Apricot and Raisin Rugelach

Note: I was sent a copy of AMERICAN COOKIE: The Snaps, Drops, Jumbles, Tea Cakes, Bars & Brownies That We Have Loved for Generations for review. Opinions are mine alone.

Every cookie recipe has a back story, from the chocolate chip cookie to thumbprint cookies. What’s truly interesting about these back stories is how they align with the shaping of American baking through the generations. I love cookbooks that provide a back story to the recipes, like AMERICAN COOKIE: The Snaps, Drops, Jumbles, Tea Cakes, Bars & Brownies That We Have Loved for Generations by Anne Bryn. Did you know that the first snickerdoodle cookie recipes were actually bars? Or that the first Girl Scout Cookies were baked at home to help raise money to send girls to camp?

I assume I’m not alone in associating different recipes with different parts of my own life. I can’t look at a Peanut Butter Cookie without thinking of my family’s recipe, passed down from my great grandmother, or snack on a Neiman Marcus “$250” cookies without recalling many December weekends spent making them with my mom as a child.

I was first introduced to rugelach cookies — a cookie made by rolling a triangle of dough around a sweet filling — by my mother-in-law. She makes them every Christmas and has since my husband was little. So when I saw a recipe for Apricot and Raisin Rugelach in AMERICAN COOKIE, I knew I had to try them as a nod to my mother-in-law’s fantastic baking every December. This recipe differs from my mother-in-law’s version but the general idea is still there.

Rugelach cookies were first brought to America from Austrian-Hungarian immigrants, and has over time been adapted and modernized by Jewish-American bakers. Apparently, the original dough was quite time consuming to make. Somewhere along the line, cream cheese was added to rugelach dough, resulting in an easy to work with and flaky dough. Rugelach cookies have become a staple in many American households, and typically include raisins, nuts, spices and jam or preserves as a filling.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 8 oz cream cheese, at room  temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for rolling the dough

Filling:

• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
• 1 cup apricot preserves

Egg Wash:

• 1 large egg white
• 1 teaspoon water

Reprinted from AMERICAN COOKIE. Copyright © 2018 by Anne Byrn. Published by Rodale Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House.

You need to make the dough ahead of time. Add the softened butter and cream cheese to a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until smooth, about 1 minute.

Add the salt and the 2 cups flour, beating on low speed until the dough just comes together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Add flour to your hands and work the dough until all the ingredients are well combined.  Roll the dough into a ball and divide it into three sections. Wrap each section in plastic wrap and press down on the dough slightly. Refrigerate the dough overnight.

The next day, when ready to bake, place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350°F. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and set aside.

Whisk together the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

Chop your walnuts and combine the raisins and walnuts in a medium-size bowl.

On a well-floured surface, unwrap one of the balls of dough, keeping the other balls of dough in the fridge until ready to use. Using a floured rolling pin, create a 12″ circle with the dough. (It doesn’t have to be a perfect circle.)

Spread 1/3 cup of the apricot preserves evenly over the dough, all the way to the edges.

Then sprinkle one-third of the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the preserves, followed by one-third of the raisin and walnut mixture.

Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut the dough into 12 even wedges. (I found the easiest way to do this is to cut the dough into 4 even wedges and then cut each wedge into 3 even wedges.)

Starting from the outside, tightly roll the wedge inward to the tip. Transfer the pastries to a prepared baking sheet with the tip tucked under.

For the egg wash, combine the egg white and water in a small bowl. Lightly brush each pastry with the egg wash, and add the pan to the oven.

Bake the pastries until the sides are golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Using a metal spatula, transfer the pastries to a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.

You can store the rugelach covered at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze in a zipper-lock bag for up to 3 months.

My husband wasn’t the least bit upset to “have” to eat rugelach outside the Christmas holidays. In fact, this recipe for 3 dozen cookies just may not have been large enough for him!

I’ve really enjoyed paging through AMERICAN COOKIE, and I know it will influence some of my cookie baking later this year. I actually learned quite a bit about the history of some of America’s favorite cookies too!