Friday, January 7, 2011

Rugelach - A Puff Pastry Cookie Recipe

I know I promised some recipes using puff pastry, but the holidays were such a whirlwind that I didn't take nearly enough pictures.  Browsing through my pictures, it was hard to find a complete start to finish picture trail for any one recipe.  Mental note - hand the camera over to an assistant.  The boys are always looking to make a little money and SB hires himself out cheap.  I did find one complete set of pictures for Rugelach, but I must have gotten flour on the lens at some point, because the pics aren't that great.  Still here they are.

Start with the puff pastry I showed you how to make here.  You'll only need about 1/5 of the dough.  I actually used the scraps from after having made a berry strudel, and some puff pastry wrapped cocktail weiners.  Shape the dough into a disk and chill in the frig for an hour if you didn't just pull the dough out of the frig.  Place the disk on a liberally floured surface and sprinkle with more flour.  I used sweet rice flour.
Roll the dough out to a circle an 1/8" thick.  Keep turning your dough an 1/8 of a turn with each stroke.  This will help to keep your dough even and help it to keep from sticking.
Spread out 1/4 cup of apricot preserves over the top of the dough and sprinkle on 1 1/2 tbsps cinnamon sugar and 1/2 cup chopped dried fruit and nuts.  I used dates, golden raisins, and walnuts.  It'll be easier to roll up the rugelach if you keep the fruit and nuts toward the outside of the dough circle.
Use a pizza cutter to slice towards the center and create wedges.  I made 24.  I realize this pic shows only 12, but I cut each of those wedges in half.  Roll up the wedges starting from the outside of the circle.

Place the rolled up rugelach onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, brush with egg wash, and bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until they are golden and crispy.  These were sweet and both flaky(the pastry) and chewy(the fruit.)

Thanks for popping in and baking with me.  I'm linking this up at Funky Junk Interiors' Saturday Night Special and Remodelaholic's Recipe Swap Sundays.  I'm also entering this in the Culinary Smackdown Cookie contest being held at uTry It.

5 comments:

  1. I didn't know you could make your own puff pastry, and yes, I need an assistant too! Thanks for sharing with Fat Camp Friday, hope to see you back again next week with another great recipe! http://mangoesandchutney.com

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  2. This is so cool! I never thought of making my puff pastry on my own. I should better try it at home. Thanks for the simple recipe.

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  3. This is such a unique cookies recipe. Sounds totally delicious! Thanks for entering your creation to the March's Culinary Smackdown Battle. Best of luck! :)

    Amy
    http://utry.it

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  4. Mmmm. I've never know anyone who made their own puff pastry. I can't wait to try it. Drooling now.

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  5. I came by from culinary smackdown. What a great tutorial on puff pastry. I must admit it overwhelms me a bit. I haven't had the best success with it. I love rugelach and I might just have to try making my own puff pastry again.

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