In retrospect, I guess it was inevitable. Days here are normally filled with blue skies and sun, so when the beach beckons I can't help but heed the call. And when that happened this morning, I found myself looking for some kind of compromise that allowed for both baking and beaching. Because I love the beach. But at the same time I love a challenge. And I'm sure as heck not going to give up on this baking challenge, especially since it's one that I imposed myself!
What to do? What to do? The challenge for Day 16 was Rugelach, and when I scanned the recipe I was just a wee bit concerned. Because it makes 80 cookies. Yikes. That's 80 individual cookies that you have to sprinkle and cut and roll. And bake! Yikes eighty times over. The only thing I was interested in seeing roll were the waves at the beach! And even if I made half a batch of Rugelach, I'd be still be stuck rolling and baking 40 crescent-like cookies. Ugh.
Being a resourceful girl, I decided to apply techniques that I use when I'm in my car and faced with a roadblock or detour on the highway. When I'm on the road and hit traffic, I inevitably exit the highway to look for a back road or a shortcut that will get me to my destination toute suite. I'm not sitting in traffic like the rest of you jokers. I'm going to getter there quicker. Faster. Better. And so the "quicker route" that I came up with as an alternative to traditional rugelach was Martha Stewart's recipe for Rugelach Fingers (a bar version of traditional rugelach). All the flavor and none of the fuss, right? What could be more perfect than that? Because while the dough was chillin' in the fridge, I could be chillin' at the beach. And then I'd just whip out the cookies when I got home. Woo hoo! Break out the sunscreen, Clearwater Beach here I come!
Dear readers, I don't know if you can see the writing on the wall, but let me just admit right here, right now that my "quicker-faster-better-when-faced-with-traffic" technique rarely if ever works. Because inevitably, I find myself on a back road to a destination unknown, adding minutes (and at times hours) to my trip. You'd think I'd learn, but I never do. So, unfortunately, today's Rugelach Fingers "shortcut" wasn't really a shortcut at all. (Guess I should have given more than a cursory glance to the recipe, huh?!) The process that I thought would take about 10 minutes took me about four times as long. Because the walnuts needed toasting. The chocolate needed pulverized in the food processor. And (horror of horrors) the dough needed to be rolled. Precisely. Or precisely enough to fit into a 13 x 9 pan. Twice. And as you may recall from previous posts, the rolling of any dough is not one of my (many and diverse) talents. So...so much for "quicker, faster, better!". By the time it was all said and done, it no doubt took me as long to make the Rugelach Fingers as it would to make traditional rugelach. But despite this little SNAFU, I'm glad I made them anyway. Because I would never have thought to combine chocolate, walnuts and orange zest (I couldn't find any currants) in the filling. Surprisingly, it was such a perfect trio of ingredients, I couldn't stop eating the filling even before it was in the cookies. So you can imagine that when it's baked into the flaky and light butter-cream cheese dough, these Rugelach Fingers make a pretty savory snack. Especially at midnight. Because that's what time I finished this blog. Well, not really. But it feels like it. And it's midnight somewhere.
Rugelach Fingers
Makes 5 dozen
http://www.marthastewart.com/
1 c. walnuts
1 ½ sticks cold, unsalted butter, cut into ½ in. pieces, plus 3 Tbsp. melted for filling
8 ounces cream cheese
2 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon table salt
6 ounces roughly chopped semisweet chocolate
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
¾ cup currants
Grated zest of 1 orange
3 tablespoons lite corn syrup
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoons sanding sugar, or granulated sugar
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread walnuts on a baking sheet; toast until golden and fragrant, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
2. Place 1 ½ sticks butter and the cream cheese in a bowl. Mix on low speed until cream cheese is broken down but butter is still chunky. On low speed, add flour and salt, and mix until crumbly and just beginning to hold together, about 20 seconds. There should still be some small pieces of butter visible. Divide dough into two equal parts. Form each part into a flattened rectangle, and wrap in plastic wrap. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill 5 hours or overnight.
3. Place the chocolate in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the chocolate is very finely chopped, about 7 seconds. Transfer to a large bowl. Finely chop toasted walnuts by hand, and add to bowl. Add sugar, cinnamon, currants, zest, corn syrup, and melted butter, and combine by hand. Beat egg yolk with the water and set aside.
4. Have ready a 9 x 13 baking pan lined with parchment paper. Place one rectangle of dough between 2-9 x 13 inch pieces of waxed paper; roll dough into a rectangle the size of a baking pan. Line prepared baking pan with dough. Spread dough evenly with walnut mixture. Roll remaining rectangle of dough into a rectangle the size of the baking pan; place on top. Trim the edges of the dough so they are even. Brush the top of dough with egg yolk mixture, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until golden, about 35 minutes, rotating halfway through. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into 50 or 60 2 ½ x ¾ inch rectangles.
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