March 25: Rugelach

Rugelach is a cookie that you have to taste to believe. I'd never heard of Rugelach before making it in my baking class, and I knew when assembling the ingredients that it would be delicious. First of all, the dough has cream cheese in it, so you know it's going to be tasty. Second of all...well, that's it actually. Cream cheese.

Little rolls of cream cheesy apricot goodness.

I work near Yonge & Eglinton, which is close to Toronto's Jewish community. As a result, us foodies are blessed with a plethora of Jewish bakeries and delis...all of which serve amazing goodies like Rugelach.


However, Rugelach tends to be a bit on the expensive side because...

• ...it's rather labour-intensive. After making the dough, you divide it into several pieces, and roll each piece into an 8" round. Spread the round with your filling, cut into 8 pie-slices, roll them up, egg wash and sprinkle with almonds. Repeat the process for each piece of dough. Woah!
  
• ...each round you roll only yields 8 cookies. This process would go much faster if if you could make up the whole dough at once, or if each piece yielded more, however you would not be able to get the small rolls called for by the recipe.
  
• it contains an expensive ingredient. Cream cheese is pretty pricey, compared to the rest of the ingredients used.
  

In the bakeries I've been to, Rugelach is sold by the pound. I would guess that this is because seeing the cost of each individual piece would scare people from buying them. However, given how labour intensive they are, I can see why people would pay a premium to enjoy them without the work. That said, when you enjoy baking, these are fun to make!

So yummy, so worth it.

Final Grade: A. I used a simple apricot filling, but next time I make Rugelach I'll use a recipe that has cinnamon in it; cinnamon pairs well with the tang of cream cheese (that's why Cinnabon's frosting is so darned good!).

You can find the recipe for Rugelach on my Recipes Page. To purchase your own Rugelach for a good cause, sponsor me for the Daily Bread Food Bank's Spring Challenge! Make your donation, then email me your order!