Tuesday, November 4, 2008

TWD - Rugelach

I was super excited to see that Piggy of Piggy’s Cooking Journal chose rugelach for this weeks TWD baking adventure. I have never eaten rugelach and I had certainly never baked rugelach! After carefully reading through the recipe I realized two things. The first realization was that my grandmother made something similar to this with leftover pie crust! She would roll out the scraps, brush the dough with melted butter, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, cut into triangles, roll, and bake. Yum, yum, yum! The second realization was that this recipe contained both fruit and chocolate. As discussed in the Chocolate Chunker post, I do not care for fruit mixing it up chocolate!


I decided to make half the batch with the recipe more or less as written (I didn't use currants because I didn't have any) and I found that I didn't really care for apricot preserves with the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips that I used. My official taste tester didn't really like them either so I took them to the office and unloaded them on my co-workers.



My second batch was entirely different story ... mmm mmm good. I loved them so much that I refused to take them to work and share with my co-workers! It is my intention to consume each and every one of them by myself!


I substituted the apricot jam with caramel apple jam, skipped the chocolate and currants, and used pecans. I made the jam myself using this recipe. The jam was overally sweet and didn't taste very "caramelly" but it was really good! I've sinced used it on an english muffin and as a topping for ice cream. I'm going to mess around with the jam recipe and try to develop a stronger caramel flavor. I am totally in love with the apple rugelach and will surely make more as soon as I finish eating this batch.








In the following photo, you can see the tiny chunks of apple peeking out of the dough.

In my excitement, I forgot to brush the cookies with the egg wash and sprinkle them with coarse sugar prior to baking but I still think they turned out great! Please check out the other TWD bakers to see all the other amazing twists on rugelach.

20 comments:

marae said...

i don't do an egg wash on mine either, and they turn out fine...it's just one more step i don't need to deal with! i agree that not sure if the choco works so well, but the fruit and nuts and cinnamon are fab with the cream cheese dough! great job.

Piggy said...

Great idea to use apple jam! I'm going to give it a try next time.

Thanks for baking with me this week!

Nancy/n.o.e said...

Yup that excitement of getting the little guys rolled up completely erased the egg wash step from my mind also. It was even better with the wash, however, so something to look forward to... Your apple/caramel combination sounds fabulous. Great pictures.
Nancy

kimberly salem said...

ooh caramel apple jam! that sounds delicious. glad you liked them, they look great!

April said...

What a unique filling, looks great!

Anne said...

Caramel Apple Jam sounds like the perfect addition! I have some leftover pie crust in the fridge right now, though cookies of your grandmother's are a great idea!

Anonymous said...

The caramel-apple jam sounds divine. It's cool using your own homemade jam. Yum!

Anonymous said...

I'm seriously wishing I still worked in your office. YUM!

Kimberly Johnson said...

Karen, you must have missed the part where I am holding out on my co-workers! << insert evil laugh >>

Shelby said...

Your filling sounds so delicious!!

Beth said...

They look great!! I'm a fellow TWD baker, and I was thinking that it would be nice if we all could chip in and get Laurie some small token/gift for all the work she does. Would you be willing to contribute? If I can get enough people, it would only be about $1 per person. No pressure :-) Let me know! bethberg12@yahoo.com

Audrey said...

I love the idea of using apple in these (I tried dried apples, but they weren't all that apple-y!) I'm glad you enjoyed these. They look wonderful.

Anonymous said...

Caramel apple JAM? What IS this goodness you speak of? I must find it.

Nancy said...

Yum! Caramel apple sounds wonderful in the rugelach! I will have to try that.

Sabrina said...

Caramel Apple Jam! What a great idea!!! They look so good!

Thanks for visiting my blog! :)

Sherry Trifle - Lovely Cats said...

Oh that apple caramel Rugelach is wonderful - definitely a filling I will copy. I'll bet your co-workers wolfed down batch no. 1.

Liz said...

Oh my goodness, apple caramel jam sounds amazing. Perfect for fall! It also sounds like it would solve my problem with these cookies, which was that they weren't sweet enough for me. I'm tempted to try them again with your jam, just because it sounds so good.

LyB said...

Oooh, that apple pecan combo sounds fab!

Shari said...

Your caramel apple jam sounds delicious!

Anonymous said...

Caramel apple jam... It sounds wonderful. Great looking rugelach!