Rugelach (cane sugar-free and parve)

To continue to celebrate the Christmas Season, I'm on a roll to make delicious cookies that contains no sugar or much less sugar compared to store-bought cookies and pre-made cookie mixes. Rugelach is a top pick on my cookie list this year because it is fun to make, a traditional Holiday favorite, and can be easily personalized to any taste. I made some with two different fillings, a cocoa-date filling and a raisin-walnut filling. You can fill yours with whatever you like, from raspberry jam to a chocolate ganache. 

Most versions of Ruglach contains cream cheese. I found this recipe on a Hebrew recipe website that excluded cream cheese, making it pareve it can be eaten after a meal containing meat. I liked omission of cream cheese since lowers the calories and fat content in this treat. This cookie is also great for those who are diabetic. After reading many reviews of recipes similar to this one, I learned that many diabetic are big fans of this cookie because of the low sugar context from the dried fruit. 

I was a bit nervous when making the dough for this cookie because it requires yeast (I've just started to learn how to bake with yeast) and I used Whole Wheat Flour instead of white flour (aka all purpose flour).  Since my house tends to be cool, I let my dough rise in a bread machine. The dough raised well and I was quite pleased with it. I only had enough time to use half of it, so I placed the other half in the fridge. Don't do what I did since the dough that was stored in the fridge had a fermented smell the next day. It was not pleasant. I think the fermented smell arise because of having too much yeast in the dough. 

Taste & Texture: I was pleased with the cookies when fresh but these are not a favorite. They are pretty, but in my opinion  they are too bread like to be called a cookie. I also made mine very small so they came out a bit crunchy. The filling was great because the cookie didn't have any sweetness to it. If I make this again, I will include honey into the dough. The cookie had a prominent wheat flavor and it would be more enjoyable if another flavor like honey was included. 

I didn't store them in an airtight container so they were a bit hard the next day. If I did store them correctly, I don't think I would have enjoyed anyways since I made a couple mistakes. I was eager to bake these cookies since it was late in the evening. My house was cold so I should have let my dough poof for a longer period of time to allow it to rise again for a softer texture. I also baked them for a shorter period of time because I made my cookies smaller. 

Ingredients for 30 Rugelach

3 cups (13.5oz) Flour

½ teaspoon Salt¼ cup sugar
2 eggs¼ cup Water (lukewarm)
½ cup Milk (lukewarm)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
½ cup Butter
1 tablespoon Yeast

1 egg beaten to brush tops of cookies for a shine (I omitted this step)

Ingredients for Filling

Cocoa-Date filling- soak a cup of dates in water for at least 30 minutes to soften the dried fruit. Drain the fruit and chop and mash it into a paste. Add cocoa powder to it to make it chocolaty. Add one teaspoon at a time to adjust taste to your preference.

Raisin-nut Filling: Soak desired amount of raisins in water for at least 30 minutes so they will become plump. Drain water well. Mash them and mix some chopped walnuts into them. 

Fruit Preserve Filling- Choose any type of fruit preserve, jam or curd you'll like in your cookie. Apricot  Raspberry and Strawberry preserves are popular flavors.

Optional fillers: Dried fruits and chopped or sliced nuts such as walnuts, almonds, pecans, can be included in the filling for added flavor and texture. 

Method

1. Put all the dough ingredients in a bowl and combine together to make dough. Knead for about 5 minutes until dough is soft and elastic. Place dough in a clean bowl and cover the bowl with saran wrap. Let dough rise for about an hour and a half, until it doubles in volume. If using a bread machine, place ingredients into machine according to your bread machine manual. Let the machine knead the dough and allow it to rise in it. Stop the machine when completed. 
2. Preheat the oven to 340F. Line parchment paper on baking sheet or use nonstick baking sheets. 
3. Lightly flour a work surface to make the cookies. Lightly flour a rolling pin too. Divide the dough into two equal portions. For both doughs, roll it out into a rectangle that is about half and inch to one fourth of an inch thick, and follow the steps below. 
4. Spread filling generously over the dough as you would. Leave edge of the dough to be free of  fillings. Your dough should look like a rectangular pizza, having an even layer of filling everywhere except for the "crust," edge. 
5. With a pizza cutter or knife, cut the rectangle for triangular wedges. View diagram below to see how to cut triangular wedges. 
6. Start with the wide side (the pizza "crust" side) and roll it up tightly. You should end rolling the point of the wedge last. 
7. Do this for all wedges. and transfer them to a prepared baking sheet. Place the tip of the wedge on the bottom. I wasn't able to place the tip of my wedge on the bottom since I made my cookies too small.
8. Let rugelach sit at room temperature to proof for at least 30 minutes. Lightly brush each cookie with egg wash. Be sure to not press too hard to deflate it. 
9. Bake rugelach for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on cooling rack. 

Yellow rectangle indicates shape of rolled dough. Solid lines indicate vertical and horizontal cuts through the dough. Dotted lines indicate vertical lines cut through the dough to create triangular wedges. Feel free to ask me for help if you run into trouble or is confused.