My husband has been begging me to make rugelach for years now. They are the favorite cookie of his youth and he has always raved about his mother's rendition of them. I've just never gotten around to making rugelach happen.
About five years ago, my husband attempted to make his own batch of rugelach. Oh my goodness, they were these horrible little petrified pieces of doodoo. They were so hard and burnt they exploded when you took a bite. Of course I laughed and didn't think about making them for a long time.
About a year ago, this recipe was published in my local paper and I held on to it until now. It belongs to Margaret Hasson from Portland, Oregon whose rugelach is sought out by friends whenever she is baking. I truly believe it, because these little bites are pretty much heaven on a plate.
The dough is amazingly easy to work with and these were a cinch to put together. Of course my husband was the deciding vote, he said they were better than any his mother ever made. Wow! So folks, this recipe is a keeper and the pastry is just perfection.
Margaret Hasson's Rugelach
From Margaret Hassan via FOODday
Filling:
1/2 cup apricot-pineapple (or apricot) preserves
1 cup chopped walnut
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened (2 sticks)
1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 to 3 tablespoons melted butter
To make filling: In a medium bowl, stir together preserves, nuts, raisins and brown sugar. Refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight.
To make dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, blend butter, cream cheese and flour. (You also can mix the dough by hand.) Divide dough into three balls, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 3 to 4 hours or overnight.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit on counter for about 15 minutes.
To make topping: Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
On lightly floured surface or silicone mat, roll one ball of dough into a 12-inch circle. Using a pizza cutter, cut circle into 16 wedges. Place 1 teaspoonful of filling across wide end of each wedge. Starting at wide end, roll toward the point. Place cookies point side down on ungreased cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining two dough balls and filling.
Bake 22 minutes. When cool enough to handle cookies, remove from cookie sheet, dip bottoms in granulated sugar and place on wax paper to cool completely.
Make the dough and filling a day ahead of time and refrigerate. The dough will firm up; the filling ingredients will meld and the sugar will dissolve.
Roll out the dough on a floured silicone mat if you have one. That will help make the very-sticky dough easier to handle.
Be precise: Roll out a circle of dough to exactly 12 inches in diameter, and cut it into 16 wedges. This makes for more uniform, pretty cookies.
Dip your knife in flour before you cut the rolled-out dough into wedges, so it doesn't stick.
Put the filling right at the wide edge of the triangle so it's less likely to spill out of the cookie. Don't overfill.
Be generous with cinnamon sugar, which gives the rugelach a lovely sandy surface.
Bake for exactly 22 minutes on a cookie sheet lined with baking parchment or a silicone mat, to catch drips and spills that can burn. When cool enough to handle, dip the cookie bottoms in granulated sugar so they won't stick to your cookie tin or wax paper.
Cathy is currently in the development stages of her vineyard and winery in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. She is a food writer forDavis Life Magazine and blogs daily about wine, food and everyday living. She lives with her husband and two sons. You can visit her at noblepig.com.