Poppy Seed Rugelachs

By ctozzi

Delicious Poppy Seed Rugelachs! You can use whatever filling you like for these pastries, cinnamon, cream cheese, jam, preserves or nuts. The options are endless, enjoy!

Ingredients

• POPPY SEED FILLING:
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 cups flour
• Poppy seed filling (there is enough filling in this recipe for 2 batches of rugelachs)
• Powdered sugar, for dusting the pastries
• 8 ounces poppy seeds (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 stick butter
• 3/4 – 1 cup sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• Makes about 2 cups filling

Preparation

Step 1

In the standing mixer with a paddle attachment or using a hand mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until they are an even consistency.

Add the egg yolk and water, mix until incorporated. I was making a double batch, hence the two egg yolks.

Add the flour and also mix until incorporated. Wrap in aluminum foil and refrigerate until firm, at least a few hours.

You won’t be able to roll out the dough if it’s not firm enough. I usually make a few batches of this dough and keep the extra in the freezer. Next time I feel like having these pastries, I have dough ready to go.

Filling:

Use a coffee grinder to process the poppy seeds.

You will need to do this in several batches.

Meanwhile heat the milk, butter, salt and sugar on medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the milk is frothy.

Slowly pour in a small amount of the hot milk into the eggs, whisking vigorously with the other hand (this is called tempering, which prevents the eggs from scrambling).

When you’ve added about half of the milk to the eggs, pour the tempered mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium-low heat until the mixture thickens, just like making pudding.

Add the poppy seeds. Cool.

Assembly:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

To shape the pastries, here’s what I usually do. On a floured surface, roll out a portion of the dough and cut out a circle. I used a 10 inch lid. You can use a dinner plate or anything else round. Save the scraps and put them in the refrigerator or freezer to firm up again.

Place about 2 tablespoons of the poppy seed filling and spread it all over the surface of the dough. If your poppy seed filling is hard to spread and clumpy, add a few teaspoons of hot water to it. Cut the circle into 8 triangles.

Roll up each triangle, starting from the widest part, into a crescent shape. Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 12-18 minutes, until starting to brown on the tips. The pastries will still be white. Do not bake them until they are golden all over, they will be overcooked and hard.

If you like your cookies to be brown, you can use the egg white that you didn’t use for the dough, whisk it up and brush it on the pastries before baking.

You can also sprinkle some sugar over the egg wash, since these pastries aren’t very sweet.

I prefer to dust with powdered sugar. Repeat will the rest of the dough.

Use the scraps too, but make sure to refrigerate until firm first, or they won’t roll out very well. You can use whatever filling you like for these pastries, cinnamon, cream cheese, jam, preserves or nuts.