As most of you already know, I love baking. And I love making cookies. Mmmm, cookie.
This year, I participated in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, a giant secret cookie swap with food bloggers. I know that Indian weddings aren’t really about the cookies but we do love our desserts!
I received three incredibly yummy cookies. Will Cook for Friends sent brown butter chai cookies (like our vegan spiced cookies). Oh yummmmmy! A Healthy Jalepeno sent white chocolate peppermint cookies, and The Slow Roasted Italian sent double chocolate candy cane cookies.
Sorry, I only have one photo because I ended up munching on them before I could take proper photos.
For the secret santa cookies, I made my mom’s old and famous Polish cookies called kolachki. They’re also known as rugelachs in the Jewish culture. These Eastern European cookies are oh so tasty either way.
You can fill the rugelachs with any jam (the most popular are apricot jam and raspberry jam), chocolate, or cinnamon sugar and walnuts. All are delicious, so pick what you love!
Even though these cookies look complicated they are actually super easy to make with just four ingredients for the dough.
Beyond frosting received my cookies and took a beautiful photo of them. I also sent the three bloggers a little owl ornament to remember for year to come.
Rugelach Recipe
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
4oz cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
Mix all the ingredients and refrigerate.
Divide the dough in two disks. Keep one disk in the fridge while you roll the other disk on a lightly floured surface.
Roll the disk into a 1/8th inch thick, a tad thinner than pie crust.
Now coat the disk with jam or the cinnamon sugar crushed walnuts.
To make the ‘triangles’, slice the disk like a pizza. You should be able to make 16 triangles.
Roll up the triangles and brush them with a bit of half and half or heavy cream (that will keep them from burning).
Bake them at 325F for 15-20 minutes.
For truly luxurious rugelachs, you can dip them in dark chocolate. Yum!
From our Thanksgiving dessert table. Lots of desserts but you can see the rugelachs peeping out in the corner.
I had a blast with the cookie swap this year and am so excited that the bloggers raised more than $13,000 for charity. See, it is possible to eat cookies AND feel great!
Happy holiday baking lovelies.
I LOVED receiving your rugelach!! They didn’t even last a full 24 hours in my house 🙂 Love the idea of dipping them in chocolate! The owl ornament was such a sweet touch. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!
Thanks Ruthy! They are delicious dipped in chocolate, but then the cookies won’t last more than a few hours. Hehe.
You too! Have a lovely holiday season!