TWD: Rugelach

I love rugelach. I don't tend to make it very often, because I think of it as a time-consuming, difficult recipe. I've made a great rolled up version recently, but I haven't made the crescents in a looooooong time. This recipe could get me to change my mind.

The dough was incredibly easy to make. It came together very quickly in the food processor. I divided it into two discs and put it away overnight. I decided to make two versions. One was with apricot jam and pistachios. The other contained almonds, raspberry jam, and chocolate chips.

The construction of the cookies was both fussy and forgiving. The fussy part: For future reference, I need to make sure my nuts and chips are chopped into smaller pieces. It made it tough for me to cut my dough circle into wedges. I kept running into too-large pieces and it gummed up the works some. The layers of ingredients (jam, then cinnamon sugar, then nuts, then chips) made for quite a bit of juggling. There was a lot going on. The forgiving part: My "circle" was not too precise. And my wedges were a little less than even. But when you roll it up, it gets pretty well hidden. I enjoyed the sweetness of the apricot jam paired with the pistachio. Remember, the dough has no sugar, so the toppings are what bring the sweet. I did forget to sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on the raspberry jam version. Truthfully, we didn't miss it.

Here's an apricot pistachio version.



Here's a shot with both flavors.



And a little further away shot.



On the boy's scale, these were an 11. (It goes to 11. It's one louder than ten) The rest of the family enjoyed them as well. I would certainly make these again. I'm thinking of new jam/nut combinations.

Thank you Piggy, from Piggy's Cooking Journal for choosing this great recipe. Next week's goodie: Kugelhopf chosen by Yolanda of The All Purpose Girl. This one may require a new pan. We'll see.....