You read that right – I am making Jewish cookies for Christmas this year.  Why not?  I love rugelach and have wanted to make my own for awhile……and I am oh-so-happy that I gave it a go.  So, I’ve been trying to make some things ahead of time for Christmas, including cookie dough.  Last Saturday I invited my friend, Lisa, over for a day of rugelach making, wine drinking, and catching up – my kind of way to celebrate the holidays!

Okay, back to the rugelach.  I’m actually not sure it’s correct to call it a cookie, I think it’s more likely a pastry.  It has 6 ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, butter, cream cheese, and jam – the cream cheese makes it so rich and delicious!  I looked around at different recipes and decided to use this one from FineCooking.com, except that I sprinkled sugar on top instead of nuts.  Some varieties have raisins, chocolate, or nuts as fillings, but I enjoy the raspberry jam filling – I just heat it up first and strain the seeds through a fine sieve.  Okay, first step is to get your food processor out and process the flour, sugar, and salt.  Then add big hunks of the butter and cream cheese and pulse until it comes together.  Easy enough.

Then separate the dough and wrap it in plastic and let chill for an hour and a half before rolling out.

Once chilled, roll out the dough, spread with jam, roll up and then chill again (I froze most of the logs at this point – then you can have rugelach anytime!).

Lisa spreading jam.

Once chilled again, cut and bake.

The result: a not-too-sweet tender pastry that melts in your mouth.  Mazel tov and Merry Christmas!