Rugelach
| Chocolate rugelach Chocolate rugelach | |
| Type | Pastry |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Poland[1][2] |
| Region or state | Central Europe |
| Associated national cuisine | Jewish cuisine |
| Created by | Ashkenazi Jews |
| Main ingredients | Dough: sour cream or cream cheese Filling: any of raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, chocolate, marzipan, poppy seed, or fruit preserves |
Rugelach (/ˈruːɡələx/ ROO-gəl-əkh; Script error: The function "langx" does not exist., or Script error: The function "langx" does not exist. and Script error: The function "langx" does not exist. rōgalaḵ)[3] is a filled baked confection originating in the Jewish communities of Poland.[1][4][2] It has become a popular treat among Jews in the diaspora and in Israel.[5]
Traditional rugelach are made in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling.[6][7] Some sources state that the rugelach and the French croissant share a common Viennese ancestor, crescent-shaped pastries commemorating the lifting of the Turkish siege,[8] possibly a reference to the Battle of Vienna in 1683. This appears to be an urban legend however, as both the rugelach and its supposed ancestor, the Kipferl, pre-date the Early Modern era, while the croissant in its modern form did not originate earlier than the 19th century (see viennoiserie). This leads many to believe that the croissant is simply a descendant of one of these two.
An alternative form is constructed much like a strudel or nut roll, but unlike those, the rolled dough and filling are cut into slices before baking.[9]
Etymology
The name is Yiddish, the historical language of Ashkenazi Jews. The -ach ending (־ך) indicates plural, while the el (־ל) can be a diminutive, as, for example, shtetlekh (שטעטלעך, villages) is the plural of shtetl (שטעטל, village), the diminutive of shtot (שטאָט, town). In this case, the root means something like "twist" so the translation would be "little twists," a reference to the shape of this pastry.[8] In this context, note that rog (ראָג) means "corner" in Yiddish.[10] In Polish, which influenced Yiddish, róg can mean "corner", but can also mean "horn" – both the kind on an animal and the musical instrument. Croissant-shaped pastries, which look like horns, are called rogale in Polish, see rogal świętomarciński. Rogale is almost identical in pronunciation and meaning to the Yiddish word rugelach.
Alternatively, some assert that the root is rugel, meaning "royal", possibly a reference to the taste.[11] This explanation is in conflict with Yiddish usage, where the word keniglich (קעניגליךּ) is the dominant word meaning "royal".[12]
Ingredients
Rugelach can be made with sour cream or cream cheese doughs,[6][7][8] but there are also pareve variants (with no dairy ingredients),[13] so that it can be eaten with or after a meat meal and still be kosher. Cream cheese doughs are the most recent, while yeast leavened[13][14] and sour cream doughsCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag are much older.
The different fillings can include raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, chocolate, marzipan, poppy seed, or fruit preserves which are rolled up inside. Vanilla-filled rugelach have become popular in New York in recent decades.
In recent years, chefs have introduced savory versions of these pastries, filled with chicken and schmaltz or salmon and boursin cheese.[15]
See also
Other crescent pastries and rolls
Other fruit-filled pastries
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Rugelach". Food. 10 November 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Boyle, Tish (10 December 2007). The Good Cookie: Over 250 delicious recipes, from simple to sublime. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-544-18663-7. Retrieved 28 March 2019 – via Google Books. Search this book on
- ↑ התקבלו 4 פירושים במילון לרוגלך
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedauto - ↑ "The Little Pastry That Could: How Rugelach Became Israel's Go to Sweet". Haaretz.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Joan Nathan, Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook, Schocken, 2004; page 284.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Judith M. Fertig, All American Desserts, Harvard Common Press, 2003; page 135.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Gil Marks, The World of Jewish Cooking, Simon and Schuster, 1996; page 326.
- ↑ Joseph Amendola and Nicole Rees, The Baker's Manual, Wiley, 2003; page 223.
- ↑ Alexander Harkavy, A Dictionary of the Yiddish Language, 1898; page 312.
- ↑ Lois Young-Tulin, Chapter 5: Mandelbrot, Rugelach and a Family Quilt, in Jewish Mothers Tell their Stories, Hayworth Press, 2000; page 45
- ↑ Alexander Harkavy, A Dictionary of the Yiddish Language, 1898; page 308.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 The Taste of Shabbos, Aish HaTorah, 1987; page 118.
- ↑ Judy Bart Kancigor, Cooking Jewish, Workman, 2007; page 474.
- ↑ Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, "The Whole Spiel: Funny essays about digital nudniks, seder selfies and chicken soup memories," Incompra Press, 2016; p. 126. ISBN 978-0-69272625-9 Search this book on .
Further reading
- Harkavy, Alexander (1898). יידיש־ענגלישעס ווערטערבוך [A dictionary of the Yiddish language ...: With a treatise on Yiddish reading, orthography and dialectal variations]. New York: The author. OCLC 19310482. Search this book on
- Lang, George (1982). George Lang's cuisine of Hungary. New York: Atheneum. Search this book on
- Grosberg Bellin, Mildred (1983). The Jewish cookbook international cooking according to the Jewish dietary laws. New York Bloch. ISBN 978-0-8197-0058-2. OCLC 614538635. Search this book on
- Klein, Ernest David (1987). A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (in עברית). Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-02-917431-9. OCLC 462199426. Search this book on
- Aish HaTorah Women's Organization (1988). The Taste of Shabbos: the complete Sabbath cookbook. Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers. OCLC 33036781. Search this book on
- Siegel, Helene; Gillingham, Karen (1995). Totally Cookies Cookbook. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts Publishing. ISBN 978-0-89087-757-9. OCLC 32312778. Search this book on
- Dembinska, Maria; Thomas, Magdalena; Weaver, William Woys (1999). Food and Drink in Medieval Poland: Rediscovering a Cuisine of the Past. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Search this book on
- Gil Marks (1996). The World of Jewish Cooking (1st paperback ed.). Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-82491-8. OCLC 34690573. Search this book on
- Olver, Lynne (June 24, 2012). "history notes—cookies, crackers & biscuits". The Food Timeline. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- Fertig, Judith M (2003). All-American Desserts: 400 Star-Spangled, Razzle-Dazzle recipes for America's best loved desserts. Boston, MA: Harvard Common Press. ISBN 978-1-299-89505-8. OCLC 785784600. Search this book on
- Amendola, Joseph; Rees, Nicole (2003). The baker's manual: 150 master formulas for baking (5th (English) ed.). Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-40525-2. OCLC 50252009. Search this book on
- Nathan, Joan (2004). Joan Nathan's Jewish holiday cookbook: revised and updated on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the publication of The Jewish holiday kitchen. Schocken Books. ISBN 978-0-8052-4217-1. OCLC 9681693669. Search this book on
- Goodman, Matthew (2005). Jewish food: the world at table. New York: HarperCollins. Search this book on
- Kancigor, Judy Bart (2007). Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family. Workman. ISBN 978-0-7611-5965-0. OCLC 966544227. Search this book on
- Grunes, Barbara (19 October 2012). The Best Bake Sale Ever Cookbook. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1-4521-2267-0. Search this book on
External links
- "Rugelach—Elsie Waldman's Recipe" from The Jewish Cookbook by Mildred Grosberg Bellin
