![Blackberry Rugelach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Blackberry_Rugelach.jpg)
Rugelach ( ; , or yi, רוגעלעך, translit=rugelekh and he, רוגלך ''rōgalaḵ'') is a
filled baked confection originating in the
Jewish communities
Jewish ethnic divisions refer to many distinctive communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population. Although considered a self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic subdivisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the ...
of
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
.
It is popular in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, commonly found in most cafes and bakeries. It is also a popular treat among Jews in the
diaspora
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
.
Traditional rugelach are made in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling.
[Joan Nathan]
Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook
Schocken, 2004; page 284.[Judith M. Fertig]
All American Desserts
Harvard Common Press, 2003; page 135. Some sources state that the rugelach and the French
croissant
A croissant is a buttery, flaky, Austrian viennoiserie pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian kipferl but using the French yeast-leavened laminated dough. Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape, the dough is layered wi ...
share a common
Viennese Viennese may refer to:
* Vienna, the capital of Austria
* Viennese people, List of people from Vienna
* Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna
* Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city
* Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance
* V ...
ancestor, crescent-shaped pastries commemorating the lifting of the Turkish siege,
Gil Marks Gilbert Stanley Marks (May 30, 1952 – December 5, 2014) was an American food writer and historian noted for his reference and cookbooks on the subject of Jewish food. He was the founding editor of ''Kosher Gourmet'' magazine. He moved to Israel a ...
The World of Jewish Cooking
Simon and Schuster, 1996; page 326. possibly a reference to the
Battle of Vienna
The Battle of Vienna; pl, odsiecz wiedeńska, lit=Relief of Vienna or ''bitwa pod Wiedniem''; ota, Beç Ḳalʿası Muḥāṣarası, lit=siege of Beç; tr, İkinci Viyana Kuşatması, lit=second siege of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mou ...
in 1683. This appears to be an
urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
however, as both the rugelach and its supposed ancestor, the
Kipferl
Kifli, kiflice, kifle or kipferl is a traditional yeast bread roll that is rolled and formed into a crescent before baking.
It is a common type of bread roll throughout much of central Europe and nearby countries, where it is called by different ...
, pre-date the Early Modern era, while the croissant in its modern form did not originate earlier than the 19th century (see
viennoiserie
''Viennoiseries'' (, "things of Vienna") are baked goods made from a yeast-leavened dough in a manner similar to bread, or from puff pastry, but with added ingredients (particularly eggs, butter, milk, cream and sugar), which give them a richer, ...
). 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
A strudel (, ) is a type of layered pastry with a filling that is usually sweet, but savoury fillings are also common. It became popular in the 18th century throughout the Habsburg Empire. Strudel is part of Austrian cuisine but is also common ...
or
nut roll
A nut roll is a pastry consisting of a sweet yeast dough (usually using milk) that is rolled out very thin, spread with a nut paste made from ground nuts and a sweetener like honey, then rolled up into a log shape. This 'log' is either left lon ...
, but unlike those, the rolled dough and filling are cut into slices before baking.
Etymology
The name is
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
, the historical language of
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
. The ' ending () indicates plural, while the ' () can be a diminutive, as, for example, ' (, villages) is the plural of ' (, village), the diminutive of ' (, 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
Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ma ...
.
In this context, note that ' () means "corner" in Yiddish. In Polish, which influenced Yiddish, ' 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 ' in Polish, see . ' is almost identical in pronunciation and meaning to the Yiddish word '.
Alternatively, some assert that the root is ', meaning "royal", possibly a reference to the taste. This explanation is in conflict with Yiddish usage, where the word ' () is the dominant word meaning "royal".
Ingredients
![Israeli pastries](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Israeli_pastries.jpg)
Rugelach can be made with
sour cream
Sour cream (in North American English, Australian English and New Zealand English) or soured cream (British English) is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, wh ...
or
cream cheese
Cream cheese is a soft, usually mild-tasting fresh cheese made from milk and cream.Oxford English Dictionary Stabilizers such as carob bean gum and carrageenan are often added in industrial production.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration de ...
doughs,
but there are also
pareve
In ''kashrut'', the dietary laws of Judaism, pareve (from yi, פאַרעוו for "neutral", in Hebrew , and also parve and other variant English spellings) is a classification of edible substances that contain neither dairy nor meat ingredients. ...
variants (with no dairy ingredients),
[The Taste of Shabbos](_blank)
Aish HaTorah, 1987; page 118. so that it can be eaten with or after a meat meal and still be
kosher
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
. Cream cheese doughs are the most recent, while
yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constitut ...
leavened
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made food ...
and sour cream doughs
[Helene Siegel and Karen Gillingham, Ida's Rugelach]
Totally Cookies Cookbook
Celestial Arts Publishing, Berkeley, 1995; page 74. are much older.
