Apricot Rugelach {TWD ~ Baking with Julia}

Not only have I never made rugelach before, I have never tasted rugelach before so I was going into this baking assignment blind!  The pastry dough was a mixture of cream cheese, flour and sugar and it was so delicious raw I knew we were in for something delicious at the end of the various steps.

The steps were relatively easy but there was some waiting and chilling time in between that was hard for  me my kids.  :)  I did not make the levkar (apricot puree) from scratch but this canned variety was fantastic. 

The cinnamon sugar topping was so yummy I made extra to sprinkle on the boys' morning oatmeal.

My nut-allergic mom and sister cannot fully appreciate the scent of toasted almonds and walnuts that filled the house!

I got a little brave with the second disc and found a recipe on-line that suggested leaving out the fruit and using mini chocolate chips instead.

It turned out a little to dry for our liking but I include these shots to demonstrate how beautiful this dough is to work with.

Unfortunately I was in a time crunch and went ahead and baked the cookies without letting them set in the fridge long enough.  As a result they spread quite a bit and did not hold their shape very well.  The good news is that my sons loved them anyway.

They declared them to be upgraded Pop Tarts which I couldn't really agree with because they were so much better than that! 

We will definitely make them again when I have more time and patience on hand.

Please follow the link to our baking hostess' beautiful blog, My Baking Heart, to get the entire recipe. 

                                                            

Next recipe on deck is appropriately Irish Soda Bread.  See you bake here on March 20th!