Rugelach

For dessert at our Hannukah dinner, I wanted to try out a traditional Jewish dessert… rugelach!

These are a different than most of the other recipes on this site. I was nervous the dough wouldn’t be flaky enough because it didn’t appear to be browning in the oven. I kept them in the oven a little bit longer than the recipe stated as a result, but they were, in fact, flaky and the dough turned out well.

I wasn’t sure how much filling to use, so I used 1.5x the recipe below to make sure I had enough. It turns out, though, that I had wayyyy too much filling. I have a tendency to over-fill and to use all the ingredients, but I should have used less filling. A lot of the filling oozed out during baking, especially the chocolate raspberry rugelach.  The quantities in the recipe will be more than enough.

In my opinion, the best rugelach were the cinnamon raisin filled. The rasberry jam  became too chewy after baking for my liking, and I didn’t chop the chocolate finely enough for the smaller-sized pieces. Next time, for an alternative flavor, I will melt chocolate to spread over the dough and omit the jam.

I was really pleased with how these turned out. The rugelach were incredibly easy to make and tasted even better. I will definitely be baking these next year and for years to come!

 

RUGELACH
Based on this recipe, which makes 48-64 pieces. Fillings based on recipes found here and here.

INGREDIENTS

Dough:
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
8 oz. cream cheese, cold and cubed
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg yolk

Cinnamon-Raisin Filling:
1/4 cup (50 g) light brown sugar
1 tbsp. (13 g) granulated sugar
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup raisins
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Chocolate-Raspberry Filling:
1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam
1/3 cup (67 g) granulated sugar
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS

  1. For the dough: In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt, then pulse to mix.
  2. Scatter cream cheese and butter cubes over the flour, then pulse 10-12 times until coarse crumbs form.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk yolk and vanilla, then pour over butter/flour mixture.
  4. Run food processor continuously until dough starts to clump together and form large curd-like pieces.
  5. Turn the dough onto the counter and gather into a ball. Divide the dough into 4 portions, flatten each into 1″ thick disks, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
  6. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
  7. For the Chocolate-Raspberry Filling: Nothing to do except to chop the chocolate.
  8. For the Cinnamon-Raisin Filling: Process all ingredients in a food processor until combined.
  9. Sprinkle surface with powdered sugar, then roll out a disk into a 1/8″ thick circle.
  10. Spread filling in a thin layer evenly over the dough, right up to the edge. For the chocolate-raspberry filling, spread the raspberry jam, shake the sugar over top, then sprinkle the chopped chocolate.
  11. With a pizza cutter, slice dough into 16 wedges. Roll up each wedge, beginning at the wider outer edge and moving inward. Transfer each rugelach to a lined baking sheet, then chill for 20 minutes.
  12. Meanwhile, prepare the remaining disks.
  13. Bake cookies 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.