Rugelach

This recipe was inspired by my friend Alyna who delivered a few to us (She has her own youtube channel check it out). I tried it and it's delicious now let's get baking!

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup sour cream

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp granulated sugar

One large egg (beaten)

Filling of your choice

Method

1. Let the butter and cream cheese come to room temperature. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese together with the sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and sugar. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, mixing constantly, until dough holds together and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Don't overmix. Pour dough onto a lightly floured rolling surface and form into a rough ball shape.

2. Divide the ball into four equal pieces and form those pieces into rough balls. Cover each ball with plastic and place in the refrigerator. Refrigerate dough balls for at least 1 1/2 hours, for up to 48 hours.

3. Preheat oven to 375° F or 190° C. Lightly flour your rolling surface and rolling pin. Take one portion of the dough out the refrigerator (keep the rest of the dough cold until ready to use). Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. You may need to use the rolling pin to pound out the dough a bit at the beginning; the dough will be very firm and cold but will become more pliable as it starts to warm. Just keep rolling with a firm, even pressure.

4. Lift the dough gently from the rolling surface (it may stick a bit) and re-flour your surface beneath the dough.

5. Replace the dough onto the newly re-floured surface. Use a round 9" cake pan as a guide to make a nice, smooth imprint of a circle in the dough.

6. Cut the dough into a large circle, following the shape of the cake pan. If you don't have a cake pan, just guesstimate the size of the circle and cut it as smoothly as you can.

7. Form the trimmed excess dough into a small ball. Wrap it in plastic and reserve in the refrigerator, adding to the ball with each batch that is made.

8. Take 4 tbsp of your filling and place it in the centre of the circle. Spread it very thinly across the surface of the dough; a thick layer of filling will make your cookies expand and burst. You can use your fingers to make the spreading easier; I like to use a knife to flatten and even out the filling. Leave about an inch around the edges of the circle.

9. Cut the circle into 8 equal triangles. If you prefer to make smaller bite-sized cookies, divide each quarter into three to make 12 equal triangles.

10. Roll each triangle, starting from the wide flat end and rolling towards the narrow point.

11. Press the endpoint into the cookie to secure it. Place the rolled cookies onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, endpoint down. Leave an inch between the cookies, as they will expand slightly during baking.

12. When you are ready to bake, brush the top of each cookie with egg wash. Place cookies in the oven and let them back for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

13. Repeat with the other batches.