C is for cookie, K is for kill me now
Well, Hannukah is over and if your calendar wasn’t evidence enough of that, below is a forlorn dreidl I saw under a subway seat the other day. Hot pink, no less. Sad, just sad. If you were wondering why I didn’t post any Hannukah related entries, it’s because I spent so long thinking about which spelling I wanted to use that the holiday was over by the time I made up my mind.
(click to enlarge)
But I do bake this time of year, mostly to solve the dilemma of what to get my co-workers for Generic Wintertime Holiday (they are of several different faiths). So I make something complicated, use fine ingredients, and package them all fancee. Voila! I last made rugelach five years ago and I’ve been recovering ever since. But, you know, I had a new mixer so it was time. By the way, really cold butter and cream cheese are vastly irritating to mix because at any speed they will stick in one large mass to the paddle attachment and just spin and spin. Whee!
So what are rugelach? They are a sort of filled Jewish pastry. Let’s make some, shall we?
OK! Let’s get started. Here’s the dough all rolled out (I needed both hands to do that, thus no picture). I made it the previous night. The night I kept having to poke chunks of butter and cream cheese through the paddle attachment.
I combined two steps into one picture. First you spread with raspberry jam, then brown sugar combined with white sugar. Kind of like that Michael Jackson song.
Then chocolate chips get sprinkled on. There’s no song about that. Then you start rolling. Rolling. Rolling on the river. I was actually listening to Radiohead while I was doing this, though.
Oh look, here I’ve combined three steps into one photo. Crazy! So then you brush the rolled up log with milk, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and cut into small pieces.
Then repeat about 30 more times. Narf.
But finally you get this! Pretty striped waxed paper courtesy of The Container Store.
Alas, The Container Store only had Christmas (red & green, Santa, Jesus, you get it) and white tins left when I got there. And naturally, you remember I said my co-workers were not all Christmas celebrators. But that’s OK! I like to decorate things myself. Nice, right? And don’t forget! There are rugelach inside.
My, that was exhausting. This morning my co-worker’s daughter called to ask if I would be their full-time baker. Thank goodness I have a job all set up for when the music industry inevitably tanks.
Your Rugelach is inspirational. I have tried to master the Mandelbrot this holiday season. What I am learning through my “Here — eat this. It’s Jewish.” experience is that some jew food is only good because we’re forced to eat it. I kept getting looks of “Wow. This is tasty. But maybe a little dry?” Yeah. It’s supposed to be. It’s like…. biscotti. But Jewish. “What’s biscotti.”
*smacks head*
If you make and send me some rugelach I’ll be your BFF!
You decorated those tins yourself? In addition to making the incredibly labor-intensive contents? Wow. Hope your co-workers appreciate it.
I probably shouldn’t mention that I transitioned from a mini-loaf of quick bread for each person in the office to a single home-made white chocolate lollipop of snowflake design when a reorg more than doubled the length of my list, and everyone seems to be appreciative to approximately the same degree. People’s appreciation does not seem to be at all proportional to the effort involved. Not that this should discourage you from making the effort–it’s just that there seems to be a ceiling effect and you may be able to reach it with a ziplock bag of Oreos, I don’t know.
Jane–I believe you are supposed to dunk the mandelbrodt in your tea first.
Mmmmmmm.
I am making about 13 different kinds of cookies. For what I spent on the ingrdients I could have paid for your trip abroad and your new Blackberry.
How does a person you don’t know or care about manage to get her hands on some of that stuff?
Would I have to sleep with you?
So that’s where my dreidel ended up.
1. How’d ya make the dough?
2. No baking?
Jane, I was never into mandelbrot. Or even biscotti. I grew up on the Jewish foods my mother made: cholent, kneidelach, schnecken, teiglach, challah, blintzes, holopches, hamentaschen, and more. Curiously, she never made rugelach. But I do like Jewish food, except for over-boiled brisket. So not into that.
My, that was a feast for my spellcheck.
Celia, packaging is half the gift! You see, my co-workers give nice gift, like cash. And I give… cookies. This just makes them seem more luxurious. I’m lucky, I have a fairly small department but I bring in basic things all year long. Thus, they know what’s labor-intensive and what’s not. Although one year I didn’t have a lot of time and made shortbread, which is easy-peasy and has three ingredients. So I put edible flowers on top and glazed with an egg wash.
KP, this ain’t my holiday! Ask me how much I spend at Purim. 😛
TN, bwah! And the dough is a cream cheese-butter one and is still hard to work with even in a Kitchenaid stand mixer. Then it’s refrigerated for 4 hours because it’s very melty, which is why I did it the night before. As for the baking, I could have taken a shot of my closed oven door but I thought that would be boring. You’ll have to imagine it between pictures 6 and 7.
Dog and Brio, you can actually buy rugelach in stores (well, here at least) but they’re not as good. Here’s why! Almost all Jewish bakeries are dairy-free since baked goods are for “fancy” meals,” i.e. meat meals, and Kosher Jews don’t eat meat and dairy together. So there’s no butter, no milk, no cream cheese in them. Tasteless.
But perhaps we can work something out. Rugelach for charity? I’ve got a week off…
PS, sleeping with me is not defined as charity. Yet.
I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to find rugelach, at least not in this part of the deep South.
But yeah, do get back with me on that rugelach for charity thing, please!
Mmmmmmm….
I would gladly trade you homemade egg noodles for some rugelach 🙂
Kind of off subject, but I was telling my good friend last night how I remember Mrs. Silverman coming into our classes every year in elementary school to teach us about Hannukah. I thought it was the coolest thing ever! Too bad they can’t do that kind of stuff in school now. Kids are really missing out on all kinds of beliefs and experiences.
Although these are quite different from Becca’s (they are cinnamon–you can get chocolate ones as well but I can’t vouch for them), they are very tasty and available by mail.
http://www.kosher.com/store/kosher-bakery/greens-baked-goods/028448003100-greens-original-cinnamon-rugelach.html
Mmmm, egg noodles….
Celia, those are pareve too. Does no one make milchig?
Either way, see my new post!
Wait a minute…the music business is tanking?!
I know this comes as a shock to you, Pi. I should have told you to sit down, shouldn’t I have?
Merrick, they still do have parents who come in and teach about Hanukkah in Tennessee. 🙂