Chocolate Rugelach

A trip to my grandmother’s kitchen reveals a few familiar sights. A cardboard carton of ginger ales beneath the kitchen table. A mysterious pot on the stove. And, more often than not, a small box from Cecil’s Delicatessen, containing several plump rugelach. I don’t recall that I’ve tasted one of these cookies—although it is likely I have.  But the legend of Cecil's rugelach overshadows its taste, often showing up on my grandfather's lunch tray or popping into the conversation as I help my grandmother in with the groceries. So it was not without trepidation that I baked and brought a batch of rugelach to a dinner celebrating the final night of Hanukkah, a dinner that brought to the table four generations, three menorahs, and the good silver.

The cookies received a good report—accompanied, for dessert, by some lovely ginger cookies and several good lumps of store-bought ice cream. I can’t say how the rugelach stand up to Cecil’s, but they’re a fine cookie in their own right. The whorls alternate between flaky cream cheese pastry and hearty melted chocolate. You can bite down through the layers or slowly uncurl the pinwheel and eat it curve by curve.

These cookies require a couple steps, but they can very easily be broken up over a couple of days, allowing you to suspend the process at a number of stages. For example, I chilled the dough overnight—and, later, the rolled logs of rugelach. So while they do demand your time, they’ll accommodate your schedule, as long as you plan ahead a bit.

Rugelach can be filled with a variety of sweet spreads and flavours—apricot jam is a classic, or other fruit spreads, along with nuts and chocolate (I have a hunch that Nutella would be excellent). Here I’ve rolled up the rich, pliable dough with shards of semisweet chocolate. I used basic baking chocolate, chopped into rough pieces and sprinkled right onto the rolled dough. If you’ve got more time, you could roll the dough into two spheres and cut the cookies into triangles, making crescent rugelah. I went for a rectangular shape, since I wanted to refrigerate the uncut dough. 

Adapted from Serious Eats' Easy Chocolate Rugelach

Chocolate Rugelach

Ingredients: 

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

3 TBSP granulated sugar

1 TBSP brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

8 oz. semisweet chocolate

Directions:

--In a medium bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir in flour until a crumbly dough forms. Use hands to form the dough into a ball.

--Place dough in plastic wrap. Wrap and chill in refrigerator, at least one hour but up to 24 hours.

--Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two sheets with parchment. Remove dough from fridge and turn out onto a floured surface. Divide dough in half.

--Coarsely chop chocolate into large shards. Roll one half of dough into a square, approximately 12 x 4 inches. Sprinkle half of chopped chocolate over square of dough. Starting with a long side, roll dough up into a log.* Using a sharp knife, cut log into 1/2 inch slices. Repeat with other half of dough and the rest of the chocolate.

--Place cookies on sheet, leaving a little room between each cookie (they won't spread much). Bake until golden brown on top, approximately 18-22 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on pan before arranging on a platter or putting away in a cookie jar.

*You can refrigerate the logs as well, if it suits your timetable. I chilled mine for about sixteen hours.