Rugelach

This week's menu:

Monday: sandwich bar and a side of roasted squash
Tuesday: Thai beef salad with coconut rice
Wednesday: Roasted pork loin with cherry salsa and summer garden vegetable pie
Thursday: Fish en papillote with brown rice and roasted broccoli

I remember when I was young my dad would buy these rugelach cookies sold at the market. I first thought they looked curious and assumed they probably weren't that delicious. I was proven wrong when I tried one and ended up eating the entire package, leaving only one for my dad. He was not pleased. I haven't had a rugelach in quite a while so I decided to make my own. The ones sold at the market usually only have two types of fillings, but you can be creative and make your own.

Rugelach

Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Yield: about 24 cookies

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tbsp granulated sugar

12 tsp fine sea salt

8 oz butter, cut into chunks

8 oz cream cheese

2 tbsp sour cream

2 large yolks mixed with 2 tbsp milk

granulated sugar for sprinkling

Filling:

3/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup brown sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup walnuts, finely chopped

1/2 cup apricot preserves, pureed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Pulse flour-salt in the food processor. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse sand. Add cream cheese and sour cream until the mixture forms a rough dough.
3. Divide the dough into 4 sections. Pat each into 4 rectangles, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. Meanwhile for the filling, put the raisins in a saucepan and cover with enough water to soak the raisins. Add the brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Bring to a simmer on medium heat and continue to cook until all the liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and drain any excess water. Blend the mixture together. Add the walnuts and process to make a paste. Stir in the preserved and cool.
5. Roll one of the portions of the dough into a rectangle, 1/8 inch thick. Keep the others in the fridge while you work on one portion. Spread 1/4 of the raisin paste on the dough. Starting with the long side, roll the dough away from you. Slightly flatten the log and wrap in plastic wrap. Firm up in the refrigerator as you repeat with the other dough portions.
6. Slice the logs into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Place the cookies seam side down on lined baking sheets. Brush the yolk and milk mixture on each cookie and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until golden brown. 

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving: 220.9 calories, 14.6g fat (7.4g saturated, 2.8g polyunsaturated, 3.5g monounsaturated), 20.6g carbohydrates, 0.9g fiber, 3.0g protein

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

I didn't realize that rugelach had cream cheese in the dough until I saw recipes. It all makes sense because the crust is so flaky and buttery, with some heaviness to it. The dough comes together very quickly. Because of the cream cheese, it needs to be chilled to firm up and make it easier to roll out later. 

For the filling, I didn't have any raisins but I did have dried cranberries. I cooked the cranberries in the water, sugar, salt, cinnamon and vanilla, waiting until the cranberries plumped up. When it was time to blend the mixture, I added some of the water to help it blend. The mixture was so thick, it needed a little liquid. I also used strawberry jam instead of the apricot preserves, just because that was what I had on hand.

I rolled out the first portion of the dough on the counter; however, I found that the dough is sticky and tends to stick to the counter. To make it easier, roll it out on plastic wrap. This will make it easier when you have to roll the dough since you just lift the plastic wrap up and over. Besides, you have to wrap it in plastic wrap anyways so why not make it easier for you and have it on the plastic wrap already?

You can choose to cut the cookies larger than 1 1/2 inches since the ones at the market are at least 2 inches.

Bake until golden and let it cool. In my opinion, these cookies tasted much better cooled than hot. 

My o my these rugelach are delicious! They are better than the ones sold in the market! Even though I substituted the filling with cranberries and strawberry jam, it actually tasted very similar to the ones at the market. When I had someone try these, he never had a rugelach before, but his eyes opened wide and a loud "mmmmm!" was exclaimed; pretty much the response I was anticipating. 

If you like you can try making these with a nutella filling, chocolate, or experiment with other jams.