Rugelach wassailing

He'd been keeping it a secret from me since we met that he knows how to make rugelach, but D revealed it to me before this Christmas vacation. So we packed up the ingredients and made some here at our friend's country house in Lackawaxen. We were going to visit friends of our friends who are an artist and a caterer by trade (but many more things than that), and we decided to bring some rugelach with us for the visit. Hence, rugelach wassailing. Wassailing is defined in some texts as visiting-while-carolling, so we went rugelach wassailing over to Hawley and got a tour of the incredible toll house that they've made into a beautiful home.

Here's how we made the rugelach.

Rugelach

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

Cut cold butter or margarine and cream cheese into bits. In food processor pulse flour, salt, butter or margarine, cream cheese and sour cream until crumbly. Shape crumbly mixture into four equal disks...wrap each disk and chill 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Roll each disk into a 9 inch round keeping other disks chilled until ready to roll them.

Combine sugar, cinnamon, chopped walnuts, and finely chopped raisins (may substitute miniature chocolate chips for raisins).

Roll each disk into a 9 inch round keeping other disks chilled until ready to roll them. Sprinkle round with sugar/nut mixture. Press lightly into dough. With chefs knife or pizza cutter, cut each round into 12 wedges. Roll wedges from wide to narrow, you will end up with point on outside of cookie. Place on ungreased baking sheets and chill rugelach 20 minutes before baking.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

After rugelach are chilled, bake them in the center rack of your oven 22 minutes until lightly golden. Cool on wire racks.


If you wrap them up in some plastic wrap and tie them with a bow, they make nice house-calling gifts.