I made rugelach for the first time a few months ago. Since then I haven’t  been able to stop thinking of  all the delicious fillings you could make them with. This time I used pumpkin, spices, pepitas and raisins. They were so good. Not overly sweet….although if that’s what you are going for you could easily toss in some extra sugar.

The Dough

• 4oz cold cream cheese, cut into tbsp sized pats
• 1/2 cup of cold unsalted butter, cut into tbsp sized pats
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• confectioners sugar for dusting table

The Filling

• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 2tbsp sugar
• 2tbsp brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup of raisins
• 1/4 cup pepitas, whole or chopped

Egg Wash

• 1 egg, beaten + 1 tbsp water

To make the dough-

1. remove the butter and cream cheese from the fridge. Let stand for 10-15 minutes or so.
2. add the flour and salt to your for processor and give a quick pulse.
3. add the cream cheese and butter. Pulse just enough to incorporate the ingredients, you want large crumbly chunks. Do not over do it!
4. divide the dough into 2 balls. flatten into disks, wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper.
5. refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

To assemble-

1. when the dough has chilled, remove the first disk from the refrigerator and let sit for a few minutes.
2. dust the work area with confectioners sugar then roll out the dough into a 12 inch circle.
3. spread half of the pumpkin mixture evenly over the dough.
4. mix together the sugar, spices and salt.
5. sprinkle with a little less than half of the sugar/spice mixture.
6. top with half of the raisins and pepitas.
7. using a knife or pastry cutter, cut the dough into 16 triangles.
8. roll up each triangle, starting with the wide end of the triangle.
9. place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
10. refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
11. repeat with the second disk of dough.
12. preheat the oven to 350.
13. brush the cookies with the egg wash.
14. sprinkle with the remaining sugar/spice mixture.
15. bake for about 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

*tip-to prevent the bottoms from browning too quickly I like to double up my baking sheets!

Alternative fillings-

• favourite jam(not too runny),nuts of choice
• caramel, chocolate chips and shredded coconut
• chocolate hazelnut spread and toasted nuts
• apricot jam, almonds and mixed dried fruit
• butterscotch, raisins and pecans

Poppy had a few of her closest friends over this week for a fun filled morning of cookie baking. We made these super yummy and easy lollipop cookies. As you can see they were a hit.

This is how Poppy and I spent our morning…..Enjoy!

for the cookies:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed and room temperature

1 cup organic granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 orange, 1 1/2 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice

1 tsp organic vanilla extract

2 cups self rising flour, (if you don’t have self rising flour on hand you can use  all purpose flour + 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt)

preheat oven to 350. In a stand mixer on medium-high, cream together the butter slowly adding the sugar. Add the egg then the orange juice and vanilla. Reduce speed to med-low and gradually add the flour. Mix until combined ( do not over mix ); separate the dough into two disks and wrap with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. On a well floured surface roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch in thickness. Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many hearts as you can! Place the hearts on a parchment lined baking sheet and toss in the freezer for about 5 minutes. Remove from th freezer and bake for 10 minutes or until the bottoms and edges are begining to brown slightly.

For the Icing:

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 tbsp meringue powder

1/4 cup water, room temp

1/2 tsp oil free vanilla extract, make sure there is no oil or it will ruin the icing!

pinch of cream of tartar

In the bowl of your stand mixer add the sugar, meringue powder and cream of tartar. Mix together using the paddle attachment. Add the extract to the water and slowly add it to the dry ingredients. Mix on medium speed for about 5-6 minutes ( it should at this point be thick like pudding ) then up the speed to high for another 3-4 minutes or until stiff and fluffy like meringue (make sure you do not over mix! Regardless of how long you have been mixing STOP as soon the peaks form or in other words it becomes stiff)

*note: if this all seems like far more time and effort than you wanted to spend making valentine cookies,  you can alway buy pre-made white cookie icing it’s super easy to use, you don’t need a piping bag….way less clean up annnd you don’t have to let them set overnight! hmmmm that sounds pretty good lol

To decorate:

pipe the outline of a heart inside each cookie then flood with icing; if you don’t know how to flood cookies with icing check out this tutorial on sweetsugarbelle. Once you have flooded your cookies, let them set overnight. Using a food marker decorate the iced parts of the hearts. These make the perfect little valentine. Share the love! x0