Firstly, let me tell you what a Rugelach is. It is a traditional Jewish  sweet treat made from sour cream/cream cheeses dough to form a little  pastry. They are usually formed into either a crescent or spiral shape and contain a filling of either nuts, spices, chocolate or dried fruits.

No, I am not Jewish. But, I have always loved Jewish food. So, on a trip to New York a few years ago I most certainly made the most of all the chopped liver, Reuben sandwiches, salt beef, pastrami and pickles not to mention the lox bagels.

But that has got nothing to do with this recipe. This came about before Christmas, when I was trying to come up with an alternative to the traditional mince pie. Not because I don’t like them, just because I like putting my own spin on recipes.

If you read my post on Little chestnut pastries, you will have noticed that I made a pastry that I totally fell in love which used cream cheese . So, when I saw these Rugelach on Tim Mazurek’s Lottie & Doof blog I knew they were for me. Tim did a really fun 12 days of cookies during December and I looked forward to reading each entry. The Rugelach were Day 4.

What I did was to follow the Rugelach pastry  but I turned them into apricot and almond rugelach. So whether this is still deemed to be a Rugelach I have no idea, but  they taste sublime. As an alternative to the filling I am going to post, you could use any leftover mincemeat as a filling. I tried this too and it was a big hit. But seeing as it is now a New Year, I feel the jammy version is more appropriate!

Apricot & Almond  Rugelach

Ingredients :~ Makes 24 approx

For the pastry :~

SEE HERE

For the filling :~

• Good apricot jam

• 1/2 packet of blanched almonds toasted then sliced thinly

• Demerara sugar for sprinkling

• Icing sugar for dredging

Method :~

For the pastry :~

SEE HERE

For the filling :~

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. After splitting your dough in half roll out one half into a long thin (not too tin) rectangle using lots of flour to dust the pastry as it is fragile and sticky.

3. Spread the entire surface with the apricot jam.

4. Follow with a generous handful of the almonds.

5. Roll the pastry into a long sausage roll shape.

6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

7. Cut the Rugelach into individual pastries about the thickness of a pain au raisin.

8. Lay onto the baking sheet and top with more almonds and some demerara sugar before baking for 25-30 minutes.

9. When cool dredge them with icing sugar before serving.

Tim says they keep for a week but ours got eaten way before that, as I am sure yours will too. Diet. January. NOOOO!