12 DAYS OF COOKIES: RUGELACH

All the cookies you need for your Christmas Cookie boxes: Starting with a stunning European classic from cookie queen Zoë François's new book, Zoë Bakes Cookies

Hello!

It’s cookie week! People all over the world are baking cookies, filling tins for gifting, and stocking their shelves for the holiday season. Though my Holiday Recipe Index is chock full of iconic American and British classics, like Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies, Whoopie Pie, and Double Chocolate Shortbread, it’s high time we dip into some Central and Eastern European favorites to round out your cookie boxes.

Like in previous years, when I brought you Christmas from Germany, Paris, and Hungary, we’re taking our travels through cookies this year. This week is one of two times throughout the year you’ll hear from me more than once a week as we build our cookie boxes, country by country. Think of it as a bit of a 12 Days of Cookies (leading up to Christmas Eve), though not all of the cookies I bring you via Substack or Instagram will be new ones—many of them are.

But first, a sale

A big thank you to my new paid subscribers. I see you and so appreciate your support!! ♡ No one likes to miss a good sale, so I’m extending my 20% off offer through December 25. That means anytime you upgrade to a paid subscription this week or next, you’ll get my best ever price of just $36/year (prices go up to $55/year on Jan 1). A paid subscription also grants you access to the entire 160 recipe database from my three years on Substack, including any you may have missed.

Now, to the Rugelach

One of the cookies I love making most with and for my family this time of year is Rugelach—originating in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe—a cousin to Hungarian kifli, which we make with poppy seeds or apricot jam every Christmas. I love its flaky, satisfying pie-like texture and the pockets of treasured flavors inside. Rarely will a new rugelach recipe catch my eye—I love ours—but every once in a while, I like to see how others make it. This recipe popped out from

Zoë François

's stunning new cookie book, Zoë Bakes Cookies, because hello—that photo!

Zoë is a force—a phenomenon. While I was busy working for brands like Food Network, the New York Times, and Real Simple, over the last twenty years, she has been building a small empire of her own—first in the form of a cookie cart, then a blog/website, Instagram reels, and more recently an Emmy-award-nominated show on the Magnolia network called Zoë Bakes.

Zoë’s energy—her laugh, joy, curls, and pastries—are infectiously delightful and, in my experience, totally spot on. I adore Zoë and have been distantly (since she lives in Minnesota, far from the NYC-centric food world I came up in) admiring her confidence in, well, everything—from gracefully going grey to the way she blends her family in with her work to going big and going bold with all her new endeavors.

One thing I didn’t know about Zoë until the release of this book was that she grew up in a commune and what that meant for her relationship with food. In the intro to her latest book, she writes:

“They were earnest hippies, and “sugar” was treated like a four-letter word. If there were cookies on the commune, they’d be full of brown rice, wheat germ, and ‘mighty mush’ (the name of the cereal says it all) baked into lumps that tasted way too healthful for you and resembled something closer to tree bark than sweetness and joy.”

I also have an interesting relationship with sugar—a sort of love-hate relationship. I hate sugar’s power over our country and over-parenting at times (the endless sugar parade at parties, birthdays, and holidays). Still, as a trained pastry chef (my first several professional food jobs were in three-star French pastry kitchens in NYC), I adore sugar’s magic powers, too—the power to lend deliciousness, texture, golden hues, and endless joy when blended with butter and flour.

When I eat sugar or serve it to my kids and family, it has to count. I don’t mess around with sub-par cookies, pies, pastries, or strudels (see the search for the perfect strudel). One of my superpowers is that I can walk past an open cookie box without twitching unless there’s a cookie in there that screams: I’m wildly delicious and worth it.

Returning to Zoë’s childhood, her memories of sugar are connected to her two grandmothers. Zoë’s Granny Neal (in New Jersey) pulled out all the stops for Christmas, including dozens of cookie tins filled with all the classic Betty Crocker holiday sweets, plus a few Norweigan family recipes.

Zoë’s other grandma, Bubbe Berkowitz, grew up in a Jewish community in Brooklyn (Williamsburg) and, later, Connecticut. Though the baking gene skipped a couple of generations (Zoe’s Bubbe and her mother aren’t bakers), her great-great-grandmother Shaindel and her daughters Sonny and Zelda (Zoë’s great-grandmother) baked their way to a better life in the early 1900’s, selling ingredients like flour, sugar, and salt from their home in Kyiv (capital of Ukraine) to soldiers who were fighting in the war. They used the earnings to move the family to America, one by one, where they continued to support themselves by baking and selling cookies, cakes, and bread to their neighbors.

Zoë Bakes Cookies is a beautiful tribute to the strong women in her family and a life well lived in her own skin. It’s also chock full of cookies that will shape the holiday memories of generations to come.

