I love Rose's cookie book and I want to make everything from it. I know I will. In time.
Rose said in a recent Q&A that the rugelach is her favorite Christmas cookie to make and to eat. So I made it this past weekend.
I am on the fence about whether it's the best to eat. But it sure is fun to make. First, you make the dough by creaming room temperature cream cheese and butter in the mixer. Add in vanilla and egg, then add in bleached AP flour slowly.
The mixture is pretty soft and has to be refrigerated for at least 2 hours.
While the dough is resting, I made the filling. Pretty easy. Coarsely chopped walnuts is mixed with brown sugar, granulated sugar, golden raisin, and cinnamon.
After the 2 hour mark, I took out the dough to roll. This part was a bit confusing. I thought that the recipe would say to roll out the dough like how I would roll out croissant dough. I mean, after all, the rugelach is kinda shaped like a croissant. But the recipe actually said to split the dough into 4 pieces and roll each one into a circle. That doesn't make a lot of sense for me. So I just sort of roll each piece into a messy rectangle.
The only fruit preserves I have in the house is orange marmalade so I used that. I was a bit worried that it would affect the taste or make it bitter. But then again apricot preserves doesn't have a lot of taste. And I figured that its main purpose would be to wet the dough so the filling can stick to it. So orange marmalade it is. I didn't even try to water it down, just dip the brush into it and brush it onto the pastry.
I wish I had shaped these rugelach better. They are not very uniform, some are big and some are small. But I think they are cute.
They are pretty tasty. I would not say I'm a huge fan of them. They tasted more like bread to me and not a cross between pastry and cookie like Rose said.
Recipe: Rose's Christmas Cookies