Rugelach

If you have never had Rugelach cookies before, you must! They are absolutely to die for! The cookie literally melts in your mouth as the dough is made with flour, butter, cream cheese, and sour cream. We made three different types of filings for the rugelach cookies. The types of fillings are: 1. cocoa powder-sugar mixture with mini chocolate chips and pecans 2. cinnamon-sugar mixture with pecans and currants 3. peach preserves with pecans and currants.

We searched all over the internet when we were looking for a recipe to try. There were so many, but  there was one recipe that stood out to us; it was submitted by an individual to Allrecipes.com. The reason why we chose to try this recipe was the fact that the dough contained butter, cream cheese and sour cream. (yep, you guessed it, these cookies are definitely not fat free, but hey, you only live once, right?! It's all in moderation). With this combination, a flaky, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth type of cookie will/should undoubtedly develop.

So, what do you say? Let's start baking some cookies!

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Next, gather together your mis en place (put in place) or set up your ingredients.

2. Combine the dry ingredients together, then add the butter, cream cheese and sour cream.

3. Either using your fingers or a pastry blender, blend all ingredients together, pressing the butter and cream cheese into the flour until a soft dough forms.

4. Shape the dough into 9 inch discs and wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours (we doubled the recipe as we were making cookies for our co-workers and family. You probably will only have two or three discs of dough).

                                       
5. Then next day, begin to roll out the dough into a 13x9 rectangle about 1/4" thick.

6. Once the dough has been rolled out, cut in half, lengthwise.

7. Sprinkle the filling mixture on both halves and press into the dough. Roll up each half into a roulade (the filling shown in the pictures below, is the cinnamon-sugar mixture with pecans and currants).



8. Once both halves are rolled up, slice them into 1 inch thick pieces. Place them on a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet, brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle with crystallized or raw sugar.

9. Place in the oven and bake for 22 minutes until lightly golden brown.

10. Remove from oven, and place the cookies onto a cooling rack to cool completely before consuming.

 * It may be hard to control yourself from devouring the cookies, it was hard for us, too! But actually the cookies become firmer as they cool.

And there you go, homemade Rugelach cookies that are easy to make and super delicious.

These cookies are great for Easter, too!

~ Enjoy ~

 

Here is the recipe we used, from allrecipes.com.  You will notice that we used a different method for rolling the dough and forming the cookies.

Recipe adapted from All Recipes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

1. Cut cold butter or margarine and cream cheese into bits. In food processor pulse flour, salt, butter or margarine, cream cheese and sour cream until crumbly.

2. Shape crumbly mixture into four equal disks. Wrap each disk and chill 2 hours or up to 2 days.

3. Roll each disk into a 9-inch round, keeping other disks chilled until ready to roll them.

4. Combine sugar, cinnamon, chopped walnuts, and finely chopped raisins (may substitute miniature chocolate chips for raisins).

5. Roll each disk into a 9 inch round keeping other disks chilled until ready to roll them. Sprinkle round with sugar/nut mixture. Press lightly into dough. With chefs knife or pizza cutter, cut each round into 12 wedges. Roll wedges from wide to narrow, you will end up with point on outside of cookie. Place on ungreased baking sheets and chill rugelach 20 minutes before baking.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

7. After rugelach are chilled, bake them in the center rack of your oven 22 minutes until lightly golden. Cool on wire racks. Store in airtight containers...they freeze very well.

8. Variations: Before putting the filling on the dough, use a pastry brush to layer apricot jam as well as brown sugar. Then add the recommended filling. You may also make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar and roll the rugelach in this prior to putting them on the cookie sheets.