Walnut filled crescent rolls

Now, that I finally have some free time, I can start baking more complicated pastries too, and these crescent rolls are always a huge hit around Christmas time. I saw a very good recipe on a blog for this lovely cake but I wanted to make a sugar free version so I modified it a little. I substituted sugar with xylitol and liquid sweetener. Just a note: they can be made with poppy seed filling as well.

Ingredients for the pastry:

• 40 dkgs of sifted plain flour 
• 16 dks of cold butter 
• 6 dkgs of xylitol
• half a coffee spoon of baking soda
• half a coffee spoon of dried yeast
• two big tablespoons of sour cream
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of milk

Ingredients for the walnut filling:

• 50 dkgs of ground walnut
• 10 dkgs of xylitol 
• liquid sweetener according to taste
• zest of one lemon
• 2 packs of vanilin sugar
• rum flavour

For the eggwash:

• 2 egg yolks
• 1 egg white

The first step of making the pastry is mixing the flour with the baking soda and the xylitol. Separately, mix the milk with the yeast. Cut the cold butter in pieces and crumble it with the flour, then pour the milk into the bowl, add the egg yolks, the salt and the sour cream. Start kneading the dough. At first it will fall apart but if you keep kneading, in the end it surrenders and sticks together. Let it rest for half an hour in the fridge, wrapped into kitchen foil. 

For the filling you have to grate the walnuts. Mix the milk with the xylitol, the vanilin sugar and lemon zest,s start heating it up and when it comes to a boil, add the walnuts. With a wooden spoon keep stirring it until it becomes a thick filling. While stirring, you can add more sweetener and the rum flavour.  I advise you to make it two grades sweeter than you want it to be in the end because it looses its sweetness when cools down.

Divide the pastry into 24 equal pieces and form little balls from the pieces. One of the biggest advantages of this pastry is that it can be rolled out very well and thin. Place a portion of the filling in the middle of the rolled out pastry and just wrap it up so that it has a crescent roll shape. When all of them are done, give them an egg wash, first with the yolks. Let it dry and then give the rolls a wash again but now with the egg whites. Again, let the egg dry and then put the rolls into the oven, at 190 degrees until they become golden brown.