I've eaten a lot of rugelach in my life. Some very good rugelach (my mother's, my great aunt's) and a lot of awful rugelach (the packaged kind they have at most synagogue kiddushes after services on Saturday mornings). However, I think the only other time that I've attempted to make it myself is with TWD BWJ. Re-reading my post (my memory is not what it used to be!), I liked those rugelach, but preferred my mother's. I have the exact same feeling about these rugelach. They are good, but my mother's are better. I seriously need to get her recipe.
As you can see from the photo above, my rugelach were an absolute mess. I loved the dough (so flaky!) and love the combination of coconut and chocolate, but my rugelach didn't hold together at all. I had a surprisingly easy time making the rolls (they were neat and surprisingly little filling spilled out), and froze them overnight, but cutting them was really hard. Many of them broke when I tried to cut them, some more broke when I put them on the cookie sheets, and the rest seemed to break in the oven! I think one mistake was cutting them too thin, but I don't know what else I did wrong. I am looking forward to reading everyone else's posts, and would also appreciate any advice you all have. I still have two rolls in the freezer, and am hoping to be able to make the next batch of cookies look good enough to serve to company.
It looks like you may need a spoon to eat these, but I bet they are yummy. I refrigerated the dough for a few hours before rolling out. But, once I put the filling in and rolled them up I froze for less than an hour. That way they were firm without being too frozen to cut. I also made them closer to an inch thick so they held more filling.
ReplyDeleteI had a few that did the same thing. I put mine in the freezer and followed the directions to a T but used a bread knife to cut them in a sawing motion and it worked well.
ReplyDeleteThe dough is wonderfully flaky, isn't it. The dough is brittle when frozen solid so I would defrost those rolls in the refrigerator before slicing. And slicing them into 1" pieces helps to keep the filling in and prevents them from falling over during baking.
ReplyDeleteI've found that few things beat your mom's or grandmother's recipes. I made two batches and found that if they are frozen solid they need some time to warm up. I also think using room temp egg wash helped out. Slicing them thicker was also much easier but I may have preferred the bite size pieces.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that many bakers had trouble with this recipe. I used the traditional technique that Dorie did in Baking From My Home to Yours. I skipped the freezer altogether. Mom's recipes are always the best.
ReplyDeleteMine were a complete mess but delicious all the same. I think 1/2" was too narrow to hold up on the cookie sheet, mine fell over immediately. Also,
ReplyDeletenext time I will not freeze them, perhaps just chill in the refrigerator.
Yours look a lot like mine! I think I didn't roll out my dough as thinly as some, and also didn't pulse the filling. But they were tasty -- and I bet yours were too!
ReplyDeleteI skipped the freezer step and cut them straight out of the fridge. Maybe let them thaw in the fridge and cut them after they have thawed (but are still cold). I wish I had cut mine a little fatter too - I think a half inch was too thin.
ReplyDeleteThe dough was nice and flaky on these - more like a laminated dough
A couple of mine opened when I baked them, but still tasted yummy. you might try making your filling chopped fine. I froze mine too! If you find your mother's recipe. Please share!
ReplyDeleteI also cut mine too thin... they looked like little pinwheels. I did take the filling ingredients for a spin in the food processor, which helped with the rolling.
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