I started The Culinary Institute of America on September 28th 1982….
I will never forget the 1st day of cooking and meeting all of my classmates.
One dude that I made an immediate connection with was Ken Shore!
He just walked up to me and started talking and talking and talking.
Needless to say, Ken is a major player in the hospitality industry, although no longer sweating in the Kitchen.
But as they say- once you get the food business in your blood, there is no turning back!
Here is Ken’ Rugelach recipe which was tweaked from his Grandmother’s recipe!
Ingredients
- Rugelach Dough
- 8oz butter – room temp
- 8oz cream cheese – room temp
- 2-¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp bar sugar
- 1/8tsp salt
- 1/2tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Cream butter and cream cheese med high speed scrape down with a spatula twice
- Add vanilla mix
- Sift dry ingredients
- Add dry ingredients in two batches, mix to incorporated
- Fold out onto a flowered surface
- Kneed to combined
- Refrigerate at least an hour
- Roll out and tri fold on flour surface (like croissant dough or a business letter)
- Refrigerate at least an hour
- Cut dough into thirds and cover
- Roll out one at a time to 1/8 – ¼” thick
- Use a cake ring or mixing bowl (upside down) to cut a circle
Filling
- 2 cups Chocolate – dark
- 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts – toasted lightly colored
- In food processor blend nuts and chocolate to make pasted and remove
(Hint… keep warm or re-warm in bowl in microwave easier to spread on dough)
Alternative filling
- Raspberry preserve
- Apricot preserve
- Chopped nuts
- Cinnamon sugar
- Assembly and Bake
- 1 egg for egg wash
Method
- Spread filling evenly on circle dough leaving 1-2” filling free boarder outer circle and 1” middle of circle (so easy to roll dough)
- Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar with a light even amount for seasoning
- Cut circle (from above) into 3” triangle (just like you would cut a pizza) half and thirds etc.
- Roll each triangle like a croissant
- Sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar (fully coat)
- Brush egg wash on top of each rugelach
- I use parchment paper to bake
- Bake 350 degrees until lightly brown
- Remove from pan when cool
