ABC - Maple-Pecan Medjool Date Rugelach

This month's Avid Baker's Challenge is the Eastern European pastry called Rugelach; Maple-Pecan Almond Medjool Date Rugelach to be exact. I've been intrigued by this pastry for a long time. I've never eaten it or baked it, but when I saw the recipe in Flo Braker's book, Baking for all Occasions, I knew I had to make it. This pastry consists of a lightly sweetened cream cheese/butter pastry dough, subtly accented with citrus zest, wrapped around a brown sugar/nut/Medjool date filling. I happen to love dates, especially Medjool dates, so this recipe was like music to my ears.

Coming up are some step-by-step pictures that I'd like to share with you. I hope these pictures inspire you to head into your own kitchen and bake lots of Rugelach :o)

I made half a recipe which yielded 4 dozen pastries. The pastry dough is scented with citrus zest. I chose orange zest instead of lemon zest and although I cut the recipe in half, I kept the amount of zest the same. Yum! Making the dough couldn't be easier; it's made in the food processor, divided into 4 equal pieces (for me, that's 90 grams each) and then refrigerated.

Plump and sweet Medjool dates - almost 2.5" long

Medjool dates are the Cadillac of dates (in my opinion anyway). They're big, meaty, sweet, soft and chewy. For this recipe, the Medjool dates are pitted and quartered and set this aside until it's time to fill the Rugelach.

Filling mis-en-place

Each piece of dough is rolled out to an 8" circle. A thin film of maple syrup is applied to the dough to acts as glue for the brown sugar/cinnamon/nut filling. This filling is gently pressed into the dough and then the dough is cut into 12 wedges. I was so fixated on the number "8" while rolling out my first dough piece, that I cut it into 8 wedges, instead of 12. I realized my mistake when I was almost done with that circle and I still had date quarters left, ha ha. To get nice fluted edges, I used a fluted pastry wheel to cut the dough.

Step-by-step pictures for filling the Rugelach (I really need to grow a third hand so I can hold the camera and roll Rugelach at the same time):

I was able to fit 20 pastries onto my large cookie sheet. Into a 325 F (convection) oven they went  for about 17 minutes.

These pastries turn golden brown around the edges and remain fairly pale in the middle. While still warm, their top is dipped into a maple glaze and then into finely chopped nuts for decoration.

Isn't that pretty?

These pastries are at their absolute best about 15 minutes after they come out of the oven while still slightly warm. Mmmm!

Bon Appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby enjoyed these a lot! He said "the pastry is flaky and soft, and the filling is good; nice and soft", and gave it a rating of 9 out of 10.
• I was very excited about this recipe and as always, Flo did not disappoint. The pastry is flaky and tender, and the filling has the right sweetness and the perfect soft-to-crunchy ratio. The dates are definitely front and center which I liked. The toasted almonds also gave the pastry a lot of flavor, as did the orange zest. I also enjoyed the nut topping.
• Substitutions: I substituted orange zest for the lemon zest. And although I made only half the recipe, I used the full amount of zest. Instead of pecans, I used toasted almonds.
• I took some of these to work today and everybody loved them: "these are really good", "I like those thingies that look like little croissants", "I didn't think I was going to like it but I loved it" :o)
• Don't forget to check out the ABC blog roll.