Cathy Katin-Grazzini
Cathy's Kitchen Prescription LLC
www.cathyskitchenprescription.com
 
Shortcut Rugelach
 
Rugelach are like miniature strudels, typically made with white flour and cream cheese and filled with a smear of jam, nuts, and sugar. This greener and fruitier riff on Rugelach is nutrient dense and takes a fraction of the time. The dough relies on buckwheat flour, Japanese sweet potato, and besan (Indian gram flour). The Rugelach dough is scented with spices. Apricot paste is spread over the dough, and the Rugelach is filled with a mix of dried berries and nuts. They are not traditional at all but these tasty morsels are climate happy, nutritious, and fun to make. The little bakers in your life will delight in rolling, sprinkling on the fillings, and folding the dough too.
 
 
Prep 30 minutes
Bake 25 minutes
Makes 25 to 30 cut Rugelach, depending on size
 
1 ½ cups apricot paste from 2 cups unsulfured apricots
1 ½ cups mix dried berries, raisins, and/or other chopped dried fruit, soaked in hot water
1 tablespoon golden flaxseed, freshly ground
¼ teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon, freshly ground
1 cup buckwheat flour
½ cup besan (Bengal gram flour, available in South Asian groceries) or chickpea flour
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
½ teaspoon sodium-free baking powder
½ cup medium Japanese sweet potato, pricked with a fork, microwaved, and peeled while hot
1 to 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce, if needed
 
¼ cup pine nuts
¼ cup pistachio nuts, chopped
¼ cup walnuts, chopped
 
Preheat oven to 375°F or 350° F for convection baking.
 
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a small heatproof bowl add the apricots and just cover with water. Microwave for 2 minutes. Alternatively, simmer the apricots in a small pot on the stovetop for 5 minutes. Cool. Purée the softened apricots with its soaking water in a high-speed blender for a minute or until uniformly smooth with the consistency of soft jam. 
Cut any larger dried fruit into small pieces, in a ¼-inch dice. Place the dried fruits in a bowl and cover with hot water to rehydrate and soften. Drain after 5 minutes and discard the liquid.
Use a coffee grinder to make a powder with the flaxseed. Transfer to a bowl. Then grind the Ceylon cinnamon quill and transfer its powder to a separate bowl.
In a food processor bowl add buckwheat flour and besan, ground flaxseed, cinnamon powder, and baking powder. Use a nutmeg rasp to grate the nutmeg into the processor bowl. Pulse to mix. Add 4 tablespoons of the apricot paste.
Cook the Japanese sweet potato until fork tender, about 4 minutes in a microwave. Peel while piping hot, quickly, mash and measure out ½ cup, and add immediately to the food processor. Run the processor for 2 minutes or until the ingredients gather into a soft dough. If the mix is too dry and fails to gather, add applesauce, a tablespoon at a time, and reprocess. If the mix is too moist to gather, add buckwheat flour, a tablespoon at a time. The consistency of the dough should be soft and pliant, like Play-Doh. 
Lightly flour a board with buckwheat flour. Gather the dough and pat it into a rectangular shape. Use a knife or bench scraper, divide the dough in half. Wrap one up in plastic wrap to prevent drying.
Roll the dough into a rectangle, about 15 inches long, 7 to 8 inches wide, and ⅛-inch thick. Flip it repeatedly as you roll out the dough, sprinkling it lightly with flour if you need to prevent sticking. 
Use a straight edge to square off the edges into clean lines.
With an offset spatula spread on a nice layer of apricot paste. Cover the surface with half of the softened dried fruit. Sprinkle the chopped nuts on top. 
Starting on the long horizontal edge, begin rolling up the dough, jelly-roll style. The finished log should measure about 15 inches long, 2 inches wide, 1½ inches high. 
Slide two icing spatulas under the roll to transfer it to one side of a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving ample space around it and room for the second rugelach log. 
Use a sharp knife to cut slits every inch that extend halfway through the log to vent the dough and later to facilitate slicing into individual Rugelach once it has baked.
Create a pastry glaze by thinning ½ cup of apricot paste with water, mixing it well. It should be just thin enough to easily spread on the soft dough with a pastry brush. Apply a generous coat of apricot glaze to the log. 
Repeat steps 8 through 14 with the remaining dough half. When you transfer the second Rugelach log to the baking sheet, space it at least 2 inches from the first log.
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Brush on another coat of apricot glaze over the logs and lightly cover with a piece of parchment paper to prevent over darkening as the Rugelach continues to bake. Return the baking sheet to the oven for an additional 10 minutes. The Rugelach are ready when their crusts are golden and a bit toasted on the edges, and the fillings are soft and juicy.
Transfer the logs to a cooling rack. Glaze a final time with the apricot glaze. After 5 minutes, transfer to a board and cut the log through each slit to separate them into individual Rugelach.
These tasty Rugelach will keep around a week, wrapped and refrigerated. They also freeze beautifully if you bake them in advance of use. To reheat, defrost them and reheat in a 200°F oven for about 5 minutes or until warmed through.