Monday, November 3, 2008

Rugelach - Tuesdays with Dorie


This week's baking pick, Rugelach, comes to us from Piggy of Piggy's Cooking Journal. It was an exciting bake - I have never made anything like this before.

I find these pastries to be very European, not Brit or American. My neighbor Mitka, who is from Bosnia, often brings over delicious pastries that usually have fruity, nutty fillings - the Rugelach remind me of her baking. We sit around looking at pictures in baking books, drinking Turkish coffee. A nice little break from the humdrum.

The pastry was a pleasure to make in the food processor (seems Dorie likes the food processor a lot). When it came to rolling the dough however my confidence dimished somewhat as the pastry would not form a circle, rather a map of Spain in the first batch and a distorted rectangle in the second. So the roll-ups are a bit wonky but they have held together and my office consumers will not be not looking for symmetry.

I used three different kinds of jam fillings - raspberry jam, apricot jam and guava jelly, then sprinkled either walnuts or pecans on them, followed by raisins plumped by steeping them in boiled water. Could not get currants anywhere near me. My first batch stayed in the fridge overnight and was a lot easier to handle than the second batch which started getting too soft and tricky to roll - I kept these in the fridge for only 1-1/2 hours. The pastries look as if they'll taste good; I'm looking forward to doing my own taste test tomorrow.

Thank you Piggy for this pick - I think it will be a "make again."

14 comments:

Engineer Baker said...

These would be wonderful with Turkish coffee - definitely a break from the everyday. Love the guava add too.

Sarah said...

I love that your dough looked like Spain...hysterical! Great job!

Shelby said...

I will definitely make these again also!

kimberly salem said...

i want to try these again too! they are definitely a more out-of-the-ordinary thing to make for me. your different jams sound delicious ;)

Beth said...

Good job! I'm a fellow TWD baker, and I was thinking that it would be nice if we all could chip in and get Laurie some small token/gift for all the work she does. Would you be willing to contribute? If I can get enough people, it would only be about $1 per person. No pressure :-) Let me know! bethberg12@yahoo.com

pinkstripes said...

The guava jelly sounds interesting. Rugelach with Turkish coffee sounds perfect. yum!

Kimberly Johnson said...

The guava jelly sounds like a great twist! I'll be making these again too, even though my dough rolled out all wonky too! I wish I knew the secret to a nice round pastry.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

They look delicious! A great recipe!

Thanks for the vote!

Cheers,

Rosa

Kayte said...

I don't think I saw where anyone else used guava jam, so that means you win on the creative award this week! They look lovely...and assume they tasted just as good as they look. I can just see you sitting there with your rugelach and turkish coffee sipping away sharing some friendship time...such a nice vision.

Cristine said...

These were so tasty! Great job!

Liz said...

So what's the verdict? Did you love them? Guava jelly sounds awesome.

And I agree--the dough didn't form a beautiful circle. I "helped" mine by trimming it into a circle before forming the wedges. Heh heh.

Patricia Scarpin said...

I love baking cookies but have never tried rugelach - these are tempting!

Kaitlin said...

All of those combinations sound wonderful. And you're right, it is a very European dessert. Definitely not your average chocolate chip cookie-type dessert.

Piggy said...

rugelach with guava jelly sounds yummy! Glad that you like the recipe, and thanks for baking with me this week!