Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Brandy-Apple and Scotch-Strawberry Rugelach

10 year old Brandy and 30 year old Scotch in your cookies? Yes my dear reader, these cookies are for real :)
It was my turn this week to provide cookies for cookie night, I think I've topped my previous efforts...

Ingredients (pastry):

1 cup butter
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 cup bread crumbs
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 large egg

Ingredients (filling):

1 cup sliced dehydrated apples
1 cup sliced dehydrated strawberries
1 cup brandy
1 cup scotch
1/2 sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Re-hydrate the fruit with liquid of choice for 48 hours, then puree to spreadable consistency.
 The first step in this cookie was to re-hydrate the fruit. I chose to use brandy for the apples and scotch for the strawberries. To do this just pour the sliced dehydrated fruit into a bowl, add liquor, a quarter cup of sugar, and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and nutmeg. Then stir, wrap in plastic, and let sit for 48 hours. The fruit will plump. Once sufficiently soaked, blend the fruit until its a spreadable consistency.
Add cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. 

Roll out dough to about 5 to 8 mm thickness.
 The dough is very simple to make, just blend butter, cream cheese, and salt together. Let this mixture chill for an hour before attempting to roll out into a disc.
Apply egg wash, then sprinkle cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. Spoon on heaps of filling.
 The rolled out dough needs some preparations. First we'll need to apply an egg wash, then dust the dough with cinnamon and nutmeg. We'll also need to put together a sweet filler. In a bowl mix together bread crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. With the dough prepared, spread out a generous helping of fruit filling, then coat that with the bread crumb mixture.
Use a pizza wheel to slice into 8 wedges.
 The next step is to slice the dough into wedges using a pizza cutter.
Roll from outside edge to inside tip.
 Each wedge is rolled from the wide end towards the tip. This produces a cookie that is shaped like a croissant.
These strawberries were de-hydrated, the 30 year old Scotch appears to have re-invigorated them.
 Repeat the above steps for each type of fruit filling you'd like to try out.
Apples vs Strawberries: Everyone Wins! 
Once you've processed all of your cookies, it's time to start baking. Preheat your oven to 325F, then bake the cookies for 30 minutes until golden brown.
After 30 minutes at 325F.  
Sweet, puffy, crumbly, and oh yes, they burn going down :)
These cookies went over very well with my friends. I'd suggest adding some powdered sugar to the tops for presentation. I hope you enjoyed this recipe :)