Rugelach

This year my friends and I decided to celebrate Hanukkah. In honour of this celebration we thought we would give Jewish home cooking a try. One of my friends brought matzo ball soups, another brought brisket, another brought challah and I provided the latkes and rugelach. To my great surprise, I loved it all. I had my doubts about it but my god is it good! The decision of which recipe to try for the rugelach was the real challenge. I looked through my Martha Stewart cookie book and the recipes appeared to be tasty, but not too authentic. But in the end I went the not so authentic route with cherry, chocolate, walnut rugelach. But trust me, these babies are good. The jam on the inside keeps them moist but the outside wash with sugar gives a nice crusty outside layer. The dough actually tastes like a shortbread, all the more reason to try them!

Chocolate Chip, Cherry and Walnut Rugelach
Adapted from Bon Appetit

dough
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 ounces chilled cream cheese, cut into 1/2-inch pieces*
filling
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup cherry preserves
1/2 cup dried cranberries or sour cherries
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup finely chopped, toasted walnuts
wash
1/4 cup cream (half and half, whipping, etc.)

dough: Blend first 3 ingredients in a food processor. Add butter and cream cheese and cut in using pulsing turns until the dough begins to clump together. Gather dough into ball. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces; flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic and refrigerate 2 hours. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated. Let soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.)
filling: 
Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Roll out 1 dough disk on floured surface to 9-inch round. Spread 3 tablespoons cherry preserves over dough, leaving 1-inch border. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons dried cherries, then 2 tablespoons chocolate chips, 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar and 2 tablespoons walnuts. Press filling firmly to adhere to dough.
assemble: Cut dough round into 8 equal wedges. Starting at wide end of each wedge, roll up tightly. Arrange cookies, tip side down, on prepared baking sheet, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart and bending slightly to form crescents. Repeat 3 more times with remaining dough disks, preserves, cranberries, chocolate chips, cinnamon sugar and walnuts. Place baking sheet in freezer 30 minutes.
bake: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Brush cookies lightly with cream and sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar mix. Bake frozen cookies until golden brown, about 40 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely. These can be made ahead. Just store in airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week or freeze up to 1 month. Makes 32 cookies.
* I used 25% reduced fat cream cheese, because I had it on hand, and it worked well.