Rugelach is a Jewish pastry dish with raisins, walnuts, and sometimes chocolate.
Info: Cook Time: 12-24 minutes to refrigerate dough, 40-50 minutes to bake
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 4 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup loosely packed golden raisins, chopped
1 1/4 cups walnuts (1/4 lb), finely chopped
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
. 1 cup apricot or raspberry jam
Milk to brush rugelach
Directions
1.Whisk flour and salt in a medium bowl.
2.Beat butter and cream cheese in a large bowl with a mixer until well combined.
3.Stir in flour until the contents is the consistency of dough.
4.Roll the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic; flatten into a 5x7 inch rectangle.
5.Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
6.Line a large shallow baking pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350F.
7.Cut the chilled dough into 4 even pieces, and return all but 1 to the fridge in plastic wrap. Roll the remaining piece into a 12x8 inch rectangle on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin (to prevent sticking).
8.Put the flattened dough on parchment paper, and then return to the fridge to chill while you repeat the flattening process on all other dough quarters.
9.After you are done flattening the dough, return the last piece to the fridge.
10.Whisk the 1/2 cup sugar with cinnamon in a medium bowl.
11.Take one dough quarter out of the fridge and spread 1/4 cup of the jam over the dough with a spatula. Over the dough, scatter 1/4 cup of raisins and then walnuts, finally 2 tablespoons of the whisked cinnamon sugar.
12.Roll the dough quarter up into a tight cylinder. Place the dough cylinder seam-side down in the baking pan and close and tuck the ends.
13.Repeat the same process with the other 3 dough rectangles.
14.Finish the cylinders by brushing with milk, sprinkle each with a teaspoon of sugar. Using a large knife, score the dough cylinders with 3/4 inch deep cuts, at one inch intervals.
15.Bake at 350F for 45-50 minutes.
16.Take out of the oven, cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Transfer cylinders to a cutting board and cut slices from the cylinders to make rugelach.
Tips: Instead of using raisins, try substituting mini chocolate chips.
Rugelach Roots- What it is and where it came from....where it is today
Cooking with sour cream is a Central European tradition with its roots in the Middle East. Cakes, pastries and cookies combining sour cream with fruits, jams, nuts and spices are specialties of this part of the world. According to food historians, contemporary Jewish-American Rugelach (frequently made with cream cheese) descends from this tradition. These cookies are known by different names in different countries: Kipfel from Germany, Kifli from Yugolsavia and cream cheese cookies from the United States. Basically Rugelach is made in one of two ways. The dough is either made from sour cream and has yeast added for leaving or it is made with cream cheese and eggs are the primary leavening ingredient. Presumably, the first recipes for Rugelach-type pastries were introduced to America by immigrants from Hungary, Russia, Poland, Yugoslavia and other neighboring countries. Most of these immigrants were Jewish. Basically crescent-shaped cookies that comes from the Yiddish word "rugel" (royal), they are also called Kipfel, cheese Bagelach, and cream-cheese horns of plenty in this country. Traditional Rugelach dough is usually rolled out into 12"-16" circles, depending on the recipe, cut into pie shapes, covered with nuts, raisins, sugar, and cinnamon and then rolled up like crescents. It can also be rolled out into a rectangle, covered with filling, rolled up, and cut into circles. The American addition to Rugelach was cream cheese and a variety fillings used today. The cream-cheese dough may have been developed by the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Company because the dough is often called Philadelphia cream-cheese dough. "One of the the early cream-cheese doughs appeared in The Perfect Hostess, written in 1950 by Mildred Knopf. Mrs. Knopf, the sister-in-law of Alfred Knopf the publisher, mentioned that the recipe came from Nela Rubenstein, the wife of the famous pianist Arthur Rubenstein. It was Mrs. Knopf's friend Maida Heatter who put rugelah on the culinary map with Mrs. Heatter's grandmother's recipe. It is the most sought after of all Mrs. Heatter's recipes and is the Rugelach most often found in upscale bakeries nationwide." Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1998
-The Okin Family