In our Secrets From the Kitchen series, our recipe developers share their best cooking secrets for their favourite recipes. On today’s menu: Tamara Green’s Nutella-Pistachio and Chocolate-Tahini Rugelach.
Part croissant, part cookie and fully delicious — this Jewish pastry is the dessert recipe that needs to be on your holiday table this year. Growing up, no matter what holiday it was — Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Shabbat — Rugelach were on the table. Typically, it’s a jam-based cookie filled with nuts, but we love stuffing ours with Nutella and pistachios and chocolate and tahini for a modern twist. While this cookie may look laborious, I’ve learned the ultimate secret from my mother-in-law for fool-proof rugelach: the longer they rest in the fridge, the better! You can leave them in for a minimum of an hour but overnight is truly the sweet spot. This yields a flakier, deeper, richer taste and texture that is just delightful!
To get the full holiday menu, check out our roundup of Secrets From the Kitchen holiday recipes.
ingredients
Dough
Chocolate Tahini Filling
Nutella and Pistachio Filling
directions
For the dough, add flour, sugar and salt into a food processor. Pulse a few times until combined.
Place the cold, cubed butter, cream cheese and vanilla into the food processor with the flour. Pulse until it resembles crumbly sand. Do not pulse into a dough ball.
Flour the surface you’re working on and remove all the crumbly dough onto the surface.
Begin kneading the dough until it comes together and forms a ball. Flatten it, then divide it into 4 equal circles. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour up to overnight. The longer it rests in the fridge, the better it gets.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F.
For the chocolate tahini filling, using a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and pour in the tahini and salt. Stir until well combined, remove from the heat and set aside.
Take out one piece of dough at a time. Flour your surface and begin rolling the dough into a 10-inch circle. The key to rolling out a circle is to roll, turn it slightly, roll again, turn it and keep doing this until a circle forms. If your dough is too tough, let it rest on the counter for a few minutes. If your circle is a little over or under 10-inches, that’s ok, it doesn’t need to be perfect! Repeat with remaining three dough balls.
Using an offset spatula or spoon, evenly spread Nutella on two rolled out pieces of dough, and chocolate tahini mixture on remaining two rolled out pieces of dough. Leave 1 ½ inches of dough around the perimeter without any filling on it.
For the Nutella rugelach, generously sprinkle with chopped pistachios. For the chocolate tahini rugelach, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
Using a knife or pizza cutter begin slicing in quarters. Then slice those pieces into quarters until you have 16 triangles.
Roll each triangle up, going from the wide part without filling until the narrow tip until it resembles a crescent roll.
Brush each piece with egg wash.
Bake in the oven for 15-17 minutes, until golden. Remove from heat, let cool and enjoy.