Sometimes, saying your goals out loud is enough to cement them into reality, and this has been true for my quest to have a calmer, more peaceful Christmas season. Letting go of expectations for a “perfect” holiday has given me the freedom to enjoy it more, regardless of how things unfold. One thing I really wanted to do this year (for the first time in a long time) was settle in to making Christmas cookies, and I am on a roll—figuratively and literally—with these sweet little rugelach. They are my first cookies of the season and making them satisfies not only my desire for a pretty holiday treat, but also another item on my culinary bucket list.
As much as I love to bake bread and rolls, I hardly ever bake sweet things, such as cakes, pies or cookies. I’m not sure why, because I do like them, and I have fond memories of doing that kind of baking in my grandmother’s kitchen. The holidays are a perfect time for baking sweets, and so far, I am loving it.
Rugelach (which is pronounced in such a way that it might seem you are gargling with a feather in your throat) is a treat that originated in Poland and is popular in Jewish culture, and it has been on my bucket list for a couple of years. My husband, Les, remembers them from childhood, not only because he is of Polish-Jewish descent, but also from the bakeries and pastry shops all over New York, where he was raised.
The cookies are tiny, which makes them perfect for gift-giving or tucking into an extra little space on a dessert platter. My rugelach dough is made of butter, cream cheese and flour, with only a slight hint of powdered sugar. The rest of the sweetness comes from the layers of filling and the large crystals of sugar sprinkled on top before baking. Given the variety of flavors I have seen, you can put almost anything in rugelach, and the gears of my mind are already spinning ideas for my next batch. This time, I used a jar of jam we spotted while waiting in line to purchase our fancy Christmas tree stand.
The fruity filling in these bite-sized little rollups is F.R.O.G. jam, with the letters representing the flavors of fig, raspberry, orange peel and ginger. That’s a whole lot of holiday flavor happening in one spoonful, and though Les is not particularly fond of ginger, he likes the other flavors and said my addition of cinnamon sugar and chopped pecans rounded these out nicely for him. The cookies are made in stages, including a significant amount of time chilling the dough, and then the cookies before baking, so plan accordingly.
As always, I learned a few things along the way to making these, and I’ll share those discoveries throughout the instructions below.
Ingredients
4 oz. full-fat cream cheese (this is half a brick package)
1 stick cold unsalted butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour* (see notes)
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour*
1 Tbsp. powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
2/3 cup jam, preserves or marmalade
2 Tbsp. organic cane sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped, toasted pecans
Egg wash and coarse sugar sprinkles, for baking
*Notes
For best results, measure flour using the fluff, sprinkle, level method. If you dunk your scoop directly into the flour bag, you will compact the flour and end up with heavy cookies.
I always sub in a portion of whole grain into everything I bake, but if you do not have whole wheat pastry flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill) or white whole wheat (King Arthur is a great choice), it is fine to use a full cup of all-purpose flour. I personally like the flavor boost of the whole wheat, and it helps me justify eating an extra cookie. 😉
Instructions
Cut the cold butter and cream cheese into cubes before pulsing into the flour a few times. 
After a few pulses, run the processor continuously, but just until the dough comes together like this. 
Divide the dough into two disks and wrap them up to chill several hours or overnight. 
This is tricky, because you want the jam to melt but you don’t want it too warm. 
For the sake of consistency, I divided my cinnamon sugar and pecans so that both wheels of rugelach got the correct amounts. 
The chilled dough was rock hard, so I gave it a few gentle smacks with my rolling pin before pressing it out into a 12″ circle. 
Yes, my edges are wonky, but I figured it would be OK since they’ll be rolled up. Spread the melted jam out thinly over the entire dough. 
Sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar and scatter the pecan bits. I had to move them around a bit for more even coverage. 
I used my rolling pin to press the parchment paper over the dough to secure the toppings. This turned out to be a mistake… 
The rolling pin pressed it a little too well, and I had trouble peeling off the parchment. I peeled it back flat, the same as I do when making corn tortillas. 
For a prettier cookie, I decided to use my wavy pasta roller to cut it into 16 equal wedges. Also, not the best idea because it made rolling them pretty tricky. 
