This week’s TWD is hosted by Grace over at Piggy’s Cooking Journal. She picked rugelach and wow, this was just entirely delightful to make. After a little wikipedia search I found that this is a Jewish dessert usually made with pareve to make it kosher, instead of cream cheese and butter. I certainly don’t have any pareve and I can attest that the rested raw dough was really yummy, especially if you accidentally dropped some of it in the cinnamon sugar repeatedly while putting the cookies together. I have the tiniest food processor ever and it was a cheap-o purchase so I was a little concerned about the dough. I don’t think I overworked it. It rolled out smooth and tasty. Much to my dismay Target did not have any apricot preserves and I’d already done my shopping at Publix so raspberry it was. I spread the jam, chopped up some bittersweet chips and sprinkled chop pecans all over it. My pizza wheel was a real jem although a few times it got caught on a nut or a chip and ripped the dough slightly while I was trying to cut through it. Then I rolled them up, put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and placed them in the freezer. My apartment gets unbelievably warm when I turn my gas oven on. And it was already 10pm last night and I was exhausted so they are in the freezer and I will bake up a few tonight, and save the rest for those nights when I’ve popped dinner in the oven and can add a little snack to go with. I’m still timid about the pecans because I don’t really like nuts but the bits of ingredients I was getting on my fingers were delightful… and yes, I licked the pizza wheel. I will definitely make these again. These seem like such a good holiday cookie. For Christmas I’m thinking about a nutella spread with macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips. There are so many things you could do with this dough including using it as a base for meat or vegetable hors d’oeuvres.

rugelach prefreeze


5 Responses
November 4th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Wow, those look really yummy! I bet they’ll be really good!
November 4th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Oh, these would be great Christmas cookies. Easy to freeze. Good thinking!
November 8th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Mmm…these look good! I love your idea of freezing them.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Aren’t these tasty? I like to freeze them, too.
By the way, “pareve” or “parve” is not an ingredient — it’s a term for food that is neither meat nor dairy. (Kosher rules prohibit mixing meat and dairy, so rugelach with cream cheese & butter could not be served with a meat meal.)
November 17th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Barbara, I had no idea. Now I sort of feel like a fool, but at least a fool with yummy rugelach. My boyfriend had some of these and he absolutely cannot stop talking about them! And I love that Dorie talks about freezing and tells you how and how long. I think that it takes it all to a new level when you can enjoy it long after the work is done.
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