Rivky’s Flaky Fab Rugelach

I have been very blessed, thank G-d, in my in-laws thus far and am thrilled to say that the new set are equally wonderful to my already existing ones. Rivky and Moishe are wonderful people and I am grateful for this.

At the engagement party, I spied a really yummy looking rugelach with powdered sugar and figured I just had to try one…and then one more, really. It turned out this is a specialty which Rivky’s family and siblings make but she is the main one. So I had to have the recipe and she most graciously shared it with me.

The thing is, I am cinnamon obsessed and yet these rugelach were really meant to be chocolate, hmmm. The combo of the dough and filling are spot on and yet…I had to try it with cinnamon too. 🙂 can’t help myself.

So, I dove into the making of these rugelach with gusto. They were just so delish and although I’m giving away the end of the story 😉 they were such an outstanding hit that DH has already declared Rivky’s Rugelach to be a new staple in our repertoire of desserts for Shabbat. Wow, no?

To the rugelach.

This dough is made in the food processor although you can make it in the mixer as well. You process the butter/marg with the flour

Note the cubed marg which is cold! and then whirl in pulses until crumbly. In a mixer you just beat together till crumbles form. Much quicker in the processor.

Now Rivky adds Sprite to this but since I had none in my house, I added a lemon mint soda water and a tablespoon of sugar and it was great, no worries. The main point is that you add a bubbly liquid to help create the flaky texture.

and vinegar and pulse into dough.

The texture of this dough is very silky and nice to handle. Pat lightly into a round, put in a bag or plastic wrap and plunk into the fridge for an hour or if desperate, 1/2 an hour in the freezer. Remember, you need to do this to ensure the flakiness of the dough.

After patiently waiting for the dough to chill, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and and then take out the dough and cut into 4 equal pieces. At this point, you can choose to freeze a portion of the dough if you wish, each portion makes 8 rugelach. If you don’t want the whole batch, pat the remaining amount into a circle, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze up to a month for sure.

I rolled this out on my Oxo pastry sheet to make life easier. Now Rivky sprinkles the dough with flour before rolling it out, but I’ve found with pastry dough that is for cookies or the like, that sprinkling the board or sheet with powdered sugar gives a lovely flavor to the dough as well as not adding too much flour and potentially toughening the pastry dough.

Dredge the dough in the powdered sugar and get out your rolling pin and gently roll and turn, roll and turn in 1/4 turns till you get a circle.

Note I keep the dough I’m not working on under the plastic so it shouldn’t dry out.

I roll each one out one at a time to prevent the drying out of the dough, and individually oil and sugar. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Now, on your circle (if it ain’t perfect, don’t sweat it, just use the edges of your hands to even it into a circle, I do this too sometimes) either spray with oil spray lightly or brush lightly with oil.

Then you mix up the sugar and cocoa or heheheh sugar and cinnamon although I did half chocolate rugelach and half cinnamon just cuz I had to and sprinkle over the oiled dough.

I was a bit stingy with the filling although it coated the dough since if you overdo, it just oozes out anyway and that’s annoying and a shame. With the cinnamon filling I put a drop more in but same same. Don’t overdo.

Then as you see above, you cut your circle of dough into eight pieces. I’ve found a trick I learned long ago helpful, look at the circle as though it were a clock and cut from 12 down to 6, 9 across to 3 etc. It helps me in any case, hope it helps you.

Then roll them up from the outside (wider part) up to the point (it’s okay if it sorta overlaps onto the next piece), curve the ends to form a crescent and set on a cookie sheet or pan with edges on a piece of parchment paper. This always oozes somewhat so it’s wise to use the parchment paper to keep it clean.

As you can see, there is a bit of white powder on the dough and that’s the powdered sugar.

They don’t spread much at all since there is no leavening in them save the soda so you can place them close together, relatively speaking.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned. They get dry and brittle if you bake too long so keep an eye on them.

See what I mean about oozing? Just let them cool and break off the seriously oozed bits (don’t go overboard with this, just the puddly bits) since the bits aren’t pretty or particularly tasty. Then, when really completely cooled, you shake powdered sugar over them for both prettiness and added flavor. I did NOT sprinkle powdered sugar on the cinnamon rugelach since they don’t have the bitterness cocoa adds and it would make them too sweet.

Words cannot describe how fab these are. Toothsome and flaky and ya just want another one. I hope Rivky forgives me for my tweaking of her recipe but it’s basically the same. Umyum, so thank you again!

Rivky’s Flaky Fab Rugelach

I doubled her original recipe. Although Rivky says you can quadruple it, she also warns you to have mercy on your food processor, it probably cannot handle such a load.

2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour

200 grams (just shy of a cup which is 225 grams, this is 7/8 cup ) cold butter or marg

2 teaspoons vinegar

1/2 cup Sprite OR soda water with a tablespoon of sugar

Oil spray or approximately 1/4-1/3 cup of mild vegetable oil like Canola

1/2-3/4 cup white sugar

1 scant tablespoon sifted cocoa

1/2-3/4 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon and a half a teaspoon of vanilla

powdered sugar for rolling out the dough

Directions:

Preferably in a food processor, but can be done in a mixer, pulse together the flour and butter/marg till crumbly. Add the vinegar and the Sprite OR the soda with a tablespoon of sugar, and pulse just till the dough forms a mass. Scoop out your dough and wrap in bag or plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or freeze for 1/2 hour if in a desperate hurry.

Take out your dough from fridge and preheat the oven to 350.

Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces and keep the dough you’re NOT working on covered with the bag or plastic wrap. Take a mat like Oxo or even parchment paper and sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar. Dredge the dough in the powdered sugar and roll the dough out into a circle with a rolling pin, turning till your circle is even. If need be, use the edges of your hands to push the dough into a better circle. No worries if it’s not utterly perfect.

Brush the circle of dough with the oil, or spray with oil spray, and mix together the sugar and cocoa for chocolate rugelach, and if you ONLY want chocolate rugelach, double the sugar and cocoa amount. This recipe gives you the correct amount of filling for half the dough of chocolate filling and the other half cinnamon filling. If you have a strong preference simply omit one of the fillings and double the amount of the other. I did half chocolate filling and half cinnamon filling and both came out delish. For cinnamon, mix the cinnamon, sugar and vanilla.

Now sprinkle the oiled dough with half the filling amount, saving the other half for another portion of dough. Cut each circle into eight wedges and roll them up, one at a time from the wider outside end into the middle of the circle to the point. Curve the edges so that it forms a crescent. Place your finished rugelach on the parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Use up all the dough in the same way with your choice of filling. OR you can pat remaining dough into a circle, wrap and freeze at this point if you wish. Just remember, each dough portion is eight rugelach. So make as many or few rugelach as you wish.

Put the rugelach into the hot oven for 20-25 minutes, checking after 20 minutes or till medium brown. Don’t let them get too dark a brown since it will make them brittle.

Let cool and break off the bits that oozed a lot and let fully completely cool and sift powdered sugar oven the chocolate rugelach. I don’t advise doing it over the cinnamon rugelach since they will be too sweet whilst the cocoa has a bit of bitterness and that is what makes them just right.

I cannot think of any time or occasion that these rugelach won’t be a delight to all who nosh on them. Great for Shabbat, Holidays and frankly, any chance you get! Of course, perfect for an engagement party too 🙂 !