RUGELACH TWO WAYS

HOW DO I LOVE THEE? LET ME COUNT THE WAY...


There are so many ways to say “I love you!” Flowers, boxes of chocolates, an invitation to an elegant restaurant or a romantic getaway. Compliments, those whispered sweet little nothings in the ear, a light, but just-so squeeze of the hand, we each have our own way of expressing love and we each receive the message in a different way.


My husband, to the outside world, is kind of scary; stern and formal, maybe not staid, but certainly holding back any emotional display except for his near and dear. And being French, he follows the social rules to a tee. And more. Keeping his bossly demeanor for the office (“That’s M. Le Directeur to you!”), his wary stiffness for social functions, he truly only lets down his hair (well, figuratively speaking, anyway) for friends, family and loved ones (me!).

A romantic and funny leading man!

With me, he is truly the most romantic of men. Yes, weekend getaways for two, restaurants and hand-in-hand walks, picnics and flowers and gorgeous jewelry galore. Friends are envious and sons confounded (they think we are nuts). So while the romantic music is swirling out of his computer as we potter around the house or out of his iphone as we stroll around town, as we laugh together over a recipe or as we watch the stream of humanity flow down the street outside of our window, all is romantic in our world of two.

Yet, why bring this up now? What, pray tell, does this have to do with a food blog? Simple. This week he told me he loved me in a way that touched my heart, in a way so simple that he may not even have realized that he was telling me how much I mean to him. “What, what, what did he do? How did he express his love? Come on, spill it, girl!!!”

He asked me to make cookies for his bi-monthly Adminstrative Board Meeting! YES! Sometimes, if there are homemade cookies in the tin, he will ask if he can bring some, but this time, he asked if I could and would make something especially for him to just bring to work! He even requested his favorite cookies – Rugelach!

Now, tell me girlfriends and fellow bakers, if that isn’t love what is?!

RUGELACH TWO WAYS
From Claudia Roden’s The Book of Jewish Food


These are sweet, little, crescent-shaped cookies made from a rich butter, cream cheese and sour cream dough, traditionally rolled up around a delectable choice of either fruit jelly or jam and chopped nuts or chopped nuts mixed with chocolate chips or raisins. Or pretty much anything you love! In my opinion, as this dough is unsweetened, the more adventurous baker could fill these delicate crescents with savory ingredients, as well.

I have always seen these made for the Jewish New Year where sweet is the holiday key word symbolizing the wish for a sweet, new year. Claudia Roden claims that Rugelach are also found on Hanukkah and Shavuot, and anyone bakery-hopping in New York knows that they are truly a year-round treat!

For the dough * :

4 oz (100 g) unsalted butter, softened
4 oz (100 g) cream cheese
½ cup (125 ml) sour cream (I used 0% fat fromage frais)
Pinch of salt
1 ¾ cups (250 g) flour
1 egg yolk + 1 Tbs milk to glaze


For the filling ** :

Superfine or light brown sugar
Ground cinnamon
Mini-chocolate chips or chopped chocolate, semi-sweet or dark
Jelly or jam of your choice
About ½ cup (50 g) chopped pecans or walnuts
Raisins


* I doubled the recipe to make twice the Rugelach and, after making the dough, having about ¼ flour left over, exactly the amount I needed to roll out all of the circles of dough.

** Any or all of these filling ingredients, depending on what you like. If using jelly, you obviously do not need sugar, which I only used for the chocolate/nut filling. I did not use raisins, but know that they would be delicious, as well. Any combo will do!

Make the dough :

I measured out the ingredients.

Whip the butter until creamy in either a food processor or, as I did, in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer.

I have yet to figure out how to cream butter without it all getting stuck in the beaters.

Add the cream cheese, the sour cream and a pinch of salt and blend well until smooth.


Add part of the flour and mix. Gradually add more and more flour, mixing after each addition, until you have a smooth dough that holds together. (If you add all of the flour and it is too dry, add a bit more sour cream until you have a dough that holds together and is easy to handle).

Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and knead ever so slightly, just until smooth. This dough is soft if not a tad sticky. As I said, I doubled this recipe and had the perfect dough and still quite a bit of unused flour. I just used this flour for my work surface.


Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Make the Rugelach :

Remove the dough from the fridge. If, as I did, you doubled the dough, divide the dough in two and rewrap one half and put it back into the fridge to stay firm.

Divide the (remaining) dough in 4 equal pieces.


Working one piece at a time, roll the dough into a ball then flatten it a bit onto the floured work surface. Sprinkle the top with some more flour so the rolling pin doesn’t stick to the dough and roll, turning and rolling inch by inch, into the largest, thinnest circle possible, flouring underneath the dough and brushing the top with more flour as needed.


Spread a couple of tablespoons of jelly or jam in a thin coat all over the disc with the back of the spoon. Sprinkle with chopped nuts.


With a large, sharp knife dipped in flour, slice the disc into 8 wedges. Roll each wedge up tightly, starting with the wide end. Take the last ½ inch (1 cm) of tip, scraping off any jelly and nuts, and pull slightly out and press the tip onto the cookie to make sure it sticks and doesn’t open up during baking.


Place the tiny pastries onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet forming each into a crescent shape, pressing the edges down.


Once all the pastries are lined up on the cookie sheet(s), brush each crescent with the egg wash. The dough is sticky, so you may just find yourself dabbing the egg wash on then brushing lightly.


Pop into the preheated oven and bake for 20 – 25 minutes until they are golden.

First batch: gorgeous!

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before removing from the parchment paper to cool completely on cooling racks.

Jelly (I made both cherry and blackberry)-pecan Rugelach

Follow the same procedure for the chocolate chip-chopped nut Rugelach, sprinkling the dough first rather generously with the light brown sugar (remember that the dough has no sugar in it, and the first Rugelach were sweetened with the jelly) before putting the mini-chips or chopped chocolate and the chopped nuts on the disc, cutting, rolling up, brushing with egg wash and baking.

Chocolate-pecan Rugelach

As usual, JP brought the box of pastries to work with him and the box came back empty!