A few weeks ago I travelled to Czechia for work, and while I was there I spent some time eating foods in Eastern Czechia as well as Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria. Now I’m back and over my jetlag, and find myself super inspired by all the Eastern European food I tried while I was over there. In particular, the pastries stand out in my mind. In Budapest, I saw something like a croissant, though less laminated in texture, filled with walnuts, some kind of fruit, and dark kind of sugary paste, and it instantly reminded me of rugelach. I resolved to make some, but wanted to update the traditional Jewish recipe, which originates in Poland. I replaced the raisins with cranberries, and updated the dough a little to make it flakier, more similar to what I had seen in Budapest. The result was a crispy, layered, chewy confection, super sweet yet balanced well by a relatively huge amount of butter (obviously) and nuts.
The only annoying part of this recipe is that you have to make the dough the night before. You can reduce the dough chilling time to ~2 or 3 hours, but it will come out less flaky, I personally like it more doughy, but the general consensus, I’ve found, is that flaky is better. I’d also add that pulsing the filling mixture a little less yields larger chunks of cranberry, which I prefer because it makes the overall texture more chewy. The usual recipe calls for raisins too, but I feel strongly that they yield a too-sweet cookie, so cranberries are a must for me. If you want to take the experience to a whole nother level, dip them in hot chocolate or coffee - trust me ;)
Butter Count: 16 Tbsp
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
16 Tbsp butter, cold and cubed
6 oz cream cheese, cold and cubed
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
INSTRUCTIONS:
Add the flour and salt to a food processer and blend to combine. Add the butter, cream cheese, and sour cream and pulse until pea-sized crumbles appear, similar to when making pie dough, about 30 seconds.
Divide the dough into three equal portions and flatten them into a discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator over night.
When the dough is chilled, add the brown sugar, walnuts, cranberries, and cinnamon to a food processor. Pulse until a loose paste is formed.
Preheat the oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Lightly flour a clean work surface. Remove one of the dough discs from the rifrigerator and roll it into a 1/4-inch thick sheet. Cut a 10-inch circle into the dough using a sharp knife and a 10-inch plate, upside-down, as a stencil.
Spread ~1/3 of the filling onto the dough circle, pressing it into the dough to make it more compact.
Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 8 equal wedges. Beginning with the wide end, roll each wedge toward its narrow end. Transfer the cookies to the lined baking sheets, point-side-down, about 1 inch separating each cookie. Repeat with the remaining two dough discs.
Bake the cookies, one baking sheet at a time, each about 30 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown.
Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the baking sheets.