Back to her Rugelach: In Hungary—and our home in NY—we make either poppy seed, walnut, or jam-filled kifli/Rugelach. Zoë, true to her infectious gusto for life, goes big with cinnamon sugar and jam, plus chopped toasted nuts or chocolate shavings, for anyone who chooses. You’ll find she’s more than made up for any cookie losses from her childhood. She gets joy and is here to share hers with you.

The recipe is below. Watch for four others from other parts of Europe coming your way this week.

xx

Sarah

P.S. I love this article on the history of Rugelach in New York and this poetic feature about the best Rugelach in New York today (it’s old, but details still stand), which both came up in my research.

Zoë and her darling mama making rugelah.

RUGELACH (pictured, top)

Excerpted from Zoë Bakes Cookies by Zoë François

Rugelach are delicious little pastry-like cookies with so much tasty filling inside that it spills out as it bakes and becomes caramelized (personally, this is my favorite part!). I vividly recall eating them as a child when I would visit my great-aunts in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Using equal parts cream cheese and butter creates a barely sweet dough that yields a soft and tender cookie.

They are a delightful rolled-up treat, often filled with fruit preserves like apricot, raspberry, or cherry. They are sometimes paired with chocolate shavings or nuts—any kind will do, but make sure they are toasted for a deeper flavor.

MAKES 32 COOKIES

For the dough*

• 8 oz / 225g cream cheese, chilled

• 1 cup / 220g unsalted butter at room temperature

• ¼ cup / 30g confectioners’ sugar

• 1 pinch of kosher salt

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• ½ tsp lemon zest

• 2 ¼ cups / 270g all- purpose flour

For the filling

• 2 Tbsp cinnamon sugar (mix 2 Tbsp granulated sugar with 1 tsp ground cinnamon)

• ½ cup / 110g preserves (raspberry, apricot, or cherry)

• ½ cup / 60g chopped, lightly toasted pecans, walnuts, or almonds (optional)

• ½ cup / 110g bittersweet chocolate shavings (optional)

For the topping

• ¼ cup / 60ml heavy cream

• ¼ cup / 50g granulated sugar for sprinkling on top

1. Make the dough: In a food processor, pulse the cream cheese, butter, confectioners’ sugar, salt, egg yolk, vanilla, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Add the flour and pulse the dough until it just comes together in a soft ball.

2. Divide the dough into two equal portions (375g), wrap each in plastic, flatten into disks ½ inch / 1.3cm thick and about 6 inches / 15cm wide, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, up to overnight. The dough can also be frozen for about 3 weeks.

3. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Line two doubled-up baking sheets with parchment paper (the cookies will need some insulation).

4. On a floured surface, roll one of the disks of dough to a round about 11⁄88 inch / 3mm thick. Leave the other disk in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

5. Sprinkle half the cinnamon sugar evenly over the dough. Cover with about ¼ cups of the preserves. Using a pastry or pizza wheel, cut the dough into sixteen equal wedges. Sprinkle on the nuts or chocolate (if using).

6. Roll the dough up, starting at the wide end, until the pointy end is tucked under the cookie. Repeat with the rest of the pieces, working quickly, so the dough doesn’t get too sticky. If the dough is sticking in spots, use a metal spatula to help release it.

7. Place the rolled cookies on a prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between them to allow for spreading and the filling to sneak out. Brush the tops with a small amount of heavy cream. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until they are lightly golden-brown and set.

8. Remove the cookies from the sheet while still warm so they will not stick to the parchment paper. Allow them to cool on a cooling rack. Repeat with the second disk of dough and remaining filling.

   A NOTE FROM ZOË: Call your grandmother and get all of her recipes so they don’t disappear! I’m wrapping up the rest of this batch to send to her.

   

VARIATION: Rugelach with Puff Pastry (above)

Preheat the oven to 425°F / 220°C convection heat (or 450°F / 230°C flat heat). Line two doubled-up baking sheets (the cookies will need some insulation) with parchment paper. This prevents the bottom from burning as they bake.

Roll one sheet of puff pastry out into a 15- inch / 38cm square. Cover the surface of the dough with the cinnamon sugar and preserves. Using a pastry or pizza wheel, cut the covered dough into twelve triangles. The base of each triangle will measure about 2 ½ inches / 6.5cm. Sprinkle nuts and/or chocolate (if using). Roll the dough up, as instructed above. Place on the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches / 5cm between the cookies. Freeze the rolled cookies for about 20 minutes. Brush the frozen cookies with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water) and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Cool completely on the baking sheet.

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Text copyright © 2024 by Zoë François. Photographs copyright © 2024 by Zoë François. Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.