The different fillings can include
raisins
A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word ''raisin'' is reserved for the da ...
,
walnut
A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''.
Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...
s,
cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...
,
chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...
,
marzipan
Marzipan is a confectionery, confection consisting primarily of sugar, honey, and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract.
It is often made into Confectionery, sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzi ...
,
poppy seed
Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the opium poppy (''Papaver somniferum''). The tiny, kidney-shaped seeds have been harvested from dried seed pods by various civilizations for thousands of years. It is still widely used in many countries, ...
, or
fruit preserve
Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread.
There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the method ...
s which are rolled up inside.
Vanilla
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia'').
Pollination is required to make the p ...
-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
Schmaltz (also spelled schmalz or shmalz) is rendered (clarified) chicken or goose fat. It is an integral part of traditional Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, where it has been used for centuries in a wide array of dishes, such as chicken soup, lat ...
or salmon and boursin cheese.
[Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, "The Whole Spiel: Funny essays about digital nudniks, seder selfies and chicken soup memories," Incompra Press, 2016; p. 126. ]
See also
*
Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine
Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine is an assortment of cooking traditions that was developed by the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern, Central, Western, Northern, and Southern Europe, and their descendants, particularly in the United States and other Western count ...
*
Israeli cuisine
Israeli cuisine ( he, המטבח הישראלי ) comprises both local dishes and dishes brought to Israel by Jews from the Diaspora. Since before the establishment of the Israel, State of Israel in 1948, and particularly since the late 1970s, a ...
*
Jewish cuisine
Jewish cuisine refers to the worldwide cooking traditions of the Jewish people. During its evolution over the course of many centuries, it has been shaped by Jewish dietary laws (''kashrut''), Jewish festivals and holidays, and traditions cen ...
*
American Jewish cuisine
American Jewish cuisine comprises the food, cooking, and dining customs associated with American Jews. It was heavily influenced by the cuisine of Jewish immigrants who came to the United States from Eastern Europe around the turn of the 20th cent ...
*
Culture of Israel
The roots of the culture of Israel developed long before modern Israel's independence in 1948, and traces back to ancient Israel ( 1000 BCE). It reflects Jewish culture, Jewish history in the diaspora, the ideology of the Zionist movement that de ...
Other crescent pastries and rolls
*
Croissant
A croissant is a buttery, flaky, Austrian viennoiserie pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian kipferl but using the French yeast-leavened laminated dough. Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape, the dough is layered wi ...
*
Kifli
Kifli, kiflice, kifle or kipferl is a traditional yeast bread roll that is rolled and formed into a crescent before baking.
It is a common type of bread roll throughout much of central Europe and nearby countries, where it is called by different ...
Other fruit-filled pastries
*
Hamantash
A hamantash (pl. ''hamantashen''; also spelled ''hamantasch'', ''hamantaschen''; yi, המן־טאַש ''homentash'', pl. ''homentashn'', 'Haman pockets') is an Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, Ashkenazi Jewish triangular filled-pocket pastry, associat ...
*
Bourekas
Bourekas or burekas ( he, בורקס) are a popular baked pastry in Sephardic Jewish cuisine and Israeli cuisine. A variation of the burek, a popular pastry throughout southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, Israeli bourekas are m ...
*
Ma'amoul
Maamoul ( ar, معمول ) is a filled butter cookie made with semolina flour. The filling can be made with dried fruits like figs or dates or nuts such as pistachios or walnuts and occasionally almonds.
Maamoul are usually made during the E ...
*
Kolach
*
Krantz cake
References
Further reading
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External links
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"Rugelach—Elsie Waldman's Recipe"from ''The Jewish Cookbook'' by
Mildred Grosberg Bellin
Mildred Grosberg Bellin (September 7, 1908 – February 15, 2008) was an American cookbook author. She is most noted for her influential cookbooks ''Modern Jewish Meals'' and ''The Jewish Cookbook'', which brought modern nutritional ideas into ...
{{Cuisine of Israel
Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine
Polish cuisine
Israeli pastries
Jewish baked goods
Pastries with poppy seeds
Foods with jam