Rugelach

I have never made Rugelach with a cream cheese dough before but seeing the picture of these I could not resist baking these.

The dough is delicious & very simple. The first day the dough was flaky & crisp. After storing these for a few days, they were less crisp but still good!

The filling recipe calls for nuts which I left out & dried fruit which I added. I don’t know that my family loved the dried raisins that I put in these but I think it added a delicious flavour. When I make them again I will cut down the amount of raisins maybe…

The recipe is from King Arthur Flour, which if you follow my blog, you will know that the King Arthur Flour is fast becoming one of my favourite web sites. Everything I make from this website is delicious. I do change things a bit, but not always.

Here is the recipe

Rugelach 

Ingredients

Cookie Dough

1 cup unsalted butter,  room temperature

3/4 cup cream cheese. room temperature

1/3 cup sour cream

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups flour

Filling

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup raisins *** you can use dried cranberries or currants instead of the raisins

1 tbsp cinnamon

water for brushing the dough & a pastry brush

Topping

milk to brush on top of the rolled cookie

sugar for sprinkling on top

Method

 Line baking sheets with parchment paper

1. You can make the cookie dough in your food processor. Put the flour & salt in the bowl & pulse it to combine.
2. Cut the butter & cream cheese into pieces
3. Add the cut butter, cream cheese & sour cream to the bowl of the food processor with the flour
4. Pulse until the ingredients come together &  you can squeeze the dough together… I mixed it until it just came to a ball…
5. If you want to make this dough in your mix master, beat the butter, cream cheese, sour cream & salt together until smooth, then add the flour & mix until all of the ingredients are combined well & form a dough
6. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Press  each portion into a round disk, as round as you can…this will make rolling it out in a circle easier..(a round disk is a flattened portion of dough)
7. Wrap each portion of dough in plastic wrap & put in the refrigerator to chill for an hour…. If your dough sits in the refrigerator too long & it is very cold, just let it warm to room temperature before rolling it out. It is easier to roll when the dough isn’t too cold…
8. While the dough is in the fridge, make the filling: in the bowl of your food processor , or you can use a blender, mix the brown sugar, raisins or dried fruit of your choice & cinnamon until finely chopped & combined… you don’t want it to get pasty though so watch it!
9. Now you will make your rugelach 
10. On a floured surface, roll a disk of chilled dough into a 10″ circle.
11. Brush the dough lightly with water.. you can use some jam here instead of water if you want… I just used water
12. Spread 1/3 of the filling evenly over the circle of dough..you can use your hands to even it out so that the filings all over the surface of the dough. spread the filling all the way to the edge of the dough
13. Cut the circle of dough into 12 equal wedges…a wheeled pizza cutter works well here but I used a knife
14. Starting at the wide edge, roll up each wedge quite tightly, ending with the pointy end of the wedge
15. Place the rolled piece on the prepared baking sheet with the point side down
16. Repeat this process with the rest of the disks…
17. Brush the tops of the rugelach with milk & you can sprinkle them with sugar… ***I did not do this.. I didn’t want sugar on the top of them
18. Preheat your oven now to 350f
19. Place the formed rugelach in the refrigerator while your oven is preheating
20. When your oven is preheated, bake these for 25 -30 minutes until they are golden brown
21. You can cool these right on the pan
22. They keep well for a few days!

Enjoy!