Yeasted Chocolate Rugelach
I pulled my first tray of these at golden and called it done. Big mistake. They tasted fine, but they had none of that dark, glassy shell you see in a bakery case, so now I leave them in until the ridges go close to mahogany, even when it makes me a little nervous. The other thing I got wrong was spacing. Rugelach usually means a small cream cheese cookie here, but this is the other kind, a soft yeast dough closer to babka, and it wants company on the pan.
I crowd them on purpose, twelve to a sheet, so they rise into each other and you end up tearing one off the pile. The syrup goes on the second they’re out of the oven. We eat them with coffee, and leftovers keep two days in a sealed tin.
These yeasted chocolate rugelach bake up soft and pull apart into thin, bready layers striped with cocoa-rich chocolate hazelnut filling. A little almond flour keeps that filling thick enough to stay put through the rise. The dough uses oil instead of butter, which keeps the crumb tender. Plan on about three hours, mostly rising.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Stir the warm milk, the yeast and 1 tablespoon of the 1/3 cup sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes, until the surface turns foamy.1 cup milk, 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast, 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- Add the flour, the rest of the 1/3 cup sugar, the room-temperature egg, the vanilla paste and the oil. Knead with the dough hook on medium speed for 2 minutes, add the 3/4 teaspoon salt, then keep kneading for 6 to 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth, elastic and just slightly tacky.4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 large egg, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, 6 tbsp neutral oil, 3/4 tsp fine salt
- Shape the dough into a ball and set it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let it rise at room temperature for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until doubled.
- Stir the chocolate hazelnut spread, the 1/4 teaspoon salt, the cocoa powder and the almond flour together in a bowl until you have a thick, even paste. If it's too stiff to spread, microwave it for 10 seconds.3/4 cup chocolate hazelnut spread, 1/4 tsp fine salt, 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/3 cup almond flour
- Punch down the dough, cut it in half and keep one half covered. On a lightly floured surface, roll the other half into a thin 12 x 20-inch rectangle. Spread half of the filling over it, right to the edges. Fold the dough in half along the long side to make a 6 x 20-inch strip, then roll it gently until it's about 8 inches wide and the filling shows through.
- Cut the strip into 12 long triangles, about 3 inches wide at the base. Roll each triangle up from the wide end toward the point, stretching it slightly as you go, and tuck the point underneath. Set them on a parchment-lined sheet pan, close together in a loose round so they just touch. Repeat with the second half of the dough and the rest of the filling on a second pan, for 24 rugelach in all.
- Cover the pans loosely and let the rugelach rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until puffy and pressed against each other. Preheat the oven to 350°F for the last 20 minutes of the rise.
- Simmer the 1/2 cup sugar and the water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens slightly but stays runny. Take it off the heat, stir in the vanilla paste if you're using it, and keep it warm.1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup water, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- Brush the rugelach with the beaten egg. Bake for about 25 minutes, swapping and rotating the pans halfway through, until the tops are a deep mahogany brown.1 large egg
- Brush all of the warm syrup over the rugelach as soon as they leave the oven. Let them cool on the pans for at least 20 minutes, then pull them apart to serve.
Nutrition
Notes
For a richer dough, swap the oil for 7 tablespoons of melted butter. Vanilla extract works in place of the vanilla bean paste.
You might also like our Italian Bomboloni.
made these sunday and the syrup step is no joke, they were still soft on tuesday. i warmed the filling 10 sec in the microwave and it spread way easier