Holiday Rugelach Recipes

Steps:

• Cream the cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light. Add 1/4 cup granulated sugar, the salt, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and mix until just combined. Dump the dough out onto a well-floured board and roll it into a ball. Cut the ball in quarters, wrap each piece in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• To make the filling, combine 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, the raisins, and walnuts.
• On a well-floured board, roll each ball of dough into a 9-inch circle. Spread the dough with 2 tablespoons apricot preserves and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the filling. Press the filling lightly into the dough. Cut the circle into 12 equal wedges?cutting the whole circle in quarters, then each quarter into thirds. Starting with the wide edge, roll up each wedge. Place the cookies, points tucked under, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Chill for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Brush each cookie with the egg wash. Combine 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on the cookies. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.

Steps:

• In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until creamy and smooth. Add 5 cups flour and combine. Add remaining flour in small batches, stopping when dough no longer sticks to sides of bowl (not all flour may be needed). If dough remains sticky after all the flour is used, add a little extra flour.
• Remove dough from mixing bowl; divide into four equal pieces and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough, one piece at a time, to rectangles of 1/8-inch thickness. With a sharp paring knife, score dough into 3-inch squares.
• Fill half the pastry with prune butter and half with apricot butter: Spoon one teaspoon of filling into one corner of each square, adding 3 or 4 raisins to the prune filling. Roll up each square from corner to corner, bending it into a crescent shape. Brush with egg wash.
• Combine sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle about a teaspoon over each crescent.
• Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets for 15 minutes, or until tops are golden brown. Cool on baking racks.

Steps:

• For the dough: Pulse the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter and pulse until it resembles coarse sand with some pea-size pieces of butter, about 20 pulses. Add the cream cheese and sour cream and pulse until it comes together in a rough dough, with some uneven pebble-size pieces. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and divide into four equal portions. Pat each portion into a flat square and wrap in plastic wrap. Freeze for 15 minutes.
• For the filling: Meanwhile, chop the hazelnuts in a clean food processor. Add the preserves, raisins and salt and puree to make a very smooth paste.
• Roll a portion of dough into a 6- by 14-inch rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. (Don't worry about slightly rough edges; these will be rolled inside of the rugelach.) Spread one-quarter of the filling over the surface with a small spatula. Starting with a long side, roll the dough up into a tight cylinder, ending with the seam on the bottom. Press the top slightly to flatten and wrap in plastic wrap. Freeze for another 15 minutes. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. (The cylinders can be frozen for up to a month.)
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and evenly position the racks. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
• Slice the cylinders into 1 1/2-inch pieces and place seam-side down on the prepared sheets. Whisk the egg yolks together and brush over the tops. Sprinkle with sugar and bake until pale golden and crispy on top, about 25 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the baking sheets. Carefully transfer the rugelach to a rack to cool. Store in a tightly sealed container for up to 3 days.

Steps:

• To make the dough: Let the cream cheese and butter rest on the counter for 10 minutes - you want them to be slightly softened but still cool.
• Put the flour and salt in a food processor, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and pulse the machine 6 to 10 times. Then process, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds - don't work it so long that it forms a ball on the blade.
• Turn the dough out, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each half into a disk, wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 1 day. (Wrapped airtight, the dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)
• To make the filling: Heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat, or do this in a microwave, until it liquefies. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. (Silicone baking mats are great for rugelach.)
• To shape the cookies: Pull one packet of dough from the refrigerator. If it is too firm to roll easily, either leave it on the counter for about 10 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin.
• Working on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 11- to 12-inch circle. Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and sprinkle over half of the cinnamon sugar. Scatter over half of the nuts, half of the currants and half of the chopped chocolate. Cover the filling with a piece of wax paper and gently press the filling into the dough, then remove the paper and save it for the next batch.
• Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or triangles. (The easiest way to do this is to cut the dough into quarters, then to cut each quarter into 4 triangles.) Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each cookie becomes a little crescent. Arrange the roll-ups on one baking sheet, making sure the points are tucked under the cookies, and refrigerate. Repeat with the second packet of dough, and refrigerate the cookies for at least 30 minutes before baking. (The cookies can be covered and refrigerated overnight or frozen for up to 2 months; don't defrost before baking, just add a couple of extra minutes to the baking time.)
• Getting ready to bake: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• To finish: Stir the egg and water together, and brush a bit of this glaze over each rugelach. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar.
• Bake the cookies 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.