chocolate hazelnut rugelach

over thanksgiving i found cookbook at my mom's called the cookie jar that marjorie and i bought a long long time ago during a cookie-baking obsession phase. i brought it back home with me to give the recipes another go...and because i saw a rugelach recipe that i really wanted to make. i don't remember the last time i ate rugelach but i remember loving it whenever those long ago times were.

so now here we are and my mamoo's* birthday is fast approaching. i wanted to make her a birthday treat but what would it be? rugelach i thought! until word came through my mom that mamoo is not a fan of delicious little crescent roll shaped cookies filled with yumminess. crazy if you ask me but afterall she's the birthday girl. so i came up with another cookie for her but still had rugelach on the brain. i made them anyway and mailed them along. i bet she tries one and i bet she likes it too.

so here's the recipe. i veganized the dough from the book and did my own thing for the filling.

chocolate hazelnut rugelach
dough ingredients:
8 ounces tofutti cream cheese
3/4 cup margarine, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
filling ingredients:
3/4 cups chopped dark chocolate (we had part of a fancy chocolate bar laying around, i used that)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed dark sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts**
3 tablespoons softened margarine

to make the dough, beat tofutti, margarine, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. add flour and stir until a soft dough forms. divide dough into 3 balls and wrap in plastic and chill overnight.

to make the filling, coarsely chop the chocolate and nuts (either by hand or in a food processor). place in a bowl with the granulated sugar, dark sugar and cinnamon and stir to combine.

preheat oven to 350. on a heavily floured surface*** use a floured rolling pin to roll 1 ball of dough at a time into a 12 inch circle. carefully****spread 1 tablespoon margarine over dough circle. sprinkle about 9 tablespoons of filling over the buttered dough and press lightly into the dough.



using a pizza cutter, cut dough into quarters and then cut each quarter into three wedges. beginning at the wide end, roll up each wedge. transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake 15-20 minutes until edges are lightly browned. transfer to a wire rack to cool.

i'm really pleased with the way these turned out. i love them and i hope maybe, just maybe, they can convert mamoo into a rugelach lover! and if not, i know my mom will step up and eat them.

*that would be grandma to those not in the know
**to toast hazelnuts, place them on a baking sheet and bake at 300 for about 15 minutes. keep an eye on them so they don't burn. take them out and place them in the middle of a coarsely textured kitchen towel. ball it up, roll them around, open it up and the skins (or most of them anyway) are off!
***if you're like me you might think "i'll just roll it out between two sheets of parchment. less to clean." don't do it, it doesn't work. it sticks to the paper and then you have to flour it, scrape it off, ball it, roll it blah blah blah. it really is much easier to just start with the floured surface.
****very carefully. i'm glad i had three balls of dough to work with. by the third one i finally had it all figured out. i found the easiest way to do the margarine was to hold it in my hand (to soften it a bit more) and just spread the tiniest little amount at a time. it took longer but i didn't mangle the delicate dough circle like i did the first time.

-d