This December, I worked with a chef at the Culinary Institute of America to put together a holiday cookie article. He came up with the recipes, and we asked for variations on those. So with three basic doughs, you ended up with more than 15 different cookies.
Rugelach was one of them. I’d never made rugelach. It seems more like a pastry than a cookie, really. But whatever. It’s delicious.
The recipes, and the variations, after the jump.
Rugelach
Cream together 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted, room temperature butter and 8 ounces room-temperature cream cheese. Mix in 2 cups all-purpose flour sifted with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Shape dough into four equal sized discs, about 3/4 inch thick. Wrap each piece and chill at least 1 hour. Use a food processor to finely chop filling ingredients into a paste, then add jam or apple butter. Roll each piece of dough into 10-inch rounds. Spread 1/4 of the filling onto the dough. Cut the dough into 16 wedges. Roll the wedges up starting with the wide end. Brush each wedge lightly with egg wash (1 large egg whisked with 2 tablespoons cold milk or water) and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon mixed with 1/3 cup sugar). Bake in batches at 375 degrees until the cookies are a light golden brown, rotating the pans as necessary to bake evenly, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on racks.
Raspberry-Pecan Filling
1 cup raspberry jam
1 1/3 cups finely chopped pecans
Raspberry-Chocolate Filling
1 cup raspberry jam
1 1/3 cups finely chopped bittersweet chocolate
Apple Butter-Dried Cranberry Filling
1/3 cup apple butter
1/3 cup chopped dried cranberries
Apricot-Walnut Filling
1 cup apricot jam
1 1/3 cups finely chopped walnuts
For these cookies, we did sour cherry jam and pecans for one; cranberry-orange and walnuts for another. Delishy.
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