🍰 DESSERT
Cornulețe
Tender sour-cream crescents rolled around a sweet walnut filling and dusted with sugar, a Moldovan holiday cookie.
Moldovan · medium · serves 24
prep 40 min · cook 20 min
~206 cal · 3g protein · 21g carbs · 13g fat · 1g fiber · 8g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Cornulețe, little horns, are the crescent-shaped filled cookies that fill Moldovan and Romanian homes at holidays and celebrations. Tender and flaky, they are a labour of love made in big batches to share.
The dough, enriched with sour cream or oil for flakiness, is cut into wedges, dabbed with a sweet filling, and rolled from the wide end into a crescent. Walnut is the classic filling, though jam or Turkish delight also feature. Baked until pale gold and rolled in icing sugar, they are the sort of cookie that vanishes from the tin between visits.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 24
- 3 cups flour
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup butter, cold
- 1 1/2 cups ground walnuts
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup tart plum or sour cherry jam
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp vanilla
- to finish icing sugar, to dust
Instructions
- 1Rub the cold butter into the flour with the lemon zest and vanilla, then bring together with the sour cream into a soft dough and chill.
- 2Mix the ground walnuts with the sugar into a filling, and have the jam ready alongside it.
- 3Roll the dough thin, cut into wedges, put a little jam and a spoon of the walnut filling on the wide end, and roll each into a crescent.✎ Chef’s noteKeep the dough cold and roll it thin. A cold, thin dough bakes into flaky, tender horns rather than dense ones.
- 4Bake at 350F (180C) until pale gold, about 18 minutes, then roll in icing sugar while warm.
Moldovan holiday baking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Chișinău. Zeama is the other everyday dish, a sour chicken noodle soup sharpened with bors, and sarmale, which came in with the Ottomans, are served hot here with smantana and pickles rather than cold as in Turkey or Greece. The vineyards begin more or less at the edge of the city.
🗺️
Moldova. Wine is not a sideline here but a documented one. The cellars at Milestii Mici, tunnels cut into limestone, hold what is recorded as the largest wine collection in the world, and household winemaking remains ordinary rather than remarkable. Placinta, the coiled or folded pastry filled with cheese, cabbage, potato or apple, is what gets eaten alongside.
🌍
Europe. European cooking is built on the land and the seasons, wheat, butter, and cured pork in the north; olive oil, tomatoes, and seafood around the Mediterranean; preserved vegetables and hearty stews through long winters. Centuries of peasant tradition, guild craft, and royal courts refined techniques from French mother sauces to Italian fresh pasta and Central European baking. Regional identity runs remarkably deep, with a single dish often changing from one valley to the next.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Moldova
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Plăcintă cu BrânzăPan-fried or baked flatbread pockets stuffed with salty cheese, a Moldovan morning favorite.
ZeamăA tangy chicken noodle soup soured with fermented bran brine and fragrant with lovage, Moldova's restorative bowl.
Browse all Moldova recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Moldova meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Cornulețe?
Tender sour-cream crescents rolled around a sweet walnut filling and dusted with sugar, a Moldovan holiday cookie.
Where does Cornulețe come from?
Cornulețe is a Moldovan dish from Chișinău, Moldova.
Can Cornulețe be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Cornulețe recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Cornulețe safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Cornulețe take to make?
About 60 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 24.
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