Rugelach

I have been doing allot of baking the past few weeks and Michael asked for me to make Rugelach. There is a bakery here in the city that make outstanding Rugelach so i asked what the dough was made of and they told be it is like any dinner roll dough only that there is bread crumbs in the dough. Hmm bread crumbs. So with a few misstep i came up with a nice dough recipe, i do not know if its a traditional one but we like it, and i hope you all do too.

Rugelach

Ingredients

Dough
2 cups unbleach flour
2 sticks of butter diced, cold
1 cup of bread crumbs, UN-seasoned
8 oz of cream cheese, diced, cold
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Filling
1 cup dried Apricots, diced
1/2 cup brandy
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup bread crumbs, un-seasoned
or try this filling
1 cup dried blue berries
1/2 brandy
1/2 raw sugar
1/2 chopped pistachios
1/2 bread crumbs, un-seasoned


Directions

In the food processor place flour, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, salt, butter and cream cheese and pulse until crumbly, dump out onto a floured work services and and kneed into a ball. Divided in half, form into a discs, wrap in plastic and place in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight.

Take the remaining bread crumbs, 1/4 of the sugar and mix together, set aside. In another bowl take the remaining sugar and mix with the cinnamon and also set aside.

For filling place all ingredients into the food processor and pulse to combine.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Now on a floured work surface roll out the discs into a 12 inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Whisk egg in a bowl and brush a 1/2 inch boarder around the outer edge of the circles. Spread the apricots mixture out to within a 1/4 inch of the edge. Next sprinkle the bread crumb mixture on top of the apricots, this is what the bakery told me to do. Next take a pizza cutter and cut the circle into 12 to 16 wedges. Starting at the wide end of each wedge roll the dough up to the point, bend the dough into a crescent and place on a parchment covered cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Once all the wedges have been rolled, bent and placed on the cookie sheet, brush with the egg and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

The the filling can been changed to most fruits, but the bakery said to watch out for high water content fruits,like berries. They said it was best to used dried fruits for the filling and use most any nut with it. You are really making a fruit pesto.

Enjoy Cooking

Cloverleaf Rolls

Here is one from Thursday night dinner - I looked up how to make dinner rolls and it seamed a bit dull so switched it up a bit.

Cloverleaf Rolls

Ingredients

2 2/3 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup Half and Half
1 egg
2 table spoons of unsalted butter plus 1 stick for the wash
1 table spoon molasses
3/4 tea spoon salt

1 package of active dry yeast
2 table spoons of water at 105 to 155 degrees

Directions
Warm the half and half add to that the butter, molasses and salt. Once the butter has melted and the half and half.

Melt the stick of butter and set aside.

Grease a bowl in prep of the dough.

Now add the 2 table spoons of water to the yeast and stir. Once it has started to foam up add it to the half and half mixture. Stir to combine. Now whisk in the egg.

Next start adding the flour to the mixture and at a certain point you will no longer be able to mix in the flour with a spoon you will need to knead it in with your hands. Depending on all sorts of things you may not need all the flour. Form dough into a ball and place in the greased bowl, brush with the melted butter and cover with at damp towel and set aside to rise.

Grease a muffin tin of the next step and preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and remove from the bowl. Now divide the dough into about 1 inch balls and place 3 balls each into each of the muffin tins. Brush with more melted butter and cover with a damp towel. Note: I put empty spice jars on the tin so that the towel would ne to laying directly on the dough.

Once the dough has doubled in size again, bake for about 15 minutes or until the rolls start to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and remove the rolls from the muffin tin - Serve.

Note: for a sweeter roll increase the molasses - for a hot cross bun sweetness increase it to a 1/4 cup.

Enjoy cooking