Rugelach what?

Wikipedia says rugelach is "a Jewish pastry of Ashkenazic origin."  My Food Lover's Companion book says rugelach is "a Hannukkah tradition...bite-size crescent-shaped cookies that can have any of several fillings including raisins and nuts...they're generally made with a rich cream-cheese dough."  I say rugelach is a good recipe to use up leftover cream cheese.

I had half a bar (4oz) of cream cheese in my fridge that was quickly going bad.  I came across a recipe for Apricot-Walnut Rugelach in my December 2013 Real Simple magazine that used 8oz cream cheese.  Since I only had half the required cream cheese I made sure everything else could be cut in half, which it could, and then I smiled because I had an excuse to make a sweet treat.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the recipe was very easy.  If you don't have a food processor it could be rather difficult so I'd shy away from it.  The end product was delicious!  A decadent pastry fit for dessert or to accompany a morning coffee.  It's a very versatile pastry too because you could use any combination of jam or nuts that you have on hand.  Don't forget to toast the nuts though, that contributes a lot of flavor (do you know how to toast nuts or would that be a good tutorial post for me to do?).

When it came to slicing the 13-inch round dough into 12 slices like a pizza, I found it quite handy to use the pizza cutter.  It makes smooth, straight cuts across the dough.  I did this prior to putting on the jam and walnut mixture; it made it much easier to cut and less messy.

Slice by slice, I rolled up the dough, starting at the big end and rolling it towards the center.  If you've ever made crescent rolls it's the exact same concept.  The dough got a little sticky at this point because it started to reach room temperature, so I just used the pizza cutter to gently release it from the surface as I rolled it up.  Another handy tool for this would be a dough scraper but I didn't want to dirty any more dishes.  

One by one, after I rolled up the wedges, I placed them on the baking sheet.  As you can see here I forgot to put down parchment paper.  That was a mistake.  DON'T FORGET THE PARCHMENT PAPER.  It will make your clean up so much easier because the egg leaks onto the baking sheet and cooks.  I love my pastry brush (shown in the picture).  I have had it for almost 5 years now and it's held up very well to all kinds of use.  **Tip: I had leftover egg from this recipe & I was making fish for dinner so I used the leftover egg to dip the fish into before dredging with a cornmeal/potato chip mixture.  It worked very well and was a delicious meal!  It's also a good way to use up the crumbs that are in the bottom of a potato chip bag, but that's for another post and another day.**

I bought the Swedish Pearl Sugar at a specialty shop in Oklahoma almost 4 years ago (yes, it's still good!).  I hardly have a chance to use it so I was very excited to sprinkle it onto the rugelach.  Why use granulated sugar which will just camouflage into the pastry, when you can use a sugar that holds its own?  The Swedish pearl sugar holds its shape and color through the cooking.  It also adds a little extra crunch which I like.  

Aren't they pretty?  They are delicious too!  I hope you come across some leftover cream cheese in your refrigerator so you have an excuse to make them.  For the recipe, save and print the recipe card below (I think you can save & print it; let me know if you can't).  Bon Appetit!