Rugelach Explained

Rugelach
Image Alt:Chocolate rugelach
Country:Poland[1] [2] [3]
Region:Central Europe
Creator:Ashkenazi Jews
Type:Pastry
Main Ingredient:Dough: sour cream or cream cheese
Filling: any of raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, chocolate, marzipan, poppy seed, or fruit preserves

Rugelach (;, or Yiddish: רוגעלעך|translit=rugelekh and Hebrew: רוגלך rōgalaḵ)[4] is a filled baked confection originating in the Jewish communities of Poland.[1] [2] [3] It is also a popular treat among Jews in the diaspora.[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 Yiddish: -ach ending (Yiddish: ־ך) indicates plural, while the Yiddish: el (Yiddish: ־ל) can be a diminutive, as, for example, Yiddish: shtetlekh (Yiddish: שטעטלעך, villages) is the plural of Yiddish: [[shtetl]] (Yiddish: שטעטל, village), the diminutive of Yiddish: shtot (Yiddish: 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. In this context, note that Yiddish: rog (Yiddish: ראָג) means "corner" in Yiddish.[10] In Polish, which influenced Yiddish, Polish: 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 Polish: rogale in Polish, see Polish: [[St. Martin's croissant|Rogal świętomarciński]]. Polish: Rogale is almost identical in pronunciation and meaning to the Yiddish word Yiddish: rugelach.

Alternatively, some assert that the root is Yiddish: rugel, meaning "royal", possibly a reference to the taste.[11] This explanation is in conflict with Yiddish usage, where the word Yiddish: keniglich (Yiddish: קעניגליךּ) is the dominant word meaning "royal".[12]

Ingredients

Rugelach can be made with sour cream or cream cheese doughs, 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[14] and sour cream doughs[15] [16] 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.[17]

See also

Other crescent pastries and rolls

Other fruit-filled pastries

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Rugelach. Food. 10 November 2011. 28 March 2019.
  2. Web site: Rugelach: A bite-sized Hanukkah tradition. CULINARY INSTITUTE OF. AMERICA. Daily Herald. 28 March 2019. 28 March 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190328052633/https://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/rugelach-a-bite-sized-hanukkah-tradition/article_b060aa59-5368-5fd8-b6cb-55a1cebef9f1.html.
  3. Book: Boyle, Tish. The Good Cookie: Over 250 delicious recipes, from simple to sublime. 10 December 2007. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 978-0-544-18663-7. 28 March 2019. Google Books.
  4. https://milog.co.il/%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%9A התקבלו 4 פירושים במילון לרוגלך
  5. News: The Little Pastry That Could: How Rugelach Became Israel's Go to Sweet. Haaretz.
  6. Joan Nathan, Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook, Schocken, 2004; page 284.
  7. Judith M. Fertig, All American Desserts, Harvard Common Press, 2003; page 135.
  8. [Gil Marks]
  9. Joseph Amendola and Nicole Rees, The Baker's Manual, Wiley, 2003; page 223.
  10. Alexander Harkavy, A Dictionary of the Yiddish Language, 1898; page 312.
  11. Lois Young-Tulin, Chapter 5: Mandelbrot, Rugelach and a Family Quilt, in Jewish Mothers Tell their Stories, Hayworth Press, 2000; page 45
  12. Alexander Harkavy, A Dictionary of the Yiddish Language, 1898; page 308.
  13. https://books.google.com/books?id=FU95wXi_L78C&pg=PA118 The Taste of Shabbos
  14. Judy Bart Kancigor, Cooking Jewish, Workman, 2007; page 474.
  15. [Barbara Grunes]
  16. Helene Siegel and Karen Gillingham, Ida's Rugelach, Totally Cookies Cookbook, Celestial Arts Publishing, Berkeley, 1995; page 74.
  17. Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, "The Whole Spiel: Funny essays about digital nudniks, seder selfies and chicken soup memories," Incompra Press, 2016; p. 126.

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