This week's delightful cookie recipe is by contributing baker, Lauren Groveman. Thank you to the hosts for this week's Tuesday with Dorie: Jessica from My Baking Heart and Margaret from The Urban Hiker. You can see their rugelach and get the recipe over on their sites.
The dough for these cookies is a soft and rich cream cheese dough, but the star is the wonderful lekvar or butter that is spread on the dough, followed by a fruit and nut filling. I decided to make the prune lekvar and I was surprised at how easy it was to make. This is a spread that would be wonderful in tarts or other pastries and even spread on your morning toast. I have a little bit leftover and that's exactly what I am going to do with it.
Since I used walnuts in my lekvar, for the nut filling I toasted almonds, pistachios and pecans. For the fruit filling I used mission figs, apricots, mangos, cranberries, and raisins. I mixed them together along with some of the cinnamon and sugar so it was easier to spread on the dough. The recipe said to use a couple of tablespoons of lekvar and a couple of tablespoons of filling, but I just dipped into both jars and spread an amount that looked good to me. I was planning to only use one quarter of the dough and freeze the rest, but after pulling the first pan of cookies from the oven I knew that I would have to make some adjustments. After baking for 15 minutes, the filling had overflowed from the crescent shapes, and the bottoms of the cookies were overdone. So I pulsed the fruit and nut mixture in the food processor a few more times, rolled out some more dough, spread the dough with the prune lekvar and filling, chilled the cookies in the freezer and baked them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
When you bite into these cookies, you bite into layers of rich dough and you taste the sweet fruit and prune lekvar, along with the savory nuts. They are just so delicious. John really liked these best when they had just slightly cooled. I don't think you can go wrong with these cookies and I can certainly understand why so many people make these during the holidays. Now that I have made them, I think I will be adding them to my holiday baking list.
Visit Tuesdays with Dorie to see how the rugelach turned out for the other 299+ bakers.
Perfectly done, Elaine! Now if only my pie crusts would roll out like this lovely rugelach dough :)
ReplyDeleteYummy!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, Elaine!
ReplyDeleteThese were tasty cookies, for sure - but the fillings, in my opinion, made the whole recipe worthwhile. So good.
I agree - beautiful!!! Dorie's other rugelach recipe is my new favorite, so I'm looking forward to comparing it with these. Very intrigued by the lekvar too. {I wasn't able to get these made in time for today, but I have all the ingredients so I will later in the week. Especially now that I'm doubly inspired!}
ReplyDeleteYour adjustments made beautiful rugelach. I agree, the lekvar is the star of this recipe...I made apricot and used pecans (good idea to use in tarts!)...fun to see what everyone else did. I've also decided to add these to my Christmas baking list; they are a stand-out cookie and could be dressed up for the holidays. As always, fun to try new things.
ReplyDeleteYours look delicious, and beautiful. How did you get that spiral? I'm impressed.
ReplyDeleteWow, they look perfect! Mine came a bit unspooled. :) Still tasted good though....
ReplyDeleteI think these will be on my list too!!
ReplyDeleteOoh, I like that you used walnuts, pistachios, and pecans instead. These look great!
ReplyDeleteWow, your mix of nuts sounds so good. I agree these will make wonderful holiday cookies.
ReplyDeleteYou got such perfect little rols. I had toouch filling to do more than close tne gap at each end. Gorgeous cookies, snd I agree that they were an absolute treat to eat.
ReplyDeleteWow - they are beautiful Elaine! And so perfect looking. What a wonderful variety of fruits and nuts - I was bland and used almonds and apricots. I'll take your hint on the extra trip in the food processor for the filling though! ;)
ReplyDeleteThese are so flakey and delicious looking! Really gorgeous. If you can find rugelach at Ralphs let me know what you think. :)
ReplyDeleteThe dough really was something. I was pretty surprised at how easy it was to make the Lekvar. I am looking forward to sharing these. They look great!
ReplyDeleteThat would be great on a Sunday morning!
ReplyDeleteYour filling choices sound great! I love anything with pistachios!
ReplyDeleteYour rugelach are gorgeous! I'm glad you liked them.
ReplyDeleteI love your pictures! I agree that these would make wonderful holiday cookies.
ReplyDeleteI like that you rolled half like the book instructs and half as crescents, I wish I'd done that!
ReplyDeleteBoth ways!! Very very impressive!!
ReplyDeleteElaine,
ReplyDeleteYour Rugelach look more like the ones we normally make. Can you imagine how good the cream cheese pastry is with chocolate? I liked trying something different, but prefer Dorie's other recipe which isn't quite so bursting with everything - plus I like the crecent shape.
Until FFWD!
Elaine,
ReplyDeleteBeautiful presentation...makes me want to sit and enjoy some with coffee now!
Gifts? Absolutely a great idea.
~Carmen
http://bakingismyzen.wordpress.com
I love that you made both variations, Elaine! Thanks so much for baking along with me this week! :)
ReplyDeleteYour cookies look so good! I noticed that someone else had a problem with the filling spilling out, so you had a great idea to put it in the freezer.
ReplyDeleteThese look amazing. I wish I had time for TWD, but I'll just follow you and enjoy vicariously. I'm thinking I'll at least have to buy the book.
ReplyDeleteSimply beautiful!! Love your photos of the broken cookie...so perfect looking! I'd love one of those with my tea right now!
ReplyDeleteI made the apricot lekvar and it was super easy. I have to admit these were not my fav cookie. I like Dorie's better.
ReplyDeleteYours look lovely.
Beautiful pictures. I'm glad you like them and will be making them again. I know I will!
ReplyDeleteWe really liked these, too. I'm going to have to make the prune lekvar some time. We used apricot and it was really good. So much so that one of my nieces wanted to make an extra batch afterward. Yours look exactly as they should!
ReplyDeletelove how much you loved this one! :) Mine burnt and were way too much effort and I didnt get to taste it so I'm not too keen on this one... but I might try it again sometime.
ReplyDeleteAlice @ http://acookingmizer.wordpress.com