Prune and Walnut Rugelach

This is my first post in this group, TWD: Tuesdays with Dorie. I bought Baking with Julia at least twelve years ago. I´ve made several recipes from it, but certainly not as many as I had planned. So the chance to be forced, in the sweetest way, to bake from it at least twice a month.. that´s just a bonus. I support the publishing industry and believe there´s nothing like a well used, stained cookbook.

Today we´re posting rugelach, by contributing baker Lauren Groveman. The recipe is published by this weeks´ hosts, Margaret and Jessica.

It has a cream cheese pastry that is so easy and tender. They´re shaped jelly-roll fashion, unlike most rugelach that are made like mini croissants. Two advantages: faster to assemble and the filling doesn´t leak madly to the sides.

I made the prune lekvar filling and paired it with walnuts, almonds, dark and light raisins, due to an enormous amount of the above mentioned ingredients that I bought a while ago. Great excuse.

While assembling everything It seemed like the dough was getting too soft and starting to stick to the surface. You know, between reading the recipe again and taking the pictures and all of that. By the time I was ready to roll, everything went on flawless, much to my surprise. No sticking and very easy to transfer to the cookie sheet where I refrigerated them. The rolls harden in the fridge making the next steps (glazing and cutting) very easy. The rest is fun. Rolling in nutty sugar. Baking. Eating.

These sweeties are tasty, soft and crunchy at the same time; they deserve my grandmother´s antique china, and a cup of coffee.

The recipe makes a very large amount of dough so I´m going to investigate other fillings. Yummy.