I think I've wanted to make rugelach ever since I saw Ina Garten make them on Barefoot Contessa, probably like 4 years ago! So I was really excited when I saw that Grace of Piggy's Cooking Journal had picked rugelach for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie. I had so much stuff to do last week though that I almost had to skip this recipe. But I didn't. Sunday night, at a quarter to ten, I decided I was making rugelach dough.
Since I have no food processor (Santa, if you're reading this, hint, hint!) I got out my trusty pastry cutter, gathered my ingredients and 15 minutes later my 2 little discs of dough were ready and waiting in the refrigerator. Another 5 minutes and the dishes were washed and put away! w00t! My dough was definitely crumbly, but still workable. OK with me! The next day, I had to decide what I was going to use as a filling. I decided on two different fillings. One batch was filled with some homemade spiced plum jam, chopped hazelnuts and mini chocolate chips. And the other batch was a bit more traditional: orange marmelade, chopped pecans, dried blueberries and mini chocolate chips. I had a little trouble rolling the dough into a circle. It looked more like lace than a smooth pastry!
But the end result is so worth the work! These cookies are fantastic! I have to say, I preferred the spiced plum jam version. The chocolate and the plums go surprisingly well together. And it was a little less sweet than the marmelade version. I'm sure these would work with pretty much any good jam or preserve. And I'm sure the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie gang tried out a lot of different versions of these fabulous little crescent cookies, so go check out the blogroll, won't you! For the recipe you can read this article on NPR, about Dorie's rugelach secrets or check out Grace's blog.
For those of you who are interested, here's the spiced plum jam recipe. It's really good!
Spiced Plum Jam
from What's For Dinner Makes 8 cups of jam
Ingredients
3 pounds plums (weight with pits removed)
6 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves
Directions
Prepare 8 8-ounce jars for canning.
Put chopped, pitted plums in food processor or blender and puree.
Pour plum puree into large stockpot. Stir in sugar and spices, then bring to boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 5 minutes, continuing to stir constantly to avoid burning the jam.
Pour into sterilized jars and seal. Store in cool dark place until ready to use; when opened, store in refrigerator.
Plain Plum Jam Alternative
Follow all instructions as above, but leave out spices.
Note: I used tonka bean instead of allspice and I let the jam boil longer than the specified 5 minutes, probably 20 minutes or so. It got thicker and darker and more "jam-like".
But, since I had only a few left, not enough for photos, I decided to make them again, this morning. In the batch I made with my friend we used a vanilla plum freezer jam I made a few months ago and they turned out great, really good with the ginger. This morning though, I wanted to do something a little different and as my friend had given me some sour cherry jam that she made I decided to use that in the cookies. I added some orange zest to give them a little Christmas-y feel and since I hadn't used tonka bean in a while I used that instead of the ginger. Those cookies smelled sooooo good. I rolled little balls of the dough, about a tablespoon's worth, in granulated sugar (as I had seen it done here) and flattened them with the bottom of a glass. These do not spread, you have to help them a little.
The orange zest and tonka bean complimented the sour cherry jam really well and the cookies ended up being just sweet enough. They're really tender, almost cake like in texture. Perfect with my morning coffee, I have to say. I'll definitely be making these again with different jams and spices. Please check out the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll to see what variations the other members made and for the recipe, please visit Heather's blog.
