Apricot Rugalach Cookies
These cookies have become one of my family’s all time holiday favourites. We like them with apricot jam but the combinations are endless. You can make them chocolate and nutsor even raspberry jam without nuts. I remember going into a Jewish bakery as a kid and buying them by the bag load.
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour (310 ml)
1 tbsp. sugar (15 ml)
Pinch salt
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped or 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (5 ml)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold cut into pieces (125 ml)
4 ounces cream cheese, cold, cut into chunks (125 g)
1/2 cup apricot jam (125 ml)
1/8 cup chopped pecans (30 ml)
Combine the flour, sugar, salt and vanilla bean scrapings in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until mixture is the consistency of coarse meal. Add the cream cheese and pulse until mixture just starts to come together. Divide the dough into 2 pieces and pat each piece into a disk. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Remove one piece of dough from the fridge. Roll dough between 2 sheets of wax paper into an 11-inch circle. Remove wax paper. Spread half the jam onto the circle of dough, evenly. Sprinkle with half the nuts.
Cut the circle into 12 wedges and roll each wedge up with your fingers, starting from the outside edge of cirlce towards the center to make a crescent shaped roll. Place rolls on the parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, rotating tray halfway through, until firm and golden in colour. Cool completely on a rack. Repeat with second ball of dough.
Makes24 cookies
