Orange-Cranberry-Chocolate Rugelach

Is it pronounced roo-guh-lah or rug-uh-lah? Or more like this horn? The reason I’m a little doubtful of my pronunciation is because English is not my first language. I once pronounced wreath like breath (did I trick you into saying breathe? Or still breath?). And whenever I said I’m making roo-guh-lah, Ryann thought I was making arugula salad. Anyway, however it is pronounced, this little nugget of a cookie is traditionally made with nuts and chocolate. A good friend of mine has a mom with nut allergy so I decided to make one without and gifted them some for the holidays. It took me two tries to nail this because… well, you’ll see. Oh, and a fair bit of warning: this is like a two-day process for me. You can make it in one day but the resting period (both for the cookie and for the baker) to be essential.

Ingredients (for about four dozen cookies):

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
0.5 teaspoon salt
8 oz. (225 grams) unsalted butter (2 standard sticks)
8 oz. (225 grams) cream cheese
1 cup (250 ml) orange marmalade (you will likely use less than this but sometimes it’s good to be extra)
0.5 cup (90 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips, chopped smaller or use mini chocolate chips (you can also use dark chocolate here if you prefer)
0.5 cup (100 grams) dried cranberries or sour cherries, chopped small
1 egg for egg wash
0.5 cup (125 grams) demerara sugar

Directions:

In a food processor with a standard blade, combine flour and salt then add the cream cheese, cut into large chunks. Turn on the machine until the mixture is combined evenly. Add butter in large chunks and pulse until the dough starts to clump. This may take more than a few pulses. The idea here is sort of like making pie dough but without the ice water. You are just looking to combine flour, salt, and fat so it is important to keep both butter and cream cheese cold. Also, on my first try, I had to take a phone call and the dough turns really soft. It’s not going to affect the end product but it was definitely harder to handle.

I did experiment with some orange zest in the dough and I think it turned out okay but I think you will want a TON of zest so I opted to not include it in subsequent attempts.
After the dough clumps in the food processor, take it out and divide into four even pieces. If you see large pieces of butter unincorporated into the dough, don’t worry. They’ll be just fine in the end. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and then flatten into a square-ish shape. Or disc-shape is fine but the square will make it easier to roll out later on. Refrigerate all the dough for at least two hours or overnight. You can also pre-make this and keep it in the fridge for up to one week.
Prepare a sheet pan and line it with parchment paper. Take out one of the pieces of dough, and on a floured counter, roll it out into a rectangle roughly 12×8 inches (30×20 cm). Spread the orange marmalade thinly all over the dough except for about 0.5 inch (1.5 cm) one one of the long edges, preferably furthest away from you. That will be the end of your rolled dough. If your marmalade is rather difficult to spread, heat it up slightly in a microwave or dip the jar in a bowl of warm water. Sprinkle with a quarter of the chocolate chips and a quarter of the dried cranberries/cherries.
Roll the dough tightly and when you get to the end, you can lightly brush it with some water to seal. Put the roll seam side down on the sheet pan with parchment paper and then refrigerate. Repeat this with the remaining cookie dough and let all the logs sit in the fridge for two hours. I’m also happy to report that I’ve successfully left the logs in the fridge for three days without compromising the quality of the cookies. If you do that, just make sure to cover the logs with plastic wrap so they don’t pick up the scents of other stuff in your fridge.
When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare another sheet pan and line it with parchment paper. In a small bowl, beat the egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the log with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with demerara sugar. Then, cut them into twelve even pieces and place them upright on the sheet pan (no need to space out too much as they won’t spread).

Do not place them on their cut side because they’ll end up looking like this sad pinwheel:

They still tasted good though. This was my failed first attempt that I like to dub the baker’s snackage.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top. Repeat with the remaining cookie logs but be sure to cool the sheet pan before putting down the next batch of cookies to bake. You can do this by running the pan through cold water for ten seconds or so. Cool the baked cookies on a wire rack and then devour!…