It's Christmas! So I have had a little time off work and have been able to indulge in doing one of my favourite things. 'Tis the season to be baking, after all! So in this case...
R is for... Rugelach
A couple of months ago I came across a word I'd never heard before in an article about cookies; that word was rugelach. Of course this set me off researching what these things were - a Jewish pastry made with cream cheese dough(!) and shaped like mini croissants(!). I had never even heard of cream cheese dough before, and I'd recently been reading about the best way to cut and roll croissants, so this was very exciting. I promptly went out and bought a tub of Phili and then forgot I wanted to make them and ended up eating it with some smoked salmon on bagels.
Anyway! I thought I'd have time to have a go today and came across this recipe on Pastry Pal which was detailed, had enough photos to make me go "ooh" and had metric conversions. Although, pastry is pastry! All the other recipes I'd seen were in cups and I've never really got the hang of cups, but it worked out at a ratio of 1 part cream cheese, 1 part butter and 4 parts flour, which is the same as the 2:1 flour:fat ratio we usually use for basic pastry. I did some sums, averaged everything out so that the metrics were neater (really, nobody is going to measure out 227g of anything), and came out with something to have a go with.
The filling is pretty straightforwards. I used hazelnuts because they were in the cupboard and I needed to finish off some dried fruit, and the jam I used was one that had been sat at the back of the shelf for a while - really, it needed to be used for something. Ordinarily I'd suggest you use apricot, though I have some ideas for variations at the bottom that I think would work (although I've not tried them myself yet). Also, I've halved everything because you can split the dough into 2 and make 24 smaller ones if you don't fancy having 36 huge or 48 small ones on your first attempt.
Pastry
|
125g cream cheese 125g butter 250g plain flour pinch salt 30g caster sugar 1tsp vanilla extract |
Make sure the butter and cream cheese are softened! This makes life much, much easier. Cream the butter & cheese, so they're well blended. Add the sugar, salt and vanilla then the flour. Using a wooden spoon mix well until it starts to form a crumbly dough, then bring it all together with your hands (it will come together!). Form into two flattened discs, wrap in cling and put in the fridge for an hour. |
While the pastry dough is chilling, make the filling
Filling
|
30g soft brown sugar 30g caster sugar 50g dried fruit 75g chopped hazelnuts 1tsp cinamon |
Like I said, I used these ingredients because I had them and they needed using. Mix everything together in a bowl and put to one side. You can add a tablespoon of cocoa powder to this if you like but it might be one too many flavours. Don't forget to have a look at the variations at the end of this page! |
After an hour in the fridge turn the oven onto GM4/5 (350F, 180C ish) to preheat, and take out one of your discs of pastry dough. Using a lightly floured board and rolling pin roll out to a circle about 10" in diameter. Don't worry about rough edging, I'm rubbish at rolling out proper circles of pastry. If you're concerned then use the bottom of a 10" springform tin as a guide to cut any rough edges off. The point is that you want thin pastry here. Spread some jam on the surface in a big ring, then sprinkle with half the filling mix, as shown below:
The jam I used was apple & blackberry, but use apricot if you want a neutral flavour (I didn't have any apricot). Note that the middle and the edges are not jammy, and I've not used very much, just enough to smear on the surface - if you overfill the rugelach they will ooze filling when rolling it up, and having the ends free means there's somewhere for filling to go. Press the filling into the jam, then take a pizza wheel and cut into twelve wedges (half it, then quarters, then third the quarters).
Starting at the fat end roll one wedge up to the point so it resembles a small croissant, and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Eventually you'll have twelve rugelach that look similar to those on the left. Give them a little bend in the middle so they resemble croissants. These really ought to go back into the fridge for 15 minutes to rest, but you don't have to do so. They can be frozen at this point, too.
Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar, if you wish. These go into the oven for about 25 minutes, or until golden. If you take them out too early the middles won't be cooked; too long and the filling will ooze out and burn on the baking sheet.
Leave to cool on a cooling rack and if you've not covered them in sugar before baking you can dust with icing sugar now.
Verdict
The pastry is soft and crumbly, but works like a charm when rolling out. And you can get it very thin without it breaking. It tastes pretty good as well - I imagine it'd make a pretty decent, and light, sweet tart pastry too. The filling is too many flavours for me; dried fruit, and hazels, and the jam, and the cinnamon, and cocoa powder and the brown sugar were just a bit manic. But they are still tasty and different fillings would make these work perfectly.
Varations
Change the fillings: I reckon using marmalade instead of jam and sprinkling chocolate chips on there would work just as well, if not better. How about using honey instead of jam, or Nutella and hazels mixed with cinnamon? You have to have something sticky on there or the filling just drops out, and the different textures of the nuts work well against the pastry. A bit of spice in there helps, too. This one really does deserve some experimentation.
Overall, I really enjoyed making these. Jewish pastry cookery isn't something I've ever done before, but I'm certainly more than willing to give more recipes from the culture a try. If only they were't all in volume measurements... If you have book recommendations then let me know!
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