My mother (Italian, may she rest in peace) used to make a favorite
Christmas cookie. I have made them myself a number of times, but have
misplaced the recipe! Hopefully, someone will recognize them:

They are a rolled, filled cookie, made with a sweet cream cheese dough.
The dough is rolled thin (<1/8"), and cut into triangles, maybe 2"x3+".
The filling is a mixture of prunes, slightly soaked and boiled, orange
marmalade and chopped walnuts. A scant teaspoon is placed on the base of a
triangle and it is rolled up Crescent Roll-style for baking. If a bit of
the filling spills out and crisps onto the pan, it's a bonus! :{)

I can probably fake the filling pretty well, but the dough would be
tougher.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Dave

"Dave Bell" > wrote in message
rea.net...
> My mother (Italian, may she rest in peace) used to make a favorite
> Christmas cookie. I have made them myself a number of times, but have
> misplaced the recipe! Hopefully, someone will recognize them:
>
> They are a rolled, filled cookie, made with a sweet cream cheese dough.
> The dough is rolled thin (<1/8"), and cut into triangles, maybe 2"x3+".
> The filling is a mixture of prunes, slightly soaked and boiled, orange
> marmalade and chopped walnuts. A scant teaspoon is placed on the base of a
> triangle and it is rolled up Crescent Roll-style for baking. If a bit of
> the filling spills out and crisps onto the pan, it's a bonus! :{)
>
> I can probably fake the filling pretty well, but the dough would be
> tougher.
>
> Any help greatly appreciated!

It sound like what Eastern Europeans call "Rugelach." I have a good recipe
for the dough, but the filling I use is made with nuts and apricot
preserves. I will list the recipe and you might also do a google search for
rugelach recipes. Note that this dough is very tender. If it becomes hard
to handle, put it back in the refrigerator. I would avoid making these on a
very hot day unless you have a nice marble slab that you can cool or stone
counters that can be chilled with a bag of ice.


Dough:
Cream Cheese 1 8 oz package (8 oz or 227gm)
unsalted butter 1 cup (8 oz. or 227 gm)
sugar 1/4 cup (1.75 oz or 50 gm)
vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
bleached AP flour 2 cups (sifted into cup and leveled) (8 oz or 228 gm)
salt 1/4 teaspoon

Food processor method:
Place cheese and butter (cut into small pieces) into the bowl fitted with
metal blade. Process until smooth. Add sugar and vanilla and process until
incorporated. Scrape bowl. Add flour and salt and pulse until just
incorporated.

Electric mixer method:
Cream together cheese and butter. Beat in the sugar and vanilla. On low
speed, beat in the flour and salt until incorporated.

For both methods:
Scrape dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and press it together to form a
ball. Divide the dough into 4 portions and cover each with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to sit on the counter
for about 15 minutes or until it is malleable enough to roll

Using a floured rolling pin, on a lightly floured board, roll out each dough
portion, one at a time, into a 9 inch circle to a 1/8 inch thickness,
rotating the dough often to be sure that it isn't sticking.

Using the back of a tablespoon, spread the dough evenly with 2 tablespoons
of apricot preserves. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the raisin-walnut filling
over the preserves. Press the filing firmly and evenly over the dough.
Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough circle into 12 triangles
of pieces of "pie."

Use a thin knife, if necessary, to loosen the triangles from the board.
Starting at the wide end, roll up the triangle and bend the ends around to
form a slight crescent shape. Place the rugelach, point underneath, about 1
1/2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets (sheets should be lined with
parchment or buttered). Refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, for at
least 30 minutes or until firm. Clean the work surface of excess filling
before rolling out each batch

For the topping, brush the rugelach with milk. In a small bowl, stir
together the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle the rugelach with it.

Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until lightly browned. For even baking, rotate
the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway thought the
baking period.

Use a small angled metal spatula or pancake turner to transfer the cookies
to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature on in the freezer.

Keeps 5 days at room temperature, 3 moths frozen

Filling

Granulated sugar 6 tablespoons (2.5 oz or 75 gm)
Light brown sugar 4 tablespoons (2 oz or 54 gm)
cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon
golden raisins 3/4 cup (3.75 oz or 108 gm)
coarsely chopped walnuts 1 cup (3.5 oz or 100 gm)
Apricot preserves 1/2 cup (4 oz or 113 gm)

Topping
Milk 1/4 cup (2 oz or 60 gm)
granulated sugar 2 tablespoons (0.75 oz or 25 gm)
cinnamon 1 teaspoon

For filling, combine all ingredients except the apricot preserves.

Recipe from "Roses Christmas Cookies." Rose Levy Beranbaum, William Morrow
and Company

"Dave Bell"
> My mother (Italian, may she rest in peace) used to make a favorite
> Christmas cookie. I have made them myself a number of times, but have
> misplaced the recipe! Hopefully, someone will recognize them:

Where was from your mother? :-)

--
http://www.gennarino.org
http://www.gennarino.org/forum/
Meglio muri' sazio 'ca campa' a dijuno

icq 325215944

"Dave Bell" > wrote in message
rea.net...
> My mother (Italian, may she rest in peace) used to make a favorite
> Christmas cookie. I have made them myself a number of times, but have
> misplaced the recipe! Hopefully, someone will recognize them:
>
> They are a rolled, filled cookie, made with a sweet cream cheese dough.
> The dough is rolled thin (<1/8"), and cut into triangles, maybe 2"x3+".
> The filling is a mixture of prunes, slightly soaked and boiled, orange
> marmalade and chopped walnuts. A scant teaspoon is placed on the base of a
> triangle and it is rolled up Crescent Roll-style for baking. If a bit of
> the filling spills out and crisps onto the pan, it's a bonus! :{)
>
> I can probably fake the filling pretty well, but the dough would be
> tougher.
>
> Any help greatly appreciated!
>
> Dave

Like Vox said, sounds like rugelach. I looked it up on allrecipes.com.
Here's the link to the results:
http://search.allrecipes.com/recipe/...elach&lnkid=65
~Peggy

On Thu, 1 Jul 2004, Peggy wrote:

> Like Vox said, sounds like rugelach. I looked it up on allrecipes.com.
> Here's the link to the results:
> http://search.allrecipes.com/recipe/...elach&lnkid=65
> ~Peggy

Thanks, Vox and Peggy!

The rugelach dough sounds close to what I remember. I'll definitely give
that a try. The assembly was slightly different, as rugelach are more of a
jelly-roll structure, with filling evenly spread over the dough, as in the
recipe Vox forwarded. Mom's had a little "log" of filling rolled up in an
open-ended wrapper, but that's a minor change. I remember liking to make
them smaller, rather than larger, so the filling baked up well - and there
were more of them!

Thanks!

Dave