Rugelach

Chocolate-Pecan Rugelach
(rug·e·lach) (rü-gə-ləḵ)

 Origins of rugelach, the favorite Jewish pastry, date back to the Hungarian kifli, Austrian kipfel and Polish rogal.  The crescent-shaped filled pastry was originally made with yeast dough and filled with fruit jams, poppy seed paste or nuts.  Today rugelach may be the most popular sweet pastry both in the American Jewish community and in Israel.  But these are very different pastries.

            There are many examples in Jewish history of dishes traveling across continents and countries while changing and adapting flavors and techniques; the rugelach, which traveled east and west from Central Europe and ended as very different pastries, carrying the same name.

            In American, bakers quickly came up with a short cut for the complex yeast dough rugelach, and by 1940’s they were already making yeast-less rich cream cheese dough.   

Cream Cheese Dough

6 oz. cream cheese

1-cup (2 sticks) butter, cold

2 cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3-cup sour cream

METHOD OF PREP:

1.             Cut cream cheese into tablespoon-size pieces and let soften at room temperature.  Cut butter into small pieces and keep in refrigerator until ready to use.

2.             Combine flour, salt, and butter into the food processor and process with brief pulses until mixture resembles coarse meal. 

3.             Add cream cheese and sour cream, distributing evenly over the flour mixture.

4.             Process with brief pulses until dough just holds together.  If dough is too dry, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water. 

5.             Wrap dough in plastic wrap, press it together into a ball and flatten into a disk.

6.             Refrigerate dough 4 hours before rolling, or up to 2 days.

Chocolate-Pecan Filling:

1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli, 60% bittersweet chocolate baking chips)

½ cup pecans, finely chopped

¼ cup butter, melted

METHOD OF PREP:

1.             Prepare dough.

2.             Lightly butter 2 or 3 baking sheets.  Mix chocolate and pecans together in a bowl.

3.             Divide dough into 4 pieces.  Keep remaining dough in refrigerator.

4.             Place ¼ of dough on a lightly floured surface.  Using a rolling pin, roll it into a circle that is about 1/8” thick.  The dough will be very hard, so it is best to first beat it down with a rolling pin.  It will loosen up as it comes to room temperature.

5.             Immediately brush the dough with melted butter and sprinkle it with ¼ of the pecan/chocolate mixture, pressing it lightly into the dough.

6.             Cut the dough into 12 wedges.

7.             Roll each wedge up, starting from the thickest end, until your form a crescent shape.

8.             Repeat the rolling, topping and shaping process with the other three pieces of dough.

9.             Place the Rugelach onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

10.          Refrigerate it for 30 minutes (You can also freeze the Rugelach at this point for later use.)

11.          Bake the Rugelach in a 350-degree oven for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.

12.          Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

13.          Enjoy!

 

RESULT: 
Rugelach is one of my favorite Jewish delicacies.  The filling and dough are both easy to make.  However the cutting and rolling can be problematic.  The original technique I found had the dough cut into squares and double rolling.  The other recipe had the dough rolled into a semi-circle, cut into 12 wedges and roll from the wide end to the skinny end, similar to a croissant.  I prefer the circle into wedges, it created a better final product with equal filling to dough ratio.  

The final product, a mix of chocolate and pecan pieces, it complements the cream cheese dough.  DELICIOUS!