Tuesday, March 6, 2012

TWD - Rugelach (and a pencil skirt)

When I was leaving work on Friday, several co-workers asked "big plans for the weekend?" 
"Yes" I said, "I'm making rugelach and a pencil skirt."  They gave me that kind of look you save for crazy cat ladies.  Despite their looks of "she has no life" I was rather excited because save one soccer game, I had nothing else on the agenda for the weekend.  So Saturday I devoted to making the pencil skirt (I'm new to sewing, so this was an all day project).  And Sunday was rugelach day which also turned out to be an all day project. I should have done like Mom and worked on the rugelach in stages because by the end of Sunday I was over rugelach and wanted nothing more to do with it.  But on Monday morning, when all the dirty dishes were put away and I was at my desk with a big mug of coffee, I was so in love with rugelach I wanted to marry it.

I used the Baking with Julia recipe for the apricot lekvar and found that easy enough, but found it made a little over 2 cups instead of the 3/4 cup it said in the book.  I also found the dough easy to roll out into the rectangle.  The real challenge of course was stuffing it and then jelly rolling it with all the ingredients.  I used chopped dried figs, raisins and chocolate chips for my fillings.  My first batch in the oven was a real mess.  They split apart and were oozing all over my Silpat.  By the second batch I figured out to work quicker to keep the dough cold and then pinched the seams back together.  This seemed to yield a prettier cookie.  Of  the three kinds, my husband and my favorite were the fig ones.  My daughter liked the chocolate ones the best. 

Mom and I are already scheming on how to make these again, but streamline the process a little.  We are thinking of taking what we like of this recipe and combining it with Smitten Kitchen/Martha Stewarts' recipe. 

And the pencil skirt? I'm hoping it's done by the time I make Irish soda bread for the next TWD!




7 comments:

Im At Home Baking said...

Very yummy!

Unknown said...

How did we manage before silpat? Your rugelach look great. I think many of the bakers used purchase jam which we help streamline but the lekvars are so good!

Dawn said...

Yum! Love your variety with fillings!

Have fun sewing! A long lost hobby of mine....before children came along. ;)

Julia said...

Making the lekvar was definitely worth while I thought. Yours look great.

Cher Rockwell said...

I agree with Guyla - Silpat is such a lifesaver in the kitchen :-)
I think if I were to streamline, I would just make the lekvars and smear them on some toast - I liked them that much...

Jen said...

the rugelach really was delicious with coffee :)

lauren said...

Cute post. Glad to hear I'm not the only one that gets excited about baking/making something new.