My wavy edges caused the pecan bits to fall off the sides when I rolled, and I had a tough time separating each wedge because the cuts were not clean. 
The rolling step is pretty straightforward. Just like a crescent roll, but way tinier! 
Whew, I got 16 of them onto my baking sheet! Cover with plastic and into the fridge. 
I made three changes for my second disk of dough. First, I rolled the edges flat before I began rolling out the dough. I learned this a long time ago with pie crust. 
Much better rollout, and without so many shaggy edges! 
My second change was pressing the pecans into place with my hand rather than the rolling pin. Much easier to remove the parchment! 
And I used a pizza wheel to cut my wedges, which made the rolling step easier and cleaner. The little things can make a big difference! 
Even with clean cuts on the dough, I found it easier to roll the rugelach by pulling a wedge away from the larger whole. 
Time for baking! I brushed on a quick egg wash. 
And sprinkled each cookie with coarse sugar. On my first batch, I used colorful sprinkles; on the second, natural turbinado. 
I do like the wavy edges on this batch. Into the oven for 25 minutes, until puffy and golden. 
I love how the filling peeks out of the baked rugelach, and these little bite size cookies were delicious! 
I’m excited to move rugelach to the “done” column of my bucket list. Next time, I want to make them with chocolate and cherry!
Combine flour, powdered sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to blend them evenly. Add cold pieces of butter and cream cheese. Pulse a few times to cut the fats into the dough, then run the processor continuously just barely long enough to see it come together but not long enough for it to clump in a ball around the blades.
Scrape the dough out onto plastic wrap. Divide it into two equal pieces and shape them into disks about the size of hockey pucks. Wrap them tightly in the plastic wrap and refrigerate a few hours to overnight.
The rolling out and rolling up stage of this recipe moves quickly, so I encourage reading through it completely before beginning. As with any butter-based dough, you want to try to keep it as cold as possible so that it remains flaky during baking. Get all your filling ingredients measured, lined up and ready. Warm the preserves in a small saucepan until they loosen up to spreadable consistency, then remove from heat. Divide the cinnamon sugar and toasted pecans so that you have equal amounts for each dough disk. Set up two baking sheets, lined with parchment, and arrange enough space in the fridge to chill them for an hour or two.
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured countertop, until it is about 1/8” thick and roughly 12” in diameter. Working from the edges inward, brush half of the melted preserves onto the dough round. You should see quite a lot of dough through the preserves and try to keep the glaze light in the center of the dough round, which will ultimately be the tips of each rugelach.
Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar all over the glazed dough, and then scatter the toasted pecan bits evenly over the sugar. Lay a piece of parchment or waxed paper over the dough round and gently press to secure the pecan bits into the dough. Carefully peel the paper away and set it aside for the second batch.
Using a pizza wheel, cut the dough into 16 equal triangles, with tips at the center of the dough round. The easiest way to do this is to cut it into fourths, then cut the fourths into eighths and finally the eighths into sixteenths. This will make sense to you when you begin cutting. Some of the pecan pieces will fall off or come loose; just press them back onto the dough.
Beginning with one of the triangles, start rolling from the outer, wide end toward the center, as if rolling up a crescent roll. Keep it tight as you go and place the cookie on the parchment-lined baking sheet. I found it easier, once I had about three of the triangles rolled, to use my bench scraper to loosen a triangle away from the round before rolling. The far-away side of the dough round was the trickiest, and next time I may try rolling it on parchment paper that can be moved around for the rolling step.
When all 16 cookies have been rolled, cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge. Repeat with the second dough disk. Chill the cookies for at least an hour before baking.
Toward the end of chill time, pre-heat the oven to 350° F, with the oven rack in the center position. I baked only one sheet at a time, but if you wish to bake both at once, arrange the racks with enough room for both and plan to rotate the pans halfway through baking time.
Prepare an egg wash (beaten egg with a teaspoon of cold water) and lightly brush the chilled cookies. Sprinkle them with a pinch of sugar. You can use decorative sugar or (as I did with my second batch) a pinch of natural turbinado sugar.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until cookies are puffed up a bit and golden brown in color. Cool on the pan for about 5 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer them to a cooling rack.
Comfort du Jour 
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