Happy Hannukah!

December 22nd: No, I'm not Jewish, but in honor of those who are and are celebrating Hannukah (or those who just like the desserts), today I made Rugelach. Other than knowing what's in this recipe, though, I know nothing about this dessert. (I honestly just found it using a Google search.) This recipe is a Martha Stewart one, which I was hesitant to use because I've had some problems with some of her recipes before. Really, my stuff just never comes out as pretty as hers, which makes me think I did something wrong. That was still the case with this recipe, but they tasted amazing according to my husband, my in-laws, and my husband's co-workers, so I guess that's all that really counts.

This recipe was not without it's difficulties/moments of utter terror that I was going to end up with a mish-mashed pile of doughy, apricot-y slop. Specifically, the first disc of dough stuck to my counter despite the surface being floured. Now, we have granite countertops. I have no idea if this would affect such things, but it was the first time I'd had such a problem with anything sticking to a counter that's been floured. Thus, for discs 2 and 3, I rolled them out on parchment paper, which significantly helped.

Ah, the wonders of parchment paper . . .

Because of the melty, gooey nature of the apricot jelly/preserves, both sets look a little messy, but hopefully you can see that the ones on the right look neater than the ones on the left. The ones on the right are the ones I used parchment paper for whereas those on the left stuck to the counter.

I made another slight modification with disc 2 as well: I cut the dough into wedges and then added the chocolate chips rather than adding the chips and then cutting, as the recipe directs. I did this because, in addition to the sticking issue with disc 1, I had a problem with the chocolate chips moving, dragging, and generally causing a mess of my disc 1 wedges. Placing the chips after the wedges were cut was much neater and meant I didn't have a lot of wasted chips that were running away and hiding under my cabinets because they'd fallen off the dough during the rolling process.

All dressed up and ready to be taken out!

For the last disc, I left out the chocolate chips because I'm a fan of giving people options when I can, in case they don't like or want something that's non-essential to the recipe. Also because, when I looked up other Rugelach recipes, I found chocolate chip ones and apricot-walnut ones, but this was the only chocolate chip-apricot-walnut one I found. Apparently they were good both ways, but my husband actually preferred them with the chocolate chips because he said it balanced out the apricot. (I took his word for it. I don't like apricots, so I didn't try these particular goodies.)

So there you have it. If I make these in the future, maybe I'll make all three kinds, just 'cause I like to mix it up like that.