TWD: Baking With Julia - Rugelach

So I am back with another Tuesdays With Dori recipe. This week it is Rugelach, before having to make this recipe I didn't even know what Rugelach was! For those of you who are like me and never even heard of Rugelach let me help you out...it is a Jewish cookie/pastry made with a cream cheese dough and filled with dried fruits and nuts. They are usually made in a crescent roll shape but for this recipe we rolled it jelly roll style and cut them into pin wheels.

The recipe for these cookies to me was a little difficult and takes A LOT of time. Expect to spend 2-3 days with this recipe if you want to make them. For me, the hardest part was rolling out the dough. For some reason I can not get a hang of it and im not quite sure what I am doing wrong! Whenever I have to roll out dough by the time I am done me and the kitchen is covered in flour and I am left with dough that looks very sad! LOL Oh well hopefully by the end of this challenge that will be something I can improve on and not be such a disaster in the kitchen with!! Oh yeah one more thing...I think when I cut the cookies into pin wheels I cut them to big (they were suppose to be cut 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick) because when they were cooking some of them tipped over. So IF I ever make this recipe again I will stick more to 1 inch. :)

I filled my Rugelach with Apricot lekvar (homemade btw!) dried cherries, raisins and assorted nuts. If you want the actually recipe for these cookies head on over to either one of this weeks host and check it out. First is Jessica at My Baking Heart and then we have Margaret over at The Urban Hiker.

The end result for me was a pile of cookies that to me didn't look very good but luckily everyone who tried them thought they were great so I suppose that is a good thing, right??

Pumpkin Pie

I saw an episode of Good Eats awhile ago and on it the host Alton Brown was making a pumpkin pie from scratch. Im talking roasting a pumpkin in the oven to make the puree from scratch and it actually looked really easy.

I am hosting my first Thanksgiving this year and I am SO excited! Not only have I been asking to host it for like 4 years now and my in-laws are finally giving in and relinquishing the rights to Turkey Day BUT its the first Thanksgiving I can actually DO everything and BREATH while doing it so I want everything to be PERFECT!

So since I have never made this pie before I wanted to make a practice pie to see what everyone thinks so I didn't have a Thanksgiving Day disaster on my hands with a crappy pumpkin pie!

Its not like the traditional pumpkin pie everyone is used to because its made with REAL pumpkin and out of the people who tried it, it was 50/50 on whether or not they like it. My father-in-law LOVED it especially the ginger snap crust. My husband liked it but said there was something "off" about it. That seemed to be the consensus of the people who didn't care for it. So my suggestion would be that if you think you want to try this pie for the big day make it ahead of time to see if you really like it or not.

Here is the recipe!

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

Crust:

• 6 ounces gingersnap cookies
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 ounce unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

• 16 ounces Pumpkin Puree, recipe follows
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the crust: Combine the gingersnaps, brown sugar, and ginger in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the cookies are fine crumbs. Drizzle the butter into the crumb mixture. Pulse 8 to 10 times to combine.

Press the gingersnap mixture into the bottom, up the sides, and just over the lip of a 9-inch glass pie dish. Place on a half sheet pan and bake the crust for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool crust at least 10 minutes before filling.

For the filling: Bring the pumpkin puree to a simmer over medium heat in a 2-quart saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the half-and-half, nutmeg, and salt. Stir and return the mixture to a simmer. Remove the pumpkin mixture from the heat and cool for 10 minutes.

Whisk the brown sugar, eggs, and yolk until smooth in a large bowl. Add the pumpkin mixture and whisk until thoroughly combined. Pour the prepared filling into the warm pie crust and bake on the same half sheet pan until the center jiggles slightly but the sides of the filling are set, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack for at least 2 to 3 hours before slicing. Pie can be made and refrigerated up to 2 days in advance. Pie is best the day after it is made.

Pumpkin Puree:

• 1 (4 to 6-pound) baking pumpkin, rinsed and dried
• Kosher salt

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Slice a small piece of skin off the one side of the pumpkin so when laid on its side, the pumpkin will lay flat without rolling. Remove the stem and split the pumpkin in half from top to bottom, using a large cleaver and a mallet. Scoop out the seeds and fiber with a large metal spoon or ice cream scoop. Cut the fibers with kitchen shears if necessary. Reserve seeds for another use.

Sprinkle the flesh with kosher salt and lay the halves, flesh side down, on a parchment paper-lined half sheet pan. Roast until a paring knife can be easily inserted and removed from the pumpkin, 30 to 45 minutes. Test in several places to ensure doneness.

Remove the half sheet pan to a cooling rack and cool the pumpkin for 1 hour. Using a large spoon, remove the roasted flesh of the pumpkin from the skin to the bowl of a food processor. Process until the flesh is smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months.

**To make the whip cream on top I just used 1 cup heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tbs. confectioners sugar. But you can use good old fashion cool whip if you prefer! :)

Basic Tossed Salad and Milky Way Fudge!

Friday night we had company again. My husbands brother, his wife and kids all came over for dinner and then we watched Bridesmaids (hilarious movie btw!) I had planned on a Mexican themed dinner with Chicken Enchiladas, refried beans and Spanish rice but I was worried that the kids wouldn't like it and to be honest my back has been killing me all week so I really just wanted something easy that I could prepare ahead of time so I wasn't standing in the kitchen while everyone else was hanging out.

So I went with my awesome Baked Ziti (you can find that recipe here!) a basic salad with homemade dressing and for dessert I made Milky Way Fudge...it was SO good and every single one of the kiddos cleaned their plates. That's a WIN in my book!! :)

Basic Tossed Salad W/ Homemade Dressing

Ingredients

• 2 hearts romaine lettuce
• 2 small plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 Kirby cucumber or 1/4 European seedless cucumber, diced
• 1 small yellow onion or 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and shredded
• 1 /4 cup (a couple of glugs) extra-virgin olive oil,
• 2 to 3 tablespoons (a couple of splashes) red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Coarse salt and black pepper

Directions

Place salad greens in a salad bowl and top with tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, and carrot. Place oil, vinegar and sugar in a small plastic container. Put the lid on the container and shake dressing until sugar dissolves, about 1 minute. Pour dressing over salad. Season salad with salt and pepper, to taste, and toss to combine.

Milky Way Fudge

Ingredients

1 teaspoon butter

1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk

2 cups (12oz) semisweet chocolate chips

3 Milky Way candy bars (2.05oz each), chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Line a 9in square pan with foil and grease the foil with butter; set aside.

In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine milk, chocolate chips and candy bars. MIcrowave, uncovered, on high for 1 minute; stir. Microwave at additional 15 second intervals, stirring until smooth. Stir in Vanilla. Spread into prepared pan. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.

Using foil, lift fudge out of pan; cut fudge into 1 inch squares. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator!

I just have to say that this fudge is AWESOME but very chocolaty and super easy to make!! Danny wants me to try it using snickers next time so I will let you know how that turns out! :)