Rugelach with Three Jams
By Lizzie on December 9, 2018
Happy Hanukkah to all my friends who celebrate this special holiday!! I have so many wonderful memories of how much I loved the holiday with my family, eating all of the delicious foods and special desserts that my Mom and Nanny would prepare during Hanukkah. I have to say that potato pancakes, or Latkes as they are called, are my absolute favorite dinner treat and Rugelach was by far my favorite dessert. This year, I wanted to create my own version of that incredibly rich and scrumptious pastry, and use all of the jams that my family and I love so much. Creating dough and chilling it does take some time, but I can promise you, it is SOOO worth it when you bite into these little bites of heaven. My husband came home and ate 6 of them on the spot. I try to limit myself to just one of whatever I am making so that I can make sure the recipe is correct, but in this case, I ate 4…then came back for 2 more that night 🙂 Within 3 days, they were completely gone, so I am preparing to make a double batch before my kids come home for the holiday break 🙂 I have no doubt you will fall in love with these incredibly delicious pastries!!
Some of the yummy ingredients I used for this recipe.
Make sure your butter and cream cheese are super cold!! This makes for a very flaky pastry. You’ll also need a food processor to make the dough.
The dough comes out perfectly when made in the food processor.
Divide the dough into 4 equal rectangles, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for an hour.
Flour some plastic wrap and roll the dough into a larger rectangle. Spread the jam over the top, leaving a bit of a border so the jam doesn’t spill out while baking.
I used Fig jam for 2 of the rolls!
Roll the dough up tightly using the plastic wrap to help you. Put the dough back in the fridge again for another hour.
After the logs of dough are chilled, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with a good helping of the turbinado sugar. Cut the log into pieces that are about an inch and 1/4 to 1/2 inches.
Place 4 pieces per row across and 5 down. You may have some small pieces leftover.
They bake up so beautiful and golden brown. Could these be any more tempting looking? 🙂
I think the blueberry filled ones were my favorite, although it was hard to decide 🙂
I am in love with Bonne Maman Jam. I bought 5 different varieties and settled on 3 for this recipe. The gorgeous spoon is from Flynn and Grace!
Don’t forget to spread love 🙂
Now, just try and stop yourself from eating the whole pan 🙂
Rugelach with Three Jams
Makes: 30 Rugelach Prep time: 3 hours, including chilling time Bake time: 28 to 30 minutes
Ingredients
2 and 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup, plus 1 teaspoon Dixie Crystals Sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup very cold unsalted butter
8 ounces very cold cream cheese, (do not use low fat)
Filling
8 tablespoons of your favorite jam, ( I used 3 different flavors)
Topping
1 egg
1 teaspoon water
Dixie Crystals Turbinado Sugar for sprinkling over the egg washed dough
*1/4 cup finely chopped pecans, optional
Directions
Make the dough
In the bowl of your food processor, add the flour, salt and sugar. Cut the cream cheese and butter into cubes and add them to the mixture. Pulse the ingredients until they come together into a ball.
On a lightly floured surface, and with a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle shape. Cut the rectangle into 4 equal rectangles. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
When the dough has been chilled, place a large piece of plastic wrap on your board. Lightly flour it. Roll the dough into about a 5×13 inch piece.
Spread about 2 tablespoons of your favorite jam on the dough. Make sure not to spread the jam too close to the ends so it doesn’t ooze out everywhere when you bake it.
With the long end facing you, roll the dough into a tight spiral.
Twist the ends of the plastic wrap and place the log of dough in the fridge for another hour.
Repeat this process with each rectangle of dough.
If you choose to use nuts in any of the flavors, chop them finely and sprinkle them over the jam. ( My husband hates nuts, so I omitted them) 🙂
After an hour of chilling, unwrap each log.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
Mix the egg and water together and brush over the top of the logs.
Sprinkle generously with the Turbinado sugar.
Using a serrated knife, cut the log into about 1 and 1/4 inch pieces. Slightly cut the ends of the logs off to make them look more uniform.
Place 4 pieces of dough across and 5 pieces of dough down to make about 20 rugelach pieces per pan. ( I ended up with a bit less than that…about 36 cookies total)
Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate your pan.
Bake for another 15 to 18 minutes, or until the pastries are a nice golden brown.
Cool on the pan for about 5 minutes then remove them to a rack.
Place in a plastic container that has a good seal on it. These pastries will last for up to 5 days if kept in a well sealed container.
Enjoy and Happy Hanukkah!!!! xo
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