Grain and Dairy Free Pistacchio Rugelach

Grain and Dairy free Pistacchio Chocolate Rugelach

Seems like I'm on a rugelach roll ... All of a sudden, the idea of making those rugelach cookies with a filling of pistacchios and chocolate popped into my mind, so I had to make them immediately.

Not much of a story behind these, except that I had planned to spend a lazy Sunday, which was supposed to NOT involve any baking at all.

How wrong I was.

This recipe is different from the first one not only regarding the filling, but I also swapped the ground almonds and cashews in the cookie dough for ground walnuts. That does make the dough even harder to roll out (not that the first one was great to roll out, but I suck at rolling out anyway, so never mind). You can sure use ground almonds and cashews instead or maybe even ground pecans. The walnuts have a unique flavour, though.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 100 g potato starch
• 25 g tapioca starch
• 125 g ground walnuts
• 1/8 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 50 g sugar (or in my case xylitol)
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp. coconut oil
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. cardamom

Filling:

• 150 g pistacchios, shelled, unsalted
• 2 tbsp. potato starch
• 2 tbsp. tapioca starch
• 1/8 tsp. xanthan gum
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. white sugar (or xylitol)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 50 g chopped dark chocolate (80% is best, but 70 will do, too)

Preparation:

• First combine all ingredients for the dough, shape into a small loaf that can be cut into 3 equal pieces, wrap in cling film and put into freezer.
• Place all filling ingredients except for the chocolate in a food processor and process until you get a paste which should be as smooth as possible (there will be still pistacchio pieces in it, which is fine).
• Add the chopped chocolate and stir to combine.
• Take the dough out of the freezer and cut off 1/3 of it, put the rest back into the freezer.
• Preheat oven (static) to 350°F (180°C).
• On a board, roll the dough between to pieces of non stick baking parchment into a rectangle about 25 x 15 x 0.5 cm.
• Distribute 1/3 of the filling on the dough and roll it up from the long end so that you get a long roll. Cut into ca. 2 cm pieces and place onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
• Proceed the same way with the second and third batch.
• Bake for about 20 minutes (depending on your oven, one or two minutes more or less, so watch the cookies after 18 minutes!)
• Let the cookies firm up on the baking tray for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. They can be stored in a cookie tin for up to a week (if they make it that long).
• Enjoy!

Grain and Dairy Free Rugelach

Grain and Dairy free Rugelach

From the flood of recipes available on the internet, this must be the most popular Jewish dessert ever. I'm no specialist on that topic, but I know I have thought about rugelach myself more than one time during the past couple of years.

There are recipes with yeast, without yeast, with cream cheese, without cream cheese, vegan, gluten free - I guess I was just plain unsure about what actually is the original recipe of rugelach. I mean, a baked good made with yeast is quite different from one without yeast, right?

Some weeks ago my dear friend Sharon told me she was going to buy her favourite desserts for Passover and that she thought they might be gluten free. I was a bit confused because I thought there had matzo meal to be involved, which of course is not gluten free.

Turns out I was completely ignorant of the actual rules of preparing food for Passover. There must not be raw flour from grains involved, thus many desserts nowadays are gluten free because they are just plain made with nut flour and potato or tapioca starch to avoid any problems that could arise when the matzo has not been made well enough to not leave any pockets of flour in it.

We found that Sharon was right: all the goodies were gluten free, and among them were also chocolate rugelach.

I was totally flashed by the look of them and decided that I HAD to make them.

She sent me the ingredient list and told me that these particular rugelach were very cookie-like, not flaky as they probably would be when made with cream cheese.

The cashews in the ingredient list might hint that they used vegan cream cheese made from cashews, but I decided to just use ground cashews and go ahead to see what happened.

And what happened were some of the most delicious cookies I've ever made, if I may say so myself. Sometimes you just get it with the first attempt, throw things together, and the result is perfect. Most probably that happens when you're in the flow.

When I made these, I most definitely was in the flow!

Ingredients:

Dough:

100 g potato starch

25 g tapioca starch

75 g ground almonds

50 g ground cashews

1/8 tsp. xanthan gum

1 tsp. baking powder

50 g sugar (or in my case xylitol)

1 egg

2 tbsp. coconut oil

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. coconut milk

vanilla, cinnamon to taste

Chocolate filling:

50 g ground cashews

25 g ground almonds

2 tbsp. potato starch

1 tbsp. tapioca starch

1/8 tsp. xanthan gum

3 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tbsp. maple syrup

3 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. white sugar (or xylitol)

50 g dark chocolate (70%), chopped

2 tbsp. coconut oil, melted

1 tbsp. olivve oil

4 tbsp. coconut milk

Preparation:

First combine all ingredients for the dough, shape into a small loaf that can be cut into 3 equal pieces, wrap in cling film and put into freezer.

Place all filling ingredients in a food processor and process until you get a paste which should be as smooth as possible (there will be still chocolate pieces in it).

Take the dough out of the freezer and cut off 1/3 of it, put the rest back into the freezer.

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

On a board, roll the dough into a rectangle about 25 x 15 x 0.5 cm.

Distribute 1/3 of the filling on the dough and roll it up from the long end so that you get a long roll. Cut into ca. 2 cm pieces, place onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake for 22-25 minutes.

While the first batch is cooking, proceed with the second. Depending on how quick you are, you can get the second and third batch ready within the 22-25 minutes baking time of the first batch.

Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack. They can be stored in a cookie tin for up to a week (if they make it that long).

Enjoy!