition. As far as I know, this is the first time a full recipe has ever been documented, which is the result of many guesses and experiments on on my part to get the end result to my grandma's exacting standards (the recipe my grandma dictated in her final years consisted of instructions like "bake in a slow oven until done").

Recipe makes about 50-75 2" square bars in two flavors.

1 lb butter (~450g)
6 cups flour
1-2 cups sugar
5 eggs (separated)
1 lemon (zest & juice)
2 jars high quality jam (apricot is traditional)
1/2 cup English walnuts
powdered (icing) sugar 
 
 Step 1:

Mix the butter and flour together to form a very loose and crumbly dough.