Almond/Chocolate Rugelach

Recipe: Almond/chocolate filled baked pastry !!

I had got this wonderful gift from foodie blogroll in their contest Comment to Win a Love'n Bake Baking Inspiration Goodie Box on 25th December, a sweet and delicious Christmas gift. I received a package containing 6 of Love’n Bake’s products which included Almond Paste, Marzipan, Hazelnut Praline, Almond Schmear, Cinnamon Schmear, Chocolate Schmear. The first recipe I tried from their collection is the Chocolate rugelach. I did combine both almond paste and chocolate schmear to make these scrumptious rugelach/cookies.

Rugelach is a pastry considered to be of Jewish origin and resemble the french croissant. The cream cheese in this recipe can be replaced by sour cream or think yogurt as well and one can vary the filling with your choice to include fruits, nuts, raisins, cinnamon etc. This goes to the Semi Home Made recipes event and to Joanne, Regional Recipes –Middle East.


Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz cream cheese, cut into chunks
8 oz unsalted butter(2 sticks), cut into chunks
1/2 can of Chocolate Schmear filling
1/2 can of Almond paste filling
OR 1 can of any filling
1/8 cup sugar (optional)


Preparation Method:
1.Place flour, salt, cream cheese, sugar and butter in a bowl of food processor with metal blade. Process until smooth dough forms.
2. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill at least 1 hour before using
3. Divide the dough into 4 parts. Roll the dough into 9-inch circle (like a chapati/tortilla), 1/8 in thick.
4. Spread the dough with chocolate and/or almond filling in a even layer. Cut the circle into 16 pie shaped wedges(triangle shape). Roll the dough up starting from wide end. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Repeat for remaining 3 parts of dough.
5. Bake in a pre-heated 350 F oven until golden brown, about 20 – 22 minutes. Cool on wire racks.





Preparation Time: 10 mins
Baking Time: 20 – 22 mins
Yield: 4 –5 dozen

Tags: baked, almond paste, love n bake, rugelakh, rugulach, rugalach, ruggalach, rogelach (all plural), rugalah, rugala
Recipe Source; Love’n Bake