Rugelach

From the book The Basic Gourmet Entertains by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, and Kathleen Taggart

Yield

4 doz. rugelach

Introduction

The word rugel comes from the Yiddish, meaning “royal.” Our ancestors brought recipes for these buttery little crescents when they came to this country. American cooks added cream cheese to the dough. We love the addition of semisweet chocolate to the filling, but you may omit it and increase the quantity of jam and walnuts by 2 tablespoons each.

Ingredients

	8	oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for coating baking sheets
	8	oz. cream cheese, softened
	¼	cup granulated sugar
	1	tsp. pure vanilla extract
	2	cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
	¼	tsp. salt
	½	cup minced walnuts
	½	cup apricot jam
	6	oz. semisweet chocolate, minced or grated
	1	egg, lightly beaten

Steps

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and cream cheese together with an electric mixer. Add sugar and vanilla, and beat until fluffy. Add flour and salt, and mix completely. Dough will be sticky. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 °F. Butter 2 baking sheets or use nonstick baking sheets. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. If you have enough room to roll out 2 pieces of dough side by side, the work goes faster. Keep other 2 pieces refrigerated. Place walnuts, jam, and chocolate in separate small bowls by your work surface, along with small spoons for portioning each. Even after long chilling, dough can remain a bit sticky, so be sure to have plenty of flour on your hands while rolling out dough.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece of dough into a circle 9- to 10-inches in diameter. Spread one-fourth of jam onto each circle with back of spoon. Do not worry if jam does not completely cover circle. Sprinkle each circle of dough with one-fourth of walnuts and one-fourth of chocolate. Concentrate more of these items toward outside of dough circle rather than center. They will move toward center as you roll dough.
With a sharp knife, cut each circle into 12 wedges. You may need to rinse knife blade with hot water once or twice to avoid sticking. Starting at wide end, roll each wedge, jelly-roll fashion. Bend roll slightly to make a crescent and place on baking sheets. Some filling will spill out as you roll. Scrape it up and sprinkle on wedges yet to be rolled. When finished with the first 2 circles, clean work surface of sticky dough and jam residue, and repeat process with remaining 2 pieces of dough.
Brush each rugelach with beaten egg and bake until deep golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Notes

A firm-bladed metal pastry scraper will help you loosen each wedge of dough from your counter or work surface as you begin to roll it with the filling. The scraper is also great for removing flour and sticky jam.
Freeze Rugelach, unbaked, up to 1 month. Layer pastries between wax paper in lock-top plastic bags. Do not thaw before baking. Once baked, they keep well for 5 days, well wrapped.

This content is from the book The Basic Gourmet Entertains by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, and Kathleen Taggart.