The Great Food Bloggers Cookie Swap

I am a born and breed New Yorker. I was born in Brooklyn and raised in South Ozone Park , Queens. Growing up I never thought I would ever move out of The Big Apple but I did. I have been a resident of Georgia for over 20 years now. I ran away from all the cold and terrible snow storms but no matter how long I live in Georgia I will always be a New Yorker at heart. You can take the girl out of the city but never the city out of the girl.

I share all of that with you because I wanted you to understand why I chose to make rugelach cookies as a participant of the The Great Food Bloggers Cookie Swap.  I thought it was a good way to share a bit of me with my fellow swappers. No I’m not Jewish (Don’t know too many African-American Jews,,,except Sammy Davis, Jr & Drake. And technically I don’t know either of them). It’s a cookie I made synonymous with my hometown. Rugelahs meant home to me. I remember the first time I had a chocolate rugelach. I was at a small Jewish bakery on Avenue M in Brooklyn ( I used to travel the city as an employee of the board of Ed.) I got what I always get in the morning on my way to work, a toasted bagel with cream cheese & jelly and small cup of “hot” tea (something I had to learn to distinguish living in the South).  And then I asked to taste these pastries which I was informed were cookies. I fell in love from the first bite. I hope the same happens for you when you re-create these cookies.

I adopted the recipe from Serious Eats. I only  changed a couple of things about the recipe so I can’t really claim it as my own. Instead of finely chopped bittersweet chocolate in the filling I used mini chocolate chips. I also used an egg wash  before dusting the tops of the cookies with turbinado sugar instead the sugar cinnamon mixture originally called for.

1. In bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix butter, cream cheese, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and salt on medium speed until completely combined, about 1 minute. Mix in vanilla until combined. Mix in flour until combined.

   Pat dough into an 8-inch square, wrap dough in plastic wrap, and chill until fairly firm, about 1 hour. In the meantime, mix together ingredients for filling in medium bowl.

   Adjust oven rack to upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

   Cut dough into 4 equal pieces. On a floured surface, and working one piece of dough at a time, roll out into a 12-inch by 4-inch strip. Sprinkle 1/4 of the chocolate mixture onto dough and gently press into dough to adhere

   Working from the long end, gently roll dough strip into a 12-inch long log, making sure seam is at the bottom. Cut log into 1-inch pieces and place on one half of the baking sheet, evenly spacing apart. Repeat with second piece of dough to fill the first pan. Repeat with remaining pieces of dough to fill second pan. (You should have 24 rugelach per pan).

   Brush tops of cookies with egg wash and then sprinkle turbinado sugar on rugelach. Bake until rugelach is light golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. Cool for 5 minutes on pan, then transfer rugelach to wire rack to cool completely.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   P.S. Okay so this post was written early but I lost my pics and had to rush and bake new cookies to have pics for my post…Life.

   Hope this recipe inspires you to go forward and make new memmories.