Rugelach

What a fun experiment! I had never made rugelach before. For anyone wondering what I'm talking about, is pronounced rueg - ella. Usually found in glass jars in bakeries and apparently not spelled phonetically.

It was actually pretty easy, just a little time consuming because of all of the chilling involved. A good project to do while you're doing other stuff around the house. You'll soon see what I mean. Don't skip the chilling - it is the same idea as pie dough. In order to achieve a flaky crust, the butter needs to stay cold until put in the oven. There should be visible slivers of butter in the crust when you're done processing.

Crust:
2.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
8 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
2 tablespoons sour cream

Pulse flour, sugar and salt in food processor, just enough to combine. Add butter, cream cheese and sour cream and pulse 8-10 times until the dough comes together in small crumbles. Turn the mixture onto a clean counter. Divide into four equal pieces. Knead each pile just enough to bring together into a round and cover with saran wrap. Chill for a few minutes, taking out one at a time to roll out to a circle. The circle should be around 9 inches in diameter. As you finish rolling out each round, store the rolled out dough in the freezer. Each round should stay in the freezer for around 20-30 minutes total.

Process 1 cup of apricot preserves in a food processor to eliminate large fruit chunks. Also, combine 1 cup of sugar with 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon. For each of the rounds, spread 1/4 cup of preserves over the whole thing, then layer 1/4 cup golden raisins, 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar mixture and 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts. Cut the round into 8 pieces like a pizza. Starting with the fat end of each slice, roll the dough so that it creates a crescents. Here is a picture of one crescent with the rest of the dough in the background:


I rolled then around in some of the extra walnuts laying around for some extra texture on top. Once you have rolled all of your crescents, line up on a baking sheet and freeze for 15 minutes. During this time, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Once out of the freezer, brush crescents with egg yolk diluted with some water or milk. Cook for around 20 minutes, or until the top is puffy and gold. Immediately out of the oven, sprinkle some more of the cinnamon sugar mixture on top. All done!! Now enjoy!