For my brother's housewarming/Hannukah party, I offered to bake something. I am not a particularly experienced baker, and have no favorite recipe that I turn to time and again so I went browsing, and hit upon this rugelach recipe which seemed fitting for a Jewish holiday. Usually they are made with a cream-cheese based dough but this recipe said yeast-based is more common in Israel. Also, I've never tried baking with yeast before so I went for it.
First, for the yeast dough (which can be used for any number of pastries, not just rugelach):
5-6 cups flour
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
150 gr. melted\soft butter
Zest from half a lemon (I kept forgetting to add this, the two times I made the dough)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
Mix all the ingredients and knead the dough (adding flour until it no longer sticks to your fingers). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it sit until it doubles in volume (about 1-1.5 hours). Since it was December during a wicked freezing period, I actually put the bowl into the microwave to sit so that it would be in an enclosed, relatively 'warmer' place than the rest of the house. Do not actually microwave the dough!
For filling, I used three different kinds:
Chocolate - as described in the recipe (which came out ok the first time, a bit dry the second). Essentially, over the stove (I did double-boiler style) mix 50 gr. bittersweet chocolate, 100 gr. butter, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 3-4 tablespoons sugar, 1\2 teaspoon cinnamon powder, and then let this cool a bit.
poppy-seed - from a can, because I didn't have time to make my own, but will attempt that at a later stage.
apple-cinnamon - on stove, heat diced apples (I had granny smith) with butter and a little water until soft. Mash with cinnamon and sugar.
Once the yeast dough is ready, you can take parts of it and roll it out to 1/2-1/4. Then spread the filling and cut into shapes, which you roll wide side to point. The recipe suggests a rectangular shape which you then cut into triangle slices, but I found it was easier to roll out circles and cut triangular pie slices.
Note: if you put too little filling, the pastries may seem dry? But if you put too much, they're hard to roll and stick, plus filling will squeeze out anyway. Also, it's important to get the little pointy end to stick or else it'll pop up and the rugelach won't look so pretty. Play around with how much filling you use and whether you leave the edges empty of it.
Once they are rolled, brush the tops with a beaten egg.
Bake for 15-20 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius which is 338 degrees F.
Overall, the dough came out perfect, but I don't think it's best for rugelach. I think this same dough would work much better for a different kind of pastry (still thinking about which, lol). However, when baked the perfect amount of time, with the apple filling or the poppy seed, mmmm! Not over-baking was actually more difficult to accomplish than it should have been as my parent's oven runs way too hot and I can never quite figure it out, but I'm excited to try it back with my well-calibrated oven in LA. Also, poppy seed filling for pastries is my favorite, as long as it has no nuts or raisins, but it is a painstaking process to do it yourself, and it's hard to find prepared. If only I could replicate the little 'makos' pastries from the Budapest subway station bakeries...I would be so pleased!
I did also try a batch with a cream-cheese based dough but I wasn't blown away by the dough so I'll wait until I find a recipe I'm happier with.
Ultimately, the rugelach baking endeavor will continue until I find the perfect way of doing it. But this yeast dough was a success so if you ever need it, enjoy!
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