How to Bake Rugalach

Serves: 32

Preparation time: 40 mins + 2 hours (inactive)

Cooking time: 40 mins

Ingredients needed to make Rugalach:

For the dough:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 6 oz cream cheese, chilled and diced
• 1 cup unsalted butter, diced
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar

For the filling:

• 8 tbsp semisweet chocolate chips
• 8 tbsp tart cherries, dried
• 12 tbsp cherry preserves
• 8 tbsp walnuts, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ cup cinnamon sugar
• 1/3 cup whipping cream

Cooking instructions for Rugalach:

• Add the sugar as well as salt to the flour, give it a stir and blend them together in a food processor.
• Add the diced cream cheese as well as butter and continue to process the mixture until the dough sticks together and leaves the sides of the bowl.
• Knead the dough on a flat working surface into a smooth ball and split it to 4 equal portions.
• Flatten each of them into a round disc and cover each of them with a plastic sheet; set aside in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
• Meanwhile, spread a parchment paper across a large baking sheet and set aside.
• Add a dash of ground cinnamon to the sugar and toss them together in a small bowl.
• After 2 hours, remove the dough discs from the fridge and set aside until they return to room temperature.
• Dust the working surface with flour and roll each disc on it into 9’’ wide circles.
• Place 3 tbsp of the cherry preserves across each circle, leaving border of an inch and top it up with 2 tbsp of the dried cherries.
• Sprinkle 2 tbsp of chocolate chips over the cherries, followed by a couple of tbsp of cinnamon sugar.
• Top them up with 2 tbsp walnuts and press them together firmly to stick to the dough.
• Slice the circle into 8 equal parts and roll each wedge tightly while approaching the centre; roll rest of the cookies similarly.
• Place the cookies on the lined baking sheet, each about  1 ½‘’  apart from each other.
• Leave them in the freezer for half an hour while you preheat your oven to 375 degrees F with the oven rack positioned at its centre.
• Paint the surface of the cookies with small amount of whipping cream and bake them for about 40 minutes or until they turn golden brown in colour.
• Serve right away or seal them in the airtight container to store upto a week.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons