Crisp and light and sprinkled with powdered sugar, Grandma’s angel wings were a beloved, although a bit messy, holiday treat.

 

They always left sugar trails on the tablecloth, like a dusting of snow. There was no hiding the evidence; the more of the delicate, golden cookies you ate, the more it mounted on and all around your plate.

 

Of course, it’s practically impossible to eat just one.

 

Folded into the shape of bowties or “angel wings,” chrusty (pronounced HRROOSS-tee) are traditional Polish cookies similar to French bugnes, found in pastry shops for Fat Tuesday, the feast before the fasting of Lent. Many European countries – Bulgaria, Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, Slovakia, Croatia, Sweden, Denmark – make similar knotted pastries.