BAGELACH

BAGELACH

Rae: Most often this breakfast pastry is called a cheese bagel, but I like the Yiddish name for this old-school delight, which is hard to find outside traditional Montreal Jewish communities. We’ve had Montrealers visit Mile End and freak out when they see we’ve got cheese bagels on the menu. This food isn’t really like a bagel at all; it’s a mildly sweet pastry filled with pot cheese— the curd of buttermilk— or some variation thereof. We use our own house-made whole-milk ricotta as the base for our filling, but cottage cheese works well, too. You can save time by starting with store-bought puff pastry, but choose one made with butter instead of shortening. Either way, they’re just so satisfying, so good— especially with a little fruit Compote on the side. Meat Exporters

FOR THE FILLING:

• 1 pound whole-milk ricotta or cottage cheese, drained overnight in the refrigerator in a fine-mesh sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth
• 1 large egg, beaten
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 large egg, beaten, for the egg wash

 Buffalo Meat

FOR THE DOUGH: 1 recipe Rugelach dough (see below)

MAKE THE FILLING:

Combine all the filling ingredients except the egg for the egg wash in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on medium speed until the mixture is smooth, about 3 minutes. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

SHAPE THE BAGELACH:

Preheat the oven to 350 ° F and grease a 10-by-15-inch baking sheet with oil or cooking spray. Divide the pastry dough into 2 equal-size portions.

1. Working on a well-floured surface with one portion at a time, roll the dough into a roughly 14-by-7-inch rectangle. Trim off any irregular edges.
2. Pipe about ½ cup of the filling in a straight line along one of the short edges of the rectangle.
3. Brush a little egg wash along the base of the filling.
4. Use a bench knife or pizza cutter to cut the egg-brushed lip away from the rest of the dough.
5. Gently roll the edge of the dough around the filling so that the dough wraps over the egg-brushed lip to seal it, creating a cylinder.
6. Bend the bagelach into a horseshoe shape. Continue the filling-and-rolling process until you’ve used up the whole dough portion and have made 5 or 6 bagelach. Transfer the bagelach to the prepared baking sheet, brush them with more of the egg wash, and bake for about 30 minutes, rotating the tray 180 degrees halfway through cooking, until golden brown. Frozen Meat

MAKES 10 TO 12

Bernamoff, Noah; Bernamoff, Rae (2012-09-04). The Mile End Cookbook: Redefining Jewish Comfort Food from Hash to Hamantaschen (Kindle Locations 1987-2017). Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony. Kindle Edition.

Rugelach Dough Recipe

FOR THE DOUGH:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup canola oil
• ¼ cup lukewarm water

 Boneless Meat

MAKE THE DOUGH: Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest in a large bowl and mix them together with your hands until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, and oil together vigorously until thoroughly combined. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix them together with your hands for 10 to 15 seconds. Add the water and continue mixing with your hands until the dough comes together, another 30 seconds or so. Scrape the dough onto a floured surface, adding a little more flour if the dough is too sticky. Use your hand to flatten the dough slightly into a thick disk, and wrap the disk very snugly in aluminum foil. Refrigerate until the dough is firmly set, about 3 hours.