Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie: Rugelach

It feels good to be blogging again! I was working a conference all of last week, and was staying in a hotel without free internet access. Since I'm cheap, I wasn't online last week at all. I scrambled to make the Rugelach last night after being out of my house for over a week, hence the late posting. So, on with the show.


When I first read the ingredient list for this week's Tuesdays With Dorie pick, Rugelach, I was less than excited. Chocolate, nuts, currants, and apricot jam rolled together between layers of dough? I couldn't see how all of those flavours could possibly complement each other. However, I've chickened out of Dorie's strange combinations before (those Chocolate Chunkers were supposed to have nuts and fruit, too, but I took a pass), so this time I decided to be brave. And I'm glad I did.


The first thing that struck me about the dough was its amazing flavour. It's a simple mixture of butter, cream cheese, and flour. And it was so tasty, once mixed, that I had to stop myself from eating a scoop of it. Since it doesn't contain any sugar, it would also make a great savoury baked good. If I had had more time, I would have made goat cheese and pepper jelly rugelach. Tapenade rugelach would be yummy too. I'm definitely excited to experiment with the recipe in the future, since the possibilities seem limitless.

The assembly was quite easy, although it was time consuming. I started making the dough after work last night, and didn't finish baking the cookies til 11:30, given all of the chilling that the dough required. Mind you, I squeezed in some dinner and chores between chilling the dough and preparing the cookies. Still, I wouldn't want to make these on a weeknight again unless I made the dough the night before. Also, I had issues forming the cookies into perfect crescents. Somehow, though, the misshapen cookies complemented the chunkiness of the filling.

Flavour-wise, the dough was perfectly matched to the ingredients in the recipe, despite my initial misgivings. I didn't have any currants, so I used dried cranberries. The buttery dough was delicious and somehow the apricot jam, chocolate, cranberries, and pecans made a very complex but delicious combination.



Thank you to Grace if Piggy's Cooking Journal for choosing Rugelach this week! You forced my to overcome some of my taste preferences and boundaries, and I loved the result. Visit Grace's blog for the recipe, or check out the Tuesdays With Dorie website for the full list of TWDers.

14 comments:

Anonymous November 4, 2008 at 9:16:00 PM EST  

Wow, these look really good. I'm going to have to try this recipe.

Engineer Baker November 4, 2008 at 9:21:00 PM EST  

Those look perfect - I'm glad you took the plunge and tried Dorie's odd toss-everything-in method :)

CB November 4, 2008 at 10:31:00 PM EST  

Isn't it awesome when you think you won't like something and it totally surprises you? I love that! Thats how I felt about the galette that we made before. Now its one of my favorites! Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

Piggy November 5, 2008 at 9:40:00 AM EST  

I like the complexity of the flavor too and thanks for baking with me this week. Your rugelach looks gorgeous. :-)

Lisa magicsprinkles November 5, 2008 at 11:10:00 AM EST  

Goat cheese and pepper jelly sounds amazingly great! Glad you liked this recipe!

Anonymous November 5, 2008 at 11:18:00 AM EST  

I think the cranberries sound like a fantastic substitution! And the dough was sooooo good!

Anonymous November 5, 2008 at 2:56:00 PM EST  

Yours look so good!!

Sherry Trifle - Lovely Cats November 6, 2008 at 11:17:00 AM EST  

They look delicious. A great idea about the goat cheese and pepper jelly for sometime.

Anonymous November 6, 2008 at 2:54:00 PM EST  

They are delicious, and you can put anything you want in them. I'm looking forward to making some with pesto and pignoli.

The Food Librarian November 6, 2008 at 4:02:00 PM EST  

These look absolutely delicious!! I could eat one right now!

Liz November 7, 2008 at 1:36:00 AM EST  

I think cranberries are a better option than currants anyway! Your rugelach look and sound great.

Pamela November 7, 2008 at 11:00:00 PM EST  

Tapendade rugelach sounds astoundingly good. Beautiful rugelach!

Leslie November 9, 2008 at 12:12:00 PM EST  

How yummy they look! Great idea to make them savory!

LyB November 9, 2008 at 9:39:00 PM EST  

Love the close-up pics. They look delicious!

  © Blogger templates 'Sunshine' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP