Tuesday, December 9, 2014

TWD: The Rugelach That Won Over France



This week, for our third visit with Baking Chez Moi, we made the cookie that apparently caused a culinary coup: The Rugelach That Won Over France. They are indeed lovely. The dough is dreamy to work with, even when rolled out fairly thin, and it bakes up with crispy, flaky layers.

After reading a few comments at the rugelach P&Q thread, I decided that the filling needed to be really non-chunky, so I used mini semisweet chocolate chips, I chopped up the cherries, and I zapped the coconut and toasted pecans in the food processor. It was a little bit of extra work, but I think it was worth it as I had no trouble rolling up the filling in the dough, nor did I have any problems slicing the dough once it was chilled.

I am trying to make it a point to follow each recipe to the letter the first time through, but I opted not to freeze this cookie dough prior to baking it. I did put the unsliced rolls of dough on a cookie sheet on my enclosed back porch to chill (nature's refrigerator!) and felt that that did the trick, plus left the dough perfectly sliceable.

While these cookies are a bit of a production to pull together, I think they are worth it. The only real problem with them is that they are distressingly bite-size. It's far too easy to start eating them and then lose track of how many have been consumed (as I lapse into passive voice in an effort to not acknowledge the embarrassing reality of how many rugelach I have eaten today -- for research purposes, of course).

Full disclosure: This book won me over at the get-go!


7 comments:

oneclevermom said...

I agree that they are dangerously small cookies. It is SO easy to eat, say, 5 instead of just 2! But yummy yum!

margaret said...

You NEED to eat more because they're so small. Let go of the guilt. :-)

Kayte said...

I think that small size is to encourage portion control. Doesn't really work here, lol, it just means you feel entitled to eat 2 or 3 for every helping...they are so good! Yours look wonderful.

Zosia said...

They were small, weren't they, but delicious nonetheless. I also enjoyed working with the dough and used the food processor for the filling.

Golden Life PHX said...

Oh my goodness-your rugelach look exactly like the ones I used to get from my Jewish bakery which has sadly closed. Perfection.

Adriana said...

Zapping the filling in the food processor was definitely the way to go!

Gracie said...

I thought the comments were very helpful! I used mini chocolate chips too. Nice job with your Rugelach.