Rugelach : Bake-Along #50

Time for our Bake-Along #50, the theme chosen is Rugelach, by my baking buddy Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids. Rugelach has been on my list of to-try for ever so long, especially so, since my sister gave me the book "Baking From My Home To Yours" by Dorie Greenspan a few years ago. There's one Rugelach recipe that looks really good from this book, and I was pretty excited when Zoe selected Rugelach as our Bake-Along theme. 

Rugelach is a Jewish pastry, traditionally made in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangular shaped pastry around a filling of dried fruits, nuts and jam. The dough is made up of cream cheese, butter and flour. Rugelach can be made into different shapes other than the traditional crescent, it can be formed into pinwheels and even made into bar cookies.

I was really looking forward to making Rugelach, thought I would have fun rolling the dough into little crescents, only to found out that, it is not as easy as it seems. Little did I know that I would have problem with the dough which is very soft and so delicate that it was so difficult to handle, especially in our hot and humid weather. I ended up making this cookies twice!

The first time I made, it was a total disaster, by the time it took me numerous trips to the fridge to refrigerate the dough, remove it from the fridge and roll it to shape, refrigerate, fill with the fillings, refrigerate, slice the dough to triangles, refrigerate, roll one up to a crescent shape, refrigerate, roll another one into a crescent, refrigerate, the next one....... the whole process was really testing my patience and whatever patience I had left by the time I finished rolling the "crescents!". The crescents are so ugly that none of it resemble any crescent at all, the dough are all broken up and the filling is peeping out from everywhere!. I almost threw the the "crescents" away, was very frustrated by that time, but went ahead to bake them anyway. They tasted delicious though! My kids asked me, what are these??????  

I made them again the next day, and decided to reduce the amount of cream cheese and butter. It was a little better but the dough was still so soft. This time, I stay away from crescent and thought it easier to make them into pinwheels. It was a struggle rolling the dough as it was sticky! I did the best I could, refrigerate the log and sliced them into pinwheels. The dough was getting soft really, really fast, and by the time I sliced the third or fourth one, it was getting all soft again! 

Most of the pinwheels are out of shape, the ones you see here are the four best looking ones. 

I was tempted to do a third attempt, this time making them into bar cookies, but then I have ran out of cream cheese! Which is just as well! Maybe next time!

Look at the uneven shapes of the pinwheels. I'd never expected the dough for these cookies to be so delicate and difficult to handle. Despite all these, these Rugelach are so good to eat. These are not too sweet and the filling is just so delicious with the buttery pastry.

Rugelach
(adapted from " Baking From My Home To Yours", Dorie Greenspan)
For the dough
4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling :
2/3 cup raspberry jam, apricot jam or marmalade (I juse lingonberry jam)
2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts or almonds)
1/4 cup plump, moist dried currants
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or 2/3 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

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

To Make The Dough :

Let the cream cheese and butter rest on the counter for 10 minutes - you want them to be slightly 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 6 to 10 times. Then process, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds - don't work it so long that it forms a ball on the blade.

Turn the dough out, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each half into a disk, wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 1 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 do this in a microwave, until it liquefies. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together.

Line two baking sheets with parchement or silicone mats. (Silicone baking mats are great for rugelach).

To Shape The Cookies :

Pull one packet of dough from the refrigerator. If it is too firm to roll easily, either 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. Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and sprinkle over half of the cinnamon sugar. Scatter over half of the nuts, half of the currants and half of the chopped chocolate. 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.

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 the dough into quarters, then to cut each quarter into 4 triangles). Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each cookie becomes a little crescent. Arrange the roll-ups on one baking sheet, making sure the points are tucked under the cookies, and refrigerate. Repeat with the second packet of dough, and refrigerate the cookies for at least 30 minutes before baking. (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 pan).

Getting Ready To Bake :

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To Glaze :

Stir the egg and water together, and brush a bit of this glaze over the rugelach. Sprinkle the cookies with the sugar.

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.

#85/100

To join our blog hop, simply bake any Rugelach recipe and link your post to our Bake-Along linky.

Please visit my baking buddies, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, and all our friends who has baked along with us in the linky below :

For our next Bake-Along, we will be baking based on a theme where our theme is "Chocolate Cream Pound Cake", from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman, page 81 or you may get the recipe here. Bake the cake and link your post to the our blog-hop linky which will start on  12th September right up to 21st September. Everyone is welcome! 

A friendly reminder when linking to our blog hop :

1. Please mention Bake-Along event in your own post linking direct to any of the hosts' post (Joyce, Lena or Zoe)

2. Please link only new and current post, related to the current bake or theme provided by us. Unrelated post will be deleted.
3. Feel free to display our Bake-Along badge in your post.

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