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Rugelach
By jen | May 8, 2009
Rugelach is a tasty Jewish pastry that consists of rolled up dough containing fillings such as raisins, chocolate, cinnamon, fruit preserves and ground nuts. My hairdresser and I often talk about my vegan baking and she mentioned her love of rugelach so I decided to make some for her. After researching numerous recipes online and in various cookbooks, I found that most recipes are essentially the same. With the exception of using currants instead of raisins, brushing the pastry with soy milk and sprinkling additional cinnamon and sugar on top, the recipe below is the same one found on allrecipes.com, chowhound.com and in The Joy of Vegan Baking. And let me tell you, this recipe did not dissapoint! Wow, are these good! The baked dough is so rich and flaky and complements the fruit preserves and currants very well. The recipe below makes between 32-64 cookies, depending on the size you want to make. If you can’t eat them all at once, the great thing is that you can freeze the dough to use later, prep the pastries and freeze them raw for baking later, or store them in the freezer after baking.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup vegan butter, cold
8 oz (1 package) vegan cream cheese
1/3 cup vegan sour cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely ground walnuts
1 cup apricot or raspberry preserves
1/2 cup raisins or currants
1/2 cup + 4 Tb granulated sugar
1 Tb + 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup of plain soy milk
Directions
Combine and mix the flour and salt in a medium-sized bowl or in a food processor. Add the sour cream to the flour. Cut the butter and cream cheese into small pieces and cut them into the flour using a pastry cutter or pulse with the food processor until crumbly. Press and shape the dough so all the pieces stick together. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Form each piece into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate the disks for 2 hours.
While the dough is chilling, you can prep the filling. Combine the 4 Tb of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and set aside for sprinkling on top later. Combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon with the walnuts and currants (or raisins) in a small bowl.
Once the dough is ready, preheat your oven to 350 degress and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper (to catch the oozing jam). Pull out the disks one at a time as you’re ready to roll it to keep the dough cold and easier to work with. The dough is a little sticky so be sure to lightly flour your work surface as well as your rolling pin. Roll each disk into a 9″ round. If you’re like me and have a hard time rolling things into a circle, simply use your hands to push edges of the the dough to form a round shape every few turns.
Just before going into the oven
Now the fun begins! Like you’re putting toppings on a pizza, spread a thin layer of the fruit preserves (about 1/4 cup) on each disk. Evenly divide and spread the nut/currant/sugar mixture on each of the four disks and gently press the mixture into the layer of preserves. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut each disk into even wedges: 8 for large, 12 for medium or 16 for small rugelach. Gently pull out individual wedges and roll the dough from the widest edge towards the pointy end so the pointy end is on the outside. Lightly brush each cookie with soy milk and sprinkle with the prepared cinnamon sugar.
Bake the rugelach for 22-23 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.
Topics: Baked Goods |