The Baking Bible: Rugelach

These are as simple as they are delicious and I think we'll be making these again and again. Eliot dubbed these "piecookies" which is fairly apt. They are a bit like pastry with a yummy fruit/nut/jam filling. However, don't let pastry fool you; these really are much simpler and less stressful to make than pastry.


I checked back on the Beta Baker's site as I remember test baking these and I'm really glad I did. I talked about how easy these were to make, which I needed to hear because in the 3+ years since then I've forgotten they were easy and I was having pastry anxiety. Also, I had baked one batch on the suggested foil-lined cookie sheet and another on parchment and the parchment cookies were a dream to release from the pan, while the foil cookies never wanted to say goodbye to the foil. So I went ahead and crossed off the word "foil" in the published recipe and wrote in "parchment" so that I would never forget. Also, I had test baked the standard golden raisin-walnut-apricot lekvar version which was absolutely delicious, and I said it tasted like apple pie, strangely enough. I do remember, 3+ years later, how yummy that filling was, but decided this time to branch out and try the chocolate-almond-raspberry version.

Luckily, these are the kind of cookies that you could stretch out over 3 days if your toddler needs you to. I was able to get them made in two days, but it was nice to know I could wait another day to bake the formed cookies if necessary.

The dough is a lovely cream cheese and butter pastry, equal parts. And happily, there is no need to worry about butter flakes or over incorporating the fat because you go ahead and cream the fats before mixing in the flour. So no worries, peeps.

After a rest, the dough is divided and rolled into circles. The filling then gets laid out: jam, then sugar, then fruits (or chocolate) and nuts. The standard version uses cinnamon and brown sugar which I went ahead and prepared but at the last minute I noticed a note saying if you are using one of the variations to just use white sugar. So now I have a nice jar half full of cinnamon and sugar waiting for toast or granola or cookies or...something.


The amount of sugar recommended was way more than I thought necessary. The jam and chocolate should be sweet enough, right? I sprinkled some sugar, but maybe 1/4 of what I was supposed to use. It turned out just fine.

I lightly toasted the sliced almonds I found in my pantry, and found mini chocolate chips back there too. Hooray!

After adding the jam, nuts, and mini chips, the dough is cut into 12 slices, like a pizza. Each triangle is rolled up like a little croissant, brushed with milk and sprinkled with sugar. The standard filling gets cinnamon and sugar, but I assumed these variations were to get just a sprinkling of sugar. I opted for turbinado just for funsies. Thirty minutes in the refrigerator and the rugelach were ready to bake.

I think I could have left them in a bit longer as they aren't as toasty brown as they could have been, and I think some of the pastry on the inside is a bit underdone. However we are gobbling these up like it's 1999 so evidently even a bit underbaked rugelach are a big hit.

Comments

  1. Yum! Great photos and I'm impressed by how neat yours look. When I've made them before mine always looks so messy. Anyway you've inspired me to get going on these.

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  2. I agree with Catherine--your rugelach are very inspirational. Also, hooray for parchment!

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  3. Aren't these pretty! Great photos. Happy to hear the dough is easy peasy. Wasn't looking forward to that. At least the weather has switched up and now it's so cold the heater kicked on! Thought we were going to have a tornado yesterday; it got pretty wild around these parts. Snow chains required in the Sierras.

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  4. I echo everyone's comment. Your rugelach is perfection! Love the overhead shot (first picture). They look like croissant!!!

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  5. I love the photos too… overhead and interior. They look and sound wonderful.

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  6. absolute perfection! i think i'd better change foil to parchment in the upcoming book too (though i've always used foil but took off the rugelach right after baking)!

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