SALT-FREE AND SUGAR-FREE RUGELACH
Have you ever heard about Rugelach? They are love at first taste, trust me.
Today I want to share with you my salt-free and sugar-free Rugelach recipe with berries and almonds.
The first time I heard about Rugelach, was about 9 years ago when I was still watching television and I was a Buddy-The cake boss fan. I remember that, in that specific episode, he was preparing many of them. They were all there in line, perfect and they looked so tasty. I remember that as soon as he mentioned their name I went on google to search far and wide what they were and how they were done.
Rugelach is a small sweets of Jewish origin in the shape of a rolled up croissant. Born, it seems, to celebrate holidays such as the Chanukkah, the holidays of Lights, or Shavuot, the Holidays of the Weeks. Today they are very popular like our croissants, in pastry shops, bakeries and cafes in Israel and the United States, where it is easy to find them in the shape of a roll. We could define them as excellent finger food as they have the perfect size to be eaten in a bite and are easy to prepare on any occasion, to accompany a tea with friends, a breakfast with the family, pampering yourself or as appetizers for a party.
The original dough included the presence of sour cream combined with its typical filling made with raisins, walnuts, cinnamon and sugar. Over the years, especially among American Jews, sour cream was replaced with cream cheese and were then created different fillings that could satisfy all tastes.
For my salt-free and sugar-free Rugelach:
We will use our homemade butter (prepared at least the day before), mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese and as a filling homemade berry jam with a sprinkling of almonds. Let’s start with the step-by-step method then at the end of the recipe you will find the summary card with the necessary ingredients and tools, which you can always keep with you… a small gift from me to you.
They are love at first taste, crunchy outside and soft inside, tasty and as Dave says, there is not one without two… one among the other! well, let’s start…
METHOD
In the bowl of a food processor we put the flour, the baking powder and the homemade cold butter into pieces; let’s briefly whisk to chop the butter.
We then combine the yolk and mascarpone cream and whisk until a homogeneous mixture is obtained.
We turn everything upside down, level the dough and form a ball. With the help of the scraper we divide the ball into two equal parts.
Let’s form a kind of small disc with each of the two halves, cover them with plastic wrap and let them rest in the refrigerator for at least three hours.
Rest time depends a lot on your refrigerator. For example, here in Verona, in our small house, I don’t have a very powerful fridge so I also wait a little more. In Milan, on the other hand, I have a fridge that keeps the temperature well so in 2 h 30 it’s ready. The important thing is that the dough is firm, if we put the finger on it mustn’t collapse.
We take the berries, rinse them well and finally put them in a pan, add a spoonful of natural fructose and light the heat over medium heat and mix everything. Lower the flame to the minimum and let it cook slowly.
Meanwhile we take the almonds (peeled or not it’s indifferent) and with the help of a small mixer or with the help of a bag and a rolling pin we begin to crumble them. Once the jam is ready (about a 20 minutes), turn off the heat and let it cool.
If it’s difficult to find fresh berries, we can also use frozen ones. The important thing is that they are natural with no sugars or other added things. READ THE INGREDIENTS WELL before buying them. For what concerns almonds, if you want and you feel better, you can also use almond flour instead of chop them yourself.
After 3 hours, take one of the two discs of pasta, lay it in the center of a sheet of baking paper dusted with flour, sprinkle with flour on top, cover with another sheet of baking paper and roll out the dough. From time to time, first remove the sheet of paper above, sprinkle with flour, add the sheet, turn the dough upside down, do the same operation with the part below and start to roll again. We try to maintain a circular shape as much as possible and to obtain a thickness of about half a centimeter. With the help of a cutting board we put the obtained disc in the fridge and do the same operation with the other half.
We take the first disc from the refrigerator, place it on our work surface, remove the sheet of baking paper on top (keeping it aside for later), and start by spreading the jam. Immediately after, we sprinkle the surface with the previously chopped almonds. With the help of the smooth pasta cutter wheel or the pizza cutter, divide the dough into 16 wedges. We put the disk back on the cutting board and put it back in the fridge. Take the other half and do the same operations.
The layer of the jam must be thin, not generous, otherwise when we go to roll it, it will overflow too much.
We pick up the first disc again, place it on our work surface and starting from the first triangle we gently roll up each piece of dough on itself, from the outside to the inside, from the base to the tip, so as to form a small croissant.
As they are ready, we transfer them onto the sheet of baking paper that we have kept aside before, placing them spaced apart from each other. With the help of the cutting board we put back the Rugelach in the refrigerator and let them rest for 1 hour. Once we are done with the first disc we do the same with the other.
All this as they say in my house “take out and put in, put in and take out” is used to keep our dough always in a good consistency, especially when we are going to roll it. Having a high percentage of butter and mascarpone compared to flour tends to melt and stick easily if it is not very cold. In addition, it will help to maintain a perfect shape when they are cooking.
After the rest time, we take our cutting board from the fridge, transfer the sheet of baking paper onto a baking tin and bake them in a preheated 356°F (180°C) ventilated oven. Let the rugelachs cook for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack before serving.
With these doses we will get 32 Rugelachs ready to savor.
Like everything homemade, I like to consume Rugelach within a short time, 1 or 2 days at most. You can do it like me, if you don’t want to eat them all right away, put them in the freezer and take them out when necessary, give them a quick warm in the oven and they will be as if they were just made.
THE VALLÌ’S COOKING FAMILY
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