Amy – What in the crap is rugelach?

Well…why don’t we ask the Almighty Wikipedia?

Rugelach (Yiddish: רוגעלך) (other spellings: rugelakh, rugulach, rugalach, ruggalach, rogelach (all plural), rugalah, rugala (singular)) is a Jewish pastry of Ashkenazic origin.

Traditional rugelach are made in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling.  Some sources state that the rugelach and the French croissant share a common Viennese ancestor, crescent-shaped pastries commemorating the lifting of the Turkish siege in 1793 (this could be a reference to the Battle of Vienna in 1683). An alternative form is constructed much like a strudel or nut roll, but unlike those, the rolled dough and filling is cut into slices before baking.

All Hail, the Mighty Wikipedia!

All Hail!

Dude…it’s Turkish!

I watch Ina Garten make these this weekend and had to try.  Had to.

It looks like something that we will all be needing for our Christmas Cookie Arsenal in a few months.  Notice I said “few”.  It’s totally coming up on us.

This is a recipe I found at All Recipes.com.  If you’ve never been there, you’re missing out.  Totally.

I changed out the fillings, because I wanted something chocolate-y, something crunchy, something creamy, and something spicy.

I’m just that indecisive today…and yes, I got all those flavors and textures in these little doods.

This is 2 cups of flour, with 1 8oz pkg of cream cheese, and 2 sticks of butter.

This is like we’re making pie crust:  use a pastry blender, knives, food processor…whatever you like to get it crumbly

Add 1/3 cup sour cream, I mixed this old school:  wooden spoon.

It’s sort of pasty…when mixed, divide into 4 sections:

Each section goes onto some plastic wrap…

Then form into a disk.

Repeat 3 more times…

And put them in the fridge.  To chill.  For at least 2 hours.  The recipe says this will keep in the fridge for 2 days.

Meanwhile…

Let’s get to that filling.

This is 1 8oz pkg cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 stick margarine, and 1 tsp cinnamon.

You only need 1/2 of this, I’ll do 1/2 when I write the recipe at the end.  Or you can make it like this and have a nice cream cheese/sugar/cinnamon snackie-poo.

After the dough has chilled, roll it out into a circle.

Yeah, that’s supposed to be a circle…it’s not that bad, just needs a little trimming.

See?  I spread a thin layer of filling…

and sprinkled with chopped pecans:

And then I chopped up some chocolate chips and sprinkled that on also:

See?  I told you I could get all those flavors and textures into these:

Creamy – Cream Cheese, Chocolate-y – Chocolate Chips, Crunchy – Pecans, Spicy – Cinnamon.

Neener, Neener, Neener.

Now we slice…I used a pizza cutter.

I cut it like pizza into 10 pieces:

Then I began the rolling.  Looks hard?  Yeah, it’s not.

Start on the wide end, roll into the middle.

Put them on a baking sheet, then back in the fridge for another 20 minutes.

Why, oh WHY do we have to do that?

Dude, there’s so much butter in these little things they would spread and be flat if we put them in the oven now…they need to chill.

They go in the oven at 350 for 22 minutes.  And it’s 22 minutes exactly for me, too.

And they look like this:

Gorge.

Closeup, please?

Holy Schnikes, these are pretty!

Thanks Butter, thanks for not only tasting awesome, but for making our pastry really flaky.

You make some, they’re not hard!

Rugelach

Adapted from a recipe found at www.allrecipes.com

2 cups flour

1 8oz pkg cream cheese

1 cup butter

1/3 cup sour cream

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup margarine

chocolate chips

pecan pieces

Cut cream cheese and butter into flour.  Add sour cream to make a crumbly dough.  Divide into four sections and wrap each section into plastic, forming a disk.  Chill in refrigerator for 2 hours or up to 2 days.

For the filling:  Mix cream cheese and margarine, add sugar and cinnamon.

Roll each disk out into a 9″ circle, trimming edges as needed.  Spread the dough with a thin layer of the cream cheese mixture, then sprinkle with pecans and chocolate pieces.  Cut pizza-style into 10 wedges, roll up each wedge from the wide end into the center.  Place on baking sheet and chill for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350

Bake 22 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm or room temperature.

And try to each just one.  Just try it.