TwD: Rugelach

The first recipe for this March by the Tuesdays with Dorie group is something that I've never baked before or even heard of until I flipped through the pages of Baking With Julia.  Looking at the ingredients list and procedure, I felt confident that I would bake this without any cinches especially with the cream cheese pastry being really similar to the crust of my pecan tassies which I've made countless times.  Well the mixing part was really easy but this roo-ga-la quickly turned into roo-ga-laaaaahhhh! while I was rolling it.  The crust, even though I made sure it was at least 1/4 -inch thick disintegrated in my fingertips (probably due to very high humidity) and I ended up with a very crumbly and sticky mess. 

To salvage all of my efforts, I decided to portion them into mini-muffin molds instead while making sure to evenly distribute the sugar, nuts and fruits in each.  It was really impossible to keep things neat at this point.  I refrigerated them overnight and baked them the next morning at the same time and temperature stated in the recipe. 

Actually they turned out quite good and really crispy on the outside with a lovely gooey bite from the melted sugar and fruits.  I found these a little sweet though and it would definitely be a lot better with less sugar as the fruits themselves already lend some sweetness to the filling.  

The next time I attempt making this (if there will be a next time!) I won't even bother trying to roll this as stated in the recipe.  I'll do the same thing as what I did here (but of course in a neater fashion) by pressing the crust inside the mini-muffin molds and place the fruits, nuts, and sugar inside.

The hosts for this recipe is Jessica of My Baking Heart and Margaret of The Urban Hiker and you can check their sites to get a copy of this recipe adapted from Baking With Julia where the contributing baker is Lauren Groveman.