Desserts · Photography

Cornulete cu magiun – Romanian plum jam cookies

Gabriela Lupu

GAB_6521_res_mix

“Magiun” is a traditional Romanian food based on plum. To make magiun you cook plums for 10 hours with very low heat until the magiun sticks to the spoon.

The magiun is a thick paste and homogeneous, dark brown, with dry matter content is a minimum of 55%. This concentration ensures the preservation of the product, at a temperature of 20° Celsius maximum, without the addition of any additives.

“Cornulete” are Romanian pastries aromatized with vanilla or rum extract/essence, as well as lemon rind, and stuffed with jam, chocolate, cinnamon sugar, walnuts, and/or raisins, with the shape representing a crescent.

Together, magiun and cornulete are one of my childhood flavors that I love to enjoy.

Magiun brings me great memories from my childhood. Our family would go to harvest the plums and then make the magiun. Imagine a huge pot where you put kilograms of plums and cook them all night long. My uncle would make a special place for the pot so the fire should be low and easy to maintain.

The kids will play around till night and then go to sleep. The adults will stay around the fire telling stories, having fun and stir the pot all night long.

My son loves magiun. These days we make it on the stove. I miss the days when we would gather around the fire. I wish we keep some traditions alive for our kids. My best times were outside with other kids or with my family.

I am trying to teach my son to spend time in nature as much as he can, to respect the nature and to take care of it.

These “cornulete cu magiun” are one of our Christmas special desserts, but we make them during the year too. It is easy to prepare them and also you can keep them for longer time.

Ingredients:

  • 7g dry yeast
  • 170 ml water
  • 100 g sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 150g melted butter
  • 500 g flour
  • 300 g magiun
  • 100 g powder sugar

Directions:

In a big bowl mix the water with water, yeast, sugar, salt, eggs, butter and 200 g flour. Use one hand to mix it and then add the rest of the flour. The dough should be elastic. Let it grow for 1,5 hours or till it doubles.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface; shape into a rectangle. Cut small triangles. With a teaspoon add magiun on each triangle and then using your fingertips, roll the base of the triangle up and away from you. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 200 Celsius degree. Brush the top of them with egg and then bake them for 20 – 25 minutes.

Let cool slightly on sheets on wire racks. Powder them with powder sugar before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

If you don’t have magiun, you can use any type of jam or chocolate.

Enjoy!

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Published by Gabriela Lupu

Hi. My name is Gabi and I am a professional photographer, a new mom and a wife. I wanna learn to cook healthy food for my little one, so I made this blog to share my cooking experiments with everyone. It's gone be a long and a bumpy ride but a funny one, so stay tune for news and enjoy my ride.

70 thoughts on “Cornulete cu magiun – Romanian plum jam cookies”

  6. I love hearing the story of your family tradition and how the whole family got involved. I’ll have to try this the old style way. Thank you.

    Reply

  7. Looks delish!
    Your story reminds me of my great-grandma and great-Aunts cooking and baking, everything from scratch, and all the wonderful aromas!

    Reply

    1. These cookies remind me of the Hamantaschen cookies my Nana used to make, they were triangular in shape and had a thick prune filling…really tasty! I believe that recipe was passed down from her mom! 💙

      Reply

  8. Very nice looking jam. My poor Romanian mother used to spend hours making this but neither my brother nor I really liked it so she stopped. There were still full jars in the basement from her efforts when we moved.

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  10. What a beautiful story and recipe. Your posts are lovely!!! Wishing you a wonderful plum feast. I wish I could have one right now. I will have to wait until I make this myself!
    Can I put the plum paste in other things, like oatmeal?

    XO

    Reply

  11. These sound lovely! I need to try this when there are plums in Nevada and I have a night to watch the pot. I love that you’re keeping traditions alive for your son!

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  19. We love plum tarts for Christmas in Finland. We make them from dried prunes or more often buy ready-made-jam. We make them into stars. Love them too. You are welcome to check my blog to find the recipe.

    Reply

  23. Boys and girls, it’s just unearthly yummy! I have already pampered my relatives with this pastry. By the way, it is very tasty and with plum jam, and with cherry jam.
    These cookies stay fresh for a long time.
    And their smell … it’s just divine.

    Reply

  24. Boys and girls, it’s just unearthly yummy! I have already pampered my relatives with this pastry. By the way, it is very tasty and with plum jam, and with cherry jam. These cookies stay fresh for a long time.
    And their smell … it’s just divine.

    Reply

  32. My husband used to eat Cornulete cu rahat when he was a kid. He LOVED it. He lost the recipe of his grandmother and since then he couldn’t find a similiar recipe.. I will try making this recipe using rahat filling. Thank you!

    Reply

  34. I have never even heard of this – I guess it isn’t popular yet in Texas. It looks amazing, and sounds fantastic. I am going to get these ingredients next time I shop and try to make this!

    Reply

  38. I had tried making these…though it was without a recipe. I will follow this recipe and try again! It is really easy!

    Reply

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