Rugelach

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is from rugelach, or more specifically, The Rugelach That Won over France. I’m not exactly sure why this rugelach was supposed to be so good. I’ve made rugelach before, and I really like it. You can use whatever fillings you have on hand. This recipe called for coconut, chocolate, pecans, and dried cherries. I used dried cranberries instead, since that was the first thing I found in the cupboard. I did my best to follow the recipe, but I have to admit that I struggled with this recipe.

I read on the Tuesdays with Dorie site that others were having trouble with this recipe. The dough was so thin, the filling fell out when you rolled the cookie, etc. I think I had all of the same troubles, despite trying my best to follow the recipe exactly. I could roll my dough thin enough to make a 12” square, so I made about a 10” square. I processed my filling in the food processor to make it less chunky. I really tried my best. I hadn’t made a jelly roll style rugelach before; I’ve always rolled the dough in a circle and made crescent shaped cookies. I think I will go back to that style.

This recipe made tiny cookies, because my rolled up dough was tiny. I also had trouble cutting them in pieces without shattering the thin dough. I let them sit at room temperature for a few minutes and that helped some, but these just weren’t going to turn out well. I baked up what I could and they fell apart even worse in the oven and some of the filling got burned. There were a couple that didn’t look horrible, so I photographed those few acceptable cookies.  They didn’t taste too bad, but boy they didn’t look good! I give myself a pass on this one, I did my best! 

Recipe from Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan, pages 301-302