Date and walnut rugelach

The 'quintessential Jewish pastry'

Rugelach are the quintessential Jewish pastry, typically filled with fruit and nuts, or chocolate and cinnamon. Some use a yeast-based dough; these do not.

This dough is not sweet, so you want a sweet filling and a good dusting of confectionary sugar over the top. With a cup of tea or coffee, rugelach are the perfect thing to put out on Shabbat afternoon for drop-in guests (or any other time, for that matter).

Ingredients
Yields 16 rugelach

Dough
2 cups flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup oil
½ cup boiling water
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (plus some zest)

Filling
Date paste
Walnuts, chopped
Optional: chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
Optional: desiccated coconut

Directions
Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the baking powder, oil, salt, and vanilla or lemon.

Pour the boiling water into the bowl and mix with a spoon until the dough comes together in a ball. Set aside to cool.

Once the dough has reached room temperature, see if it feels too sticky or loose to work with. If so, add more flour, a little at a time, until it is workable.

Divide dough into two equal parts.

Lay a sheet of parchment paper out on your counter. Roll one piece of dough into a ball and place in the center of the parchment paper. Roll it out into a circle. It’s OK if it’s not perfectly round. You want the dough thin, but not too thin that it will break when you try to roll it up.

Spread a layer of date paste over the dough and sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Optional: Add desiccated coconut and/or chocolate chips as well.

Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into 8 triangles (pizza-style). Roll each triangle up, starting at the wide end. Try to keep them as tight as possible.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Pre-heat oven to 350 F (180 C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper (with cooking oil spray).

Gently pick up the rugelach and transfer to the baking sheet, leaving a small amount of space between them (they will not grow exponentially).

Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 20-25 minutes.

Cool. Dust with confectioners sugar. PJC

Miriam Szokovski is a writer, editor, and member of the Chabad.org editorial team. She also shares her cooking and baking on Chabad.org/food. Copyright Chabad.org/Recipes. Reprinted with permission.