Festive Holiday Rugelach Recipes

HOLIDAY RUGELACH

Steps:

• In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until creamy and smooth. Add 5 cups flour and combine. Add remaining flour in small batches, stopping when dough no longer sticks to sides of bowl (not all flour may be needed). If dough remains sticky after all the flour is used, add a little extra flour.
• Remove dough from mixing bowl; divide into four equal pieces and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough, one piece at a time, to rectangles of 1/8-inch thickness. With a sharp paring knife, score dough into 3-inch squares.
• Fill half the pastry with prune butter and half with apricot butter: Spoon one teaspoon of filling into one corner of each square, adding 3 or 4 raisins to the prune filling. Roll up each square from corner to corner, bending it into a crescent shape. Brush with egg wash.
• Combine sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle about a teaspoon over each crescent.
• Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets for 15 minutes, or until tops are golden brown. Cool on baking racks.

RUGELACH

Steps:

• Cream butter, cheese, and zest with a mixer on medium speed.
• Sift dry ingredients and add; blend just until incorporated (use a wooden spoon if hard to mix).
• Shape dough into a thick log and divide into three 8-oz. portions.
• Wrap each piece in plastic and flatten into a disk.
• Chill dough overnight before using.
• Preheat oven to 350°; line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Prepare (but keep separate) walnuts, cinnamon-sugar (mix 3/4 cup sugar with the 1 TBS cinnamon), melted butter, egg-water wash (mix egg with the 1 tsp water), and sprinkling sugar.
• Lightly dust work surface with flour.
• Flatten a chilled dough disk lightly with rolling pin, then roll it into a 12" circle, 1/8" thick.
• Flip dough often to prevent sticking.
• Ragged edges are normal.
• If there are big gaps in the dough, just trim off a little dough from another area (any place it goes over 12") and patch it in inches.
• Lightly brush the dough with melted butter; sprinkle 1/4 cup cinnamon-sugar over the entire surface.
• Then sprinkle 1/3 cup chopped walnuts on the sugar.
• With the rolling pin, gently press the nuts into the dough all the way across the circle-this will help keep the nuts in place when you roll up the cookies.
• Use a pizza wheel to cut 16 wedges-first cut the circle in half, then in half again to make quarters. Now cut each quarter in half, then again to make 16.
• Starting at the wide end of a wedge, roll it to the center of the circle to make a crescent.
• Place on a prepared baking sheet, point down, spacing 1" apart.
• Gently brush cookies with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
• Bake 20-30 min., or until brown, rotating pan halfway through baking.
• Cool rugelach on racks.
• **Special Tip**:
• Rugelach rules are minimal-here is how to roll, assemble, and bake.
• Rolling: It's fine if you don't roll a perfect circle (I can't!). The dough will crack at the edges- that's okay! Once the round is roughly 12" across, patch gaps with dough trim from the sides.
• Assembling: Don't skimp on cinnamon-sugar and nuts when assembling rugelach. You'll think it's overloaded inside, but most of the cookie's flavor comes from the filling. Coarse sugar sprinkled on top makes festive-looking rugelach, but if you don't have it, just use a good amount of regular sugar.
• Baking: Of these three rules, baking is most critical. Rugelach must be baked long enough-they're thick in the middle and will take longer to bake than most other cookies. Your goal is a cookie with rich browning all the way around-but not too much!

RUGELACH

Steps:

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt; beat until combined and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating to combine after each. With the mixer on low speed, beat in flour to combine. Mix in vanilla.
• Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide into three equal pieces, and shape into flattened disks; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 325°F, with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a food processor, pulse together the walnuts, remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar, the cinnamon, and pinch of salt until finely ground; set aside. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one disk of dough into a 10-inch round about 1/4 inch thick. Brush the top evenly with melted jelly. Sprinkle with a third of the walnut mixture and a third of the currants. Using the rolling pin, gently roll over the round to press the filling into the dough.
• Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut the round into 16 equal wedges. Beginning with the outside edge of each wedge, roll up to enclose filling. Place about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough and filling ingredients. Lightly beat the whole egg; brush over tops, and sprinkle with sanding sugar.
• Bake two sheets, rotating halfway through, until the cookies are golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining baking sheet. Rugelach can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
• Rugelach how-to
• Rounds of cookie dough are covered with melted apricot jelly, ground walnuts, and currants, then cut into even wedges.
• The wedges are rolled up around the filling before baking.