Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie: Rugelach

So a few weeks ago I whined about how I hate making biscotti because I used to have to make it by the truckload. Someone, somewhere, heard my pathetic grumbling and decided to teach me a lesson by having rugelach be this week's TWD recipe. You see, back in the day when I had to make billions of biscotti, I also had to make tons of rugelach, which is an awful lot of rolling and shaping and cutting and egg washing and baking, believe you me. *patiently waits for sympathy*

So this week's recipe was another baked good I thought I had sworn off forever, and once again I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed making and eating it again. I think there's a lesson here somewhere about not holding grudges and time healing all wounds, but I'm too busy munching on rugelach to really process it. La la la...


The dough was incredibly simple: just some flour, cream cheese, and butter, pulsed in the food processor until it barely held together. I made it the evening before I planned to bake, so it had a good long overnight chill in the refrigerator.

Because I am nothing if not indecisive, I made two varieties. The first one had Nutella (thanks to Clara for that idea!), hazelnuts, and a bit of chopped gianduja chocolate, which is chocolate that is flavored with hazelnut paste.


The second variety had cherry preserves (my favorite, from Trader Joe's), chopped almonds, and finely chopped bittersweet chocolate. I omitted the sprinkling of sugar from both fillings, figuring that they would be sweet enough with the Nutella, chocolate, and jam. The shaping wasn't too tricky, although I wished I'd waited to sprinkle the nuts and chocolate until after cutting, since the pizza wheel I used kept getting caught on the chunks. Cutting each circle into 16 wedges produced the most petite, adorable rugelachies ever! A quick chill in the fridge, an egg wash and a sprinkling of sugar, and my babies were ready for baking.


So how were they? On a scale of Gross to Fantastic, I would rate them Pretty Good! Truth be told, they weren't quite sweet enough for me. I am used to a rugelach dough that contains a bit of sugar, so next time I'll either add sugar to the dough, do a sprinkling before I roll them, or use a much sweeter filling, because they didn't get much sweetness from the bittersweet chocolate or tart cherry preserves. So that was a bit of a bummer, but other folks with less of a sweet tooth liked them quite a bit. I thought the pastry was wonderful--light, tangy, and very flaky--and the miniature size was perfect. Yes, they definitely have potential. What did you folks think?

24 comments:

  1. I am so glad you explained that you use to make rugelach before b/c yours are way too perfectly rolled and I'd be jealous that your first time produced that when mine were kinda fugly. HAHA. Wasn't the nutella yummy? Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
    Clara @ iheartfood4thought

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  2. Dear Lord - yours are perfect!

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  3. Your rugelach look awesome! Mine were so messy. I'm adding nutella to my shopping list!

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  4. Those look fantastic! I'm a fellow TWD baker, and I was thinking that it would be nice if we all could chip in and get Laurie some small token/gift for all the work she does. Would you be willing to contribute? If I can get enough people, it would only be about $1 per person. No pressure :-) Let me know! bethberg12@yahoo.com

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  5. Sign me up for the nutella version! Thanks for the tip on the sugar for the dough- I've read that on a few other posts as well. I'll keep it in mind when I make this (sans any dried fruit) later this week!

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  6. Anonymous10:54 AM

    Mmmm, these look fantastic! I see a TWD Rewind in my future.

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  7. I love the second version, but I'm a sucker for cherry and almonds. They look just perfect, so all that practice must have helped :)

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  8. I have only one word to describe your photos --- YUM!!!!

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  9. Oh...my.

    Where do you find that Gianduja chocolate?

    I must have some.

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  10. Your cookies are perfectly shaped! How did you do it? They look so tasty.

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  11. Anonymous8:18 AM

    I so wish I'd thought of buying cherry preserves. I used apple, and that was good, but I think cherry would have been amazing. (And maybe milk chocolate with cherry, to ramp up the sweetness.) I'm going to try both of your variations very soon!

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  12. Your rugelach cookies look lovely - so evenly rolled. Good idea to put the fillings on after cutting.

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  13. Your cherry/ almond combination sounds delicious. I used the Trader Joes dried cherries, which I adore. I actually liked that they weren't too sweet - it let the filling flavors shine through. But this is the only batch of rugelach I've ever made! Beautiful as always!!
    Nancy

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  14. Oh, your combinations sound wonderful! I skipped these but may have to make them this weekend after all, now that I have the nutella idea.

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  15. You can definitely tell you're experienced in making them -- yours are shaped perfectly and with none of the burnt mess on the bottom from overfilling (unlike me). Kudos to you!

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  16. Anonymous9:12 AM

    "The shaping wasn't too tricky"?!?! Speak for yourself! hahah but seriously, LOVE those rugelach. And LOVE you hope cupcakes!

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  17. The plate with the nutella ones is mine! MINE! Mine, are you listening to me?!

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  18. I am jealous your Rugelach is perfect. Practice does make things perfect! Great job

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  19. Love your last photo in the ribbon basket. Very nice. Your Rugelach are beauties. See...all that practice paid off and your Rugelach have earned notice. YIPPEE! Love your flavorings too.
    AmyRuth

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  20. They look so good.....

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  21. Lovely looking rugelach! Glad that you enjoy baking them as much as I did. :-)

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  22. Both flavours look great!! I'm sure they tasted good too! I agree with you: they could have used just a tad more sugar.

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  23. Anonymous10:08 AM

    These look perfect, and thank you, by the way, for mentioning the problem of the difficulty of cutting these smoothly with nuts that kept messing up the works! I thought I was the only one...

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  24. Hey do you have the recipe for this that you could share? I am a first time baker but these look absolutly delicious and I'd like to bake them.

    -Colleen

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