low sugar dessert | nina in the kitchen

Rugelach/Aunt Marie’s Cheese Horns

Posted on February 3, 2015 by nina in the kitchen

Aunt Marie (Korzin Winiarski) was my mom’s older sister. Mom had 5 brothers and 5 sisters. She was also the middle child. I won’t analyze that. My grandmother did not make many desserts, but her daughters learned to.

Aunt Marie was a wonderful baker. At our large family gatherings she was known for these cookies we called Cheese Horns. The dough is not sweet and is made with cottage cheese. It wasn’t till recent years that I learned these were a form of Rugelach, a rolled cookie made with cream cheese or cottage cheese and filled with a variety of sugar, nuts and dried fruits or poppy seed paste, jam or chocolate. It is a Jewish Eastern European cookie which means “little twist” or “little corners”. I’ve seen much more complex recipes than this one. Mine is easy and not exceptionally sweet.

Ingredients

Dough Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

8 ounces cottage cheese

2 cups flour

Filling Ingredients

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cinnamon, optional

Brush on Rugelach

1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tablespoon water

Rugelach Dough

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F

2. In a mixer beat butter till fluffy. Add cottage cheese and mix till combined

3. Mix in flour. Chill until ready to use

4. Prepare work space with flour or a use a floured pastry cloth

5. Divide pastry into 4 rounds

6. Place a round of dough on a floured surface. I use a Foley brand pastry cloth and frame and a rolling pin covered with a knit cover.

Foley pastry cloth, covered rolling pin, covered with sifted flour

7. Roll into a thin round about 9 inches across.

8. Brush entire surface with melted butter

Sprinkle with dark brown sugar
Sprinkle with chopped pecans
Sprinkle with cinnamon

Melted butter, brown sugar & chopped pecans

9. Using a small knife, cut across the dough in half. Cut into 12-16 segments, depending how large you want the cookies.

10. Roll up each cookie, starting at the wider end.

Place small end down on a parchment covered baking sheet.
Brush entire surface with a mixture of 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon water.

Brush Rugelach with egg yolk wash

11. Bake at 400 degrees for 13 minutes or until just turning lightly browned. Cool on wire racks. Don’t let the bottoms burn.

12. Scrape off the excess flour and pecan/ brown sugar toppings from the work area before rolling the next round of dough. Flour the work surface with more flour.

12. I often double this recipe. When brushing on the egg wash make sure you start with a fresh egg and water half way through brushing the 2 batches of cookies

Voila!