TWD: Baking with Julia - Rugelach

Did you just ask yourself what a rugelach is? Well hold on and I will tell you.... it is a Jewish pastry. This is the first time I ever tried a rugelach and the first time I ever made some. After trying them, I decided they were pretty good! They were so tasty that Mikey has asked for them to be made again.

They are a cream cheese based pastry crusted filled with Lekvar, dried fruits and nuts. Did you just ask yourself what Lekvar is? Well it is a really thick jelly or jam. The recipe called for Apricot or Prune Lekvar, but I ended up just buying some apricot jam at the grocery store. I was going to make some apricot Lekvar, but it turned out that the dried apricots in the pantry were a bit past old, so I ended up tossing them and heading to the store. Here is the assembly...

First I made the crust, then rolled it out and then layered it with the jam, dried fruit, and nuts. I used dried cherries and raisins for the dried fruit and I used macadamia nuts, walnuts, and almonds for the nuts. Then I rolled them up, and after rolling them up I decided I put too much filling in them, but figured I would give it a try. I refrigerated them for a while and then sliced them up and hoped for the best while they cooked!

I might have cooked them a little bit too long and after I took them out of the oven I was sure I had put too much filling in them, it kind of went everywhere, whoops! But the finished product wasn't bad and they tasted great! I have definitely taken notes for the next time I make them!

I only made half the recipe and decided that I shouldn't leave them in our house or we would eat all of them. I took a bag full of them to work and had my co-workers help us out. I think they enjoyed them because they were gone pretty quick. You can check out some pretty versions on the hosts sites - My Baking Heart and The Urban Hiker.

We have some other stories coming up... not just my baking adventure!