Rugelach: Fail. Then Redemption.

First of all... I like Jews. I think they are great people. I love Paul Simon. I love my Jewish boyfriend, and I love love love being around for his holidays, because if its one thing Jews like to do, its eat. My kind of people. I can go on and on about the merits of a good kugel, or what I think makes latkes perfect, or why challah really does make the best french toast. One thing, though, that I think is sorely lacking in Jewish cooking is dessert. I'm a chocolate lover, and things like honey cake and hamantaschen and mandelbrot just don't do it for me. Le sigh.

One dessert I had really enjoyed was rugelach. Rugelach has been floating around the food blogging world ever since the Tuesdays with Dorie group made them, and I thought they would be a perfect way to get rid of the extreme amount of jam I had sitting around my house: 1 jar of blueberry, 2 strawberry, 1 blackberry, 1 orange, and 1 grape. Sheesh, and I don't even really like jelly!

Let me tell you... it wasn't pretty.

I followed Dorie's recipe for the cookie exactly. It came out perfectly... a little flaky, with a delicious cream cheesey flavor. The filling I just kinda made up as I went, mainly because I wanted to get rid of as much jelly as possible so I wasn't wasting any time with nuts or fruit!

4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Let the cream cheese and butter rest on counter for 10 minutes. It should be slightly softened but cool.

Put the flour and salt in a mixing bowl, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and mix, just until the dough forms large curds. Do not work the dough too long.

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and divide into half. Shape each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to a day. (dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)

Shape the cookies: On a lightly floured surface, roll 1 round of dough into an 11- to 12-inch circle.

Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and spread with jam.

Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or triangles.

Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each triangle becomes a little crescent.

So this is where things started to go wrong... I definitely did not spread "a thin gloss of jam over the dough." I slathered it on there. I wanted this jelly out of my fridge! Bad move.

Bake: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350F.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden.

Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

The first batch was a MESS! The dough had unwrapped and all the jelly had come spilling out all over the place.




This guy was the worst... he was literally a flat cookie with some jelly in the middle. Arg!




But, like any good cook, I tried to learn from my mistakes. With the next round of dough I was MUCH more careful with my jelly application, and they came out great!



Yum!