Rolly Polly Cookie (Rugelach based Jam Cookie)

Rolly Polly Cookie (Rugelach based Jam Cookie)
If and when I manage to get some time I try to watch Ina Garten’s cookery show on the TV. I have watched a few shows but never quite tried any of her recipes. One of the reasons was most of the main courses was non-vegetarian and the desserts usually needed a high tech mixer or good few eggs and not to mention a lot of fat. One recipe sounded really interesting and also had no eggs so I thought I will give it a try. It is called rugelach and it is suppose to be a Jewish recipe. It involves making a dough with cream cheese, flour and butter. For some reason, it did not hold its shape and the jam filling in it came out. I still tasted it and it was heavenly! How deceiving appearance could be! Despite thinking it looked awful my husband liked the taste as well. That is all well but this is not quite rugelach recipe. The thing is I had bought a bottle of apricot jam and had to finish it off so I tried a similar recipe from an Indian book. The recipe said the biscuits should be cut to individual pieces after baking. I wanted to see what happens if they were precut and suggest just stick to cutting later. I must say that this is not like a regular biscuit and it is more a cookie that can be served as a dessert like a pie. It does not matter when you serve but you just got to try this when you decide it is ok to indulge occasionally. The final texture is pastry with a nice flaky crispness. Here is the recipe adapted from the book...

150gm flour
70 g butter,softened
30 g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
4 tablespoon jam (I used apricot jam but you could use any you like)
Flour for dusting
2-3 tablespoons milk

Sift the flour baking powder, salt together and add the butter and mix with finger tips and add sugar, mix and add required milk to make a tight dough like poori dough. Do not knead too much. Wrap in a cling film and refrigerate for atleast 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into two portions and roll each into a disc about 3-5 mm thick using some flour for dusting. Remember you should not roll like chappatti where you apply pressure when moving rolling pin towards nd away from you. Apply pressure only one way and if it breaks, just use your hand to correct it.

Spread jam evenly over it and roll it like a mat. Bake at 180degC for 15 minutes.

Once baked, cut into desired size pieces when it is hot (ignore the precut pieces in above pic).

Serve!

 
Next time I hope to put some chopped nuts along with the jam making it closer to a rugelach