Rugelach

Total Time: 25 hrs Preparation Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 24 hrs

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon lemon, zest of, finely minced
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch table salt
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon water
• coarse sugar

Recipe

• 1 cream butter, cheese, and zest with a mixer on medium speed.
• 2 sift dry ingredients and add; blend just until incorporated (use a wooden spoon if hard to mix).
• 3 shape dough into a thick log and divide into three 8-oz. portions.
• 4 wrap each piece in plastic and flatten into a disk.
• 5 chill dough overnight before using.
• 6 preheat oven to 350°; line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• 7 prepare (but keep separate) walnuts, cinnamon-sugar (mix 3/4 cup sugar with the 1 tbs cinnamon), melted butter, egg-water wash (mix egg with the 1 tsp water), and sprinkling sugar.
• 8 lightly dust work surface with flour.
• 9 flatten a chilled dough disk lightly with rolling pin, then roll it into a 12" circle, 1/8" thick.
• 10 flip dough often to prevent sticking.
• 11 ragged edges are normal.
• 12 if there are big gaps in the dough, just trim off a little dough from another area (any place it goes over 12") and patch it in inches.
• 13 lightly brush the dough with melted butter; sprinkle 1/4 cup cinnamon-sugar over the entire surface.
• 14 then sprinkle 1/3 cup chopped walnuts on the sugar.
• 15 with the rolling pin, gently press the nuts into the dough all the way across the circleâ??this will help keep the nuts in place when you roll up the cookies.
• 16 use a pizza wheel to cut 16 wedgesâ??first cut the circle in half, then in half again to make quarters. now cut each quarter in half, then again to make 16.
• 17 starting at the wide end of a wedge, roll it to the center of the circle to make a crescent.
• 18 place on a prepared baking sheet, point down, spacing 1" apart.
• 19 gently brush cookies with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
• 20 bake 20â??30 min., or until brown, rotating pan halfway through baking.
• 21 cool rugelach on racks.
• 22 **special tip**:
• 23 rugelach rules are minimalâ??here is how to roll, assemble, and bake.
• 24 rolling: itâ??s fine if you donâ??t roll a perfect circle (i canâ??t!). the dough will crack at the edgesâ?? thatâ??s okay! once the round is roughly 12" across, patch gaps with dough trim from the sides.
• 25 assembling: donâ??t skimp on cinnamon-sugar and nuts when assembling rugelach. youâ??ll think itâ??s overloaded inside, but most of the cookieâ??s flavor comes from the filling. coarse sugar sprinkled on top makes festive-looking rugelach, but if you donâ??t have it, just use a good amount of regular sugar.
• 26 baking: of these three rules, baking is most critical. rugelach must be baked long enoughâ??theyâ??re thick in the middle and will take longer to bake than most other cookies. your goal is a cookie with rich browning all the way aroundâ??but not too much!