TWD ~ And the winner is…Rugelach!

Here we are again with another challenge from the Tuesdays With Dorie group. Sorry for not posting this on Tuesday, but I’ve been overcome by election mania and glued to the TV for the past two days.

As far as this weeks challenge goes, Grace from Piggy’s Cooking Journal’s pick of Rugelach was a real winner for me. I tried a couple of different fillings with one half of the dough in an effort to see what I liked. I did a combination of the apricot, nuts, (semi-sweet) chocolate and crasins since I couldn’t find currants. I did this version with cinnamon sugar and without. Then I took a lead from I♥cuppycakes! and tried Nutella, nuts and toffee bits. Lastly I did one with just nuts and chocolate. And the winner is…none of them – ha! Actually I found elements that I liked in all of them, but I discovered that what I really liked was apricot, nuts, and chocolate without crasins or cinnamon, so that’s what I made with the other half of my dough.

Also, I never used regular nuts. I had been looking through one of my old magazines filled with Christmas cookie recipes and came across a recipe for Sugared-Almond Truffle Triangles. I liked the idea of sugared nuts and cooked up some sugared pecans to use for the nut component. The unfortunate thing about these nuts is they are TOO GOOD and TOO EASY to make that I ended up gorging myself on some leftovers last night. If you’re the type of person who likes to get their sweet and salt fix at the same time, don’t make these because you’ll end up eating them 24-7. Nuts aside, Rugelach was a real treat and I really enjoyed every version I tried. 

For those of you who are as fascinated by history as I am, I decided to look into the history of Rugelach. While many may claim they know the definitive story of Rugelach, I think the true origins are probably as lost as those for the Madeleine. The one thing I feel fairly safe in saying for sure is that Rugelach originated somewhere in Eastern Europe. One story has Polish origins. According to another tale, Austrian bakers celebrated victory over the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1793 by creating diminutive crescent shaped pastries known as Kipferin. The crescent being a symbol of the Ottoman empire, enabled the jubilant Austrians to take a bite out of their attackers. One way or another from what I’ve discovered, it was the Ashkenazic Jews and their claiming of Rugelach for many Jewish holidays that has disseminated this tasty cookie to the world.

Having Ashkenazic origins, Rugelach translates as “little twists” in Yiddish although I have seen other reference it as “creeping vine”. Ashkenazic Jews originated from medieval Jewish communities in the Rhineland of western Germany. Starting in the tenth century many Ashkenazic Jews migrated to other German-speaking countries such as Hungary, Poland and Russia as well as other places in Eastern Europe. It was descendents of these same immigrants that migrated to the United States along with their recipes for Rugelach. Known as Kipfel, Kifli and Cheese Bagelach among others, the cultural influences of this varigated history are displayed in the wide array of recipes you may come across.

In Europe the dough was made with yeast, but American Jews later introduced a cream cheese based Rugelach dough. Rugelach dough is rolled around sweet fillings such as chocolate, raisins and nuts, or preserves. You’ll find revelers at many Jewish celebrations enjoying this sweet treat.

Here’s my addition to the annals of Rugelach:

For the dough:
4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling:
2/3 cup apricot jam
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup chopped sugared pecans or other nut (see recipe below)
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

For the glaze:
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cold water
2 tablespoons sugar, preferably coarse sugar

To make the dough:
Let the cream cheese and butter rest on counter for 10 minutes. It should be softened but still cool.

Put the flour and salt in a food processor, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and pulse the machine for 6 to 10 minutes. Then process, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds. Do not work the dough too long that it forms a ball on the blade. For those of you without all that technology *sob*, you can use a pastry blender just as well.

Turn out the dough, divide into half, shape each into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to a day. (Wrapped airtight, the dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)

To make the filling:
Heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat, or microwave until it liquefies. Follow sugared nut recipe below.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. (Silicone baking mats are great for rugelach.)

To shape the cookies:
Pull one packet of dough from the fridge. If it is too firm to roll easily, leave it on the counter for about 10 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11- to 12-inch circle. One thing I’ve found that really helps me roll out dough is to place it between a couple of sheets of plastic wrap. This makes sure you don’t end up adding too much flour. If you’re anything like me, rolling out dough can be the bane of your existence. Pastry dough especially starts to get too warm and the all important chunks of fat that create that light-as-air flakiness start to melt. If you run into this problem (as I did repeatedly) just pop the dough in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to chill it back up.

Dorie has you cutting the dough into wedges after you lay out the filling, but I did it before without any problems. Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or triangles. The easiest way to do this is to cut into quarters, then cut each quarter into 4 triangles.

Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and sprinkle half of the sugar. Scatter half of the nuts and half of the chopped chocolate over the dough. Cover the filling with a piece of wax paper and gently press the filling into the dough, then remove the paper and save it for the next batch. (If you want to follow the book this is where Dorie had you cutting the dough into wedges.)

Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each triangle becomes a little crescent. Arrange the crescents on one baking sheet, making sure the points are tucked under the cookies, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (The cookies can be covered and  refrigerated overnight or frozen for up to 2 months; don’t defrost before baking, just add a couple of minutes to the baking time.)

Getting ready to bake:
Position racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degree F.

To glaze:
Stir the egg and water together. Brush a bit of the glaze over each Rugelach. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar.

To bake:
Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

Sugared Nuts:
1/2 cup chopped pecans (or nut of your choice)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Note: I’d probably make these while the dough is chilling in the fridge before you roll it out. And like I said, they’re a great snack just by themselves at any time.

Butter a sheet of foil and set aside. In a large skillet, combine pecans, sugar, butter and salt. Cook over medium heat without stirring until butter starts to melt. Stir mixture and spread evenly in skillet. Continue to cook, without stirring, about 5-8 minutes or until sugar starts to melt. Stir mixture until pecans are evenly toasted. Spread nuts on buttered foil, separating into small clusters. Cool. If the nuts stick together too much, or formed in too large clusters, cover them with another piece of foil and bash a little with a rolling pin.

Those of you looking for more Rugelach options check out this article.

Tagged as: Apricot, Nuts, Recipe!, TWD