Grandmas Butter Horns Brown Sugar Walnut Rugelach Recipes

GRANDMA'S BUTTER HORNS (BROWN SUGAR WALNUT RUGELACH)

Steps:

• Add the flour to a large bowl. Using a pastry cutter, two knives or your fingers, cut the butter into the flour, until it resembles even-sized crumbs. Add in the sour cream and egg yolk. Mix until the dough comes together in large clumps.
• Form the dough into three equal sized balls. Pat each into a disc and then wrap tightly with plastic wrap.
• Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill at least 2 hours or even overnight, until well chilled. You want it to be firm enough so that you can roll it out easily.
• Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, mix together the walnuts and brown sugar until well combined, making sure to break up any clumps of brown sugar. Set aside.
• Working one ball of dough at a time (keep the other balls in the fridge while you do this), place the chilled dough on a well-floured work surface (I like to do this on well-floured parchment paper). Roll out into a circle that is between ⅛ and ¼ inch in thickness.
• Sprinkle ⅓ of the walnut / sugar mixture evenly over the dough (all the way to the edges) then press down lightly into the dough. With a pastry or pizza cutter, slice the dough like you would a pizza, into 16 equal triangles.
• Starting with the wide end, roll up each triangle - some of the filling will fall out - that's totally fine. Place the shaped cookies on the prepared baking sheet, with the seam side / tip down. Repeat this process with the remaining two balls of dough.
• Bake for about 22 to 24 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. If baking in batches, keep any unbaked, shaped cookies in the refrigerator.
• Once completely cool, dust generously with confectioners' sugar.

GRANDMA'S BUTTERHORN COOKIES

Steps:

• In large bowl, combine flour, salt, and butter until coarse crumbs form. Stir in sour cream and egg yolk until dough comes together--you may want to use your hands. Form into a fat disc shape, wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate 2-3 hours.
• To form cookies, remove dough from fridge and let it warm up for 5-10 minutes while you make the filling.
• In food processor, combine sugar, cinnamon and walnuts. Pulse the mixture until the nuts have practically become almost as small as the sugar granules.
• Next, cut the dough into 4 equal pieces. Flour your board liberally and roll out one piece of dough into a circle that is 12-14 inches across and 1/8 inch thick. You want the circle to be pretty even, but it doesn't doesn't have to be perfect.
• Sprinkle on 1/4th of the sugar walnut mixture over entire circle. Using a sharp knife, cut dough into 12 even triangular pieces (just like you're cutting a pie). Roll up each triangle tightly, starting at the wide end to form crescent shapes. Place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Continue this process with remaining dough and filling.
• Bake Butter Horns at 300 degrees for 25-30 minutes. I cooked mine for 32 minutes. When you take them out of the oven, they shouldn't be shiny and the dough should be pretty much dry to the touch. At 25 minutes, I could still see a little butter in the dough that was making the dough moist still, so after a few minutes more in the oven, that went away and they looked cooked. As a reminder, if you are using a non-stick darker cookie sheet, these are going to cook faster. You want the bottoms of the cookies to be light brown, not dark brown! So be careful.
• After 5 minutes on the baking sheet, remove to a cooking rack.
• Dust all the Butter Horns with powdered sugar and enjoy!
• I decided to give some away and pack them in these cute little glassine bags! Adorable!

WALNUT AND BROWN-SUGAR RUGELACH

Steps:

• In a food processor, blend butter, cream cheese, granulated sugar, and salt until well combined. Add flour, and pulse just until a dough forms. Divide dough in half; flatten into disks, and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours and up to 2 days, or freeze up to 3 months (thaw before baking).
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks set in upper and lower thirds. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a small bowl, combine egg with 1 teaspoon water to make an egg wash.
• Working with one disk at a time, place dough on lightly floured parchment paper, and roll out into an 11-inch circle (about 1/4 inch thick), dusting lightly with flour as needed. Using a large dinner plate as a guide, cut around dough to make a perfect circle; trim off and discard scraps. Brush circles with egg wash; dividing evenly, sprinkle with walnuts and brown sugar.
• Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut each circle into 16 equal triangles. Starting from the wide end, roll up each triangle of dough; place on lined baking sheets, seam side down. Brush rolls with egg wash.
• Bake until golden brown, 30 to 32 minutes. Transfer rugelach to a wire rack to cool completely.

BUTTERHORNS AKA RUGELACH / RUGULACH / SNAILS / SCHNECKEN

Steps:

• Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar until soft.
• Sift in the flour and mix to make a soft dough.
• Divide dough into 4 equal balls, flatten each one and wrap in wax paper.
• Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• Make the filling by mixing all ingredients in a small bowl.
• Preheat oven to 375*.
• Working with one disk of dough at a time, roll thinly on a lightly floured surface into a circle, about 9" in diameter.
• Brush the surface with the egg white glaze and sprinkle the dough with 1/4 of the filling.
• Slice the dough with a sharp knife or pizza cutter into quarters and then each quarter into 4 equal sections, to form 16 triangles.
• Starting from the base of each triangle, roll up to form spirals.
• You can curve them into crescents if you like.
• Continue with the other 3 disks of dough.
• Place on baking sheets and brush with egg white glaze.
• Sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar.
• Bake until just golden, about 10 minutes.
• For 32 extra large butterhorns, divide the dough in half instead of fourths and roll each disk into a 12 inch circle and use half the filling.
• Continue as above but bake for 15-20 minutes.

MAIDA HEATTER'S RUGELACH (WALNUT HORNS)

Steps:

• Prepare the pastry the night before you are ready to cook.
• To make the pastry, put the butter, cream cheese and salt into the large bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium, then high speed, until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Then beat on low speed while gradually adding the flour. If the dough starts to overly coat the beaters, scrape the dough off the beaters and continue adding flour, stirring it in with the hands until thoroughly and evenly blended. The dough will be extremely sticky.
• Scrape the dough off the hands and fingers. Rinse, wash and dry the hands. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board. Flour the hands and gather the dough into a short sausage shape. Cut this into three pieces of equal size. Flatten each piece slightly and wrap each piece in clear plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
• When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with aluminum foil and set aside.
• Combine the sugar and cinnamon for the filling and set aside.
• Place one ball of dough on a floured pastry cloth. Hammer the dough firmly to soften it slightly. Do not let it become warm. Quickly roll out the dough, turning it occasionally, with a floured rolling pin into a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Don't worry about a slighly uneven edge.
• Using a pastry brush, brush the dough with a tablespoon of the melted butter. Sprinkle the dough all over with one-third of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Sprinkle with one-third of the currants or raisins and one-third of the walnuts. Roll the rolling pin lightly over the top to press the filling slightly into the dough.
• Using a long, sharp knife, cut the circle into 12 pie-shaped wedges. Roll each wedge jellyroll fashion, rolling from the outside toward the point. Do not be dismayed if some of the filling falls out. Place each roll, point side down, about one inch apart on one foil-covered cookie sheet. Repeat with a second ball of dough and then a third, filling and rolling each as indicated.
• For the glaze, beat the egg yolk with the water. Brush the top of each walnut horn lightly and evenly with the mixture.
• Place each sheet on a rack in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Preferably at mid-point during the baking, you should reverse the sheets top to bottom and front to back, to insure even browning. When the horns are cooked, remove them with a metal spatula and transfer them to racks to cool.