Rugelach

by Jessica

Ina Garten usually makes  roast chicken for Friday night dinner. When she decided to make a traditional Jewish meal of brisket, she made rugelach for dessert. It looked delicious. There was a small problem with the recipe, though! It was very dairy. She used two sticks of butter and a package of cream cheese to make the dough. For a Shabbat dessert, this is not okay. Luckily, Toffuti makes some pareve cream cheese that you could substitute quite easily.

I have to admit something: this is one of the first recipes I’ve ever written up to blog. I’ve made these cookies  a whole bunch of times. And I took beautiful pictures to share with you. And then, when it came to writing up the post, I couldn’t find the pictures anywhere! I know I burned them onto a CD, but the CD is now somewhere among the other thousands of photo CDs I have (don’t worry, I have since updated my photo back-up devices). So, the post sat here, written up, but never shared.

I know, I know. We’ve shared a few recipes without any (or many) picture, but these were just so fun and beautiful I couldn’t post them without the photos. So the draft just sat and messed up my WordPress. And every now and then I would say to myself that I’m definitely making these again, only to not…because, you know, I had new desserts to test out, and I’ve already made these so many times.

I’m actually quite mean, because my sister-in-law Margie loves this dessert. So here I am, more than two years after the last time I made rugelach (blasphemy!), promising to not only make them this time to share with you, but definitely make them more often.

I used to make these pareve with Toffuti cream cheese, but really didn’t like it much (and it might be a reason I stopped making them for so long): it has hydrogenated oil. So, while other people would scarf them down, I wouldn’t. And we serving rugelach after dairy is not the same as after a great Shabbat meal. Then I found a better substitute from Trader Joe’s! With an O-U! So, now we can have pareve rugelach again.

 

Ingredients:

For the dough:

For the filling:

  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2/3 cup raisins (I chop them)
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped (I like to use pecans instead)
  • 1/2 cup apricot preserves, pureed in a food processor

For the topping:

  • Egg wash
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

1. Cream the Toffuti cream cheese and Soy Garden in a KitchenAid fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the sugar, salt, and vanilla. Turn the mixer on low speed and add the flour. Mix until just combined. Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into ball. Cut the dough into quarters, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for an hour. You can also freeze the dough to use later.

2. To make the filling, combine sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, and walnuts.

3. On a floured board, roll each ball into a 9-inch circle. Spread 2 tablespoons of apricot on top. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the filling. Press the filling into the dough. Then, cut the dough into 12 wedges (cut the whole circle in quarters, then cut each quarter in thirds). This is easiest if you have a pizza cutter.  Roll up each wedge from the wide (outside) end to the skinny edge. Place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. As the cookies are chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

5. Right before baking, brush each rugelach with egg wash and sprinkle with the topping. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool on wire rack.