When I was in Montreal at Hof Kelsten, a stellar Jewish bakery-deli, I tasted the best rugelach ever. The cream cheese dough was shaped into small rectangular pockets, overflowing with strawberry jam and nuts. Although the chef would not share the recipe, he did tell me the ingredients, and I realized his pastry is very similar to my own, a simple American cream cheese butter dough so good that one reviewer in Montreal mistook Hof Kelsten’s version for a French mille-feuille pastry!
Many years before that, when watching a knish maker on the Lower East Side, I was struck by the way she cut her dough, using the side of her hand. I’ve done the same with my rugelach since then, to have a connection to the past.
Besides the dough, it is the high-quality jam and not too finely chopped toasted nuts — plus the old-fashioned cutting technique, which creates pockets in warm, jam-filled cookies — that make the recipe. I also heat the oven to 400 degrees and then, as soon as I put the rugelach in, turn it down to 350 degrees, to help set the crust. Recently, I made these rugelach for a group of women at a break-the-fast on Martha’s Vineyard, and every single one was devoured or taken home. Here it is, with all the recipe’s deliciousness.
From My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Memories © 2024 by Joan Nathan. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Notes:
- Use this vanilla sugar whenever you want to make a pastry with vanilla, even if the recipe doesn’t call for it, or if you wish to sprinkle it on your rugelach. It needs to infuse for at least a day before use.
- The rugelach dough needs to chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.
- The assembled rugelach need to chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before baking.
Oh my gosh. I have a single memory of a great aunt cutting knishes like this from 50 years ago. I can’t wait to try this recipe instead of the normal triangle roll-up!!
I heard your interview on PBS and was thrilled to see one of your recipes, especially a rugelach recipe.
I have been making this dough for some time, this is the most clear set of instructions I have run across!
I have two questions. For the vanilla sugar, “flicking out the beans from the center of the vanilla pod” Does that mean don’t use them, or does that mean flick them into the sugar? And second, is it possible to make this without a stand mixer?
I make my dough in a food processor. Easy peasy