In a little bit of a departure for us, tonight’s post is about baking and holiday cookies, although if you know my dear friend Marissa Rothkopf, you know she managed to slip in some talk about tariffs and the rule of law when we baked together on Substack Live earlier today. But mostly, it’s about cookies.
Also, we did a public service announcement: If you’re of that age, get your Shingles vaccine! I did that this morning, before we went live, and by the end of our baking session, I was starting to drag a little. I’m grateful for vaccines and my kicky immune system, which means I’m one of those people who always spend a couple of days under the weather afterwards, but I know it’s working. (And apologies if this post is a little off, I’ll be back in the morning with law and politics, hopefully minus the fever and the slow-moving brain).
My family has always called Rugelach “Meltaways,” because that’s what they do—they don’t last. True to form, the small batch I made this morning disappeared with lightning speed, so no pictures, although there are some in the video. If you want to try out my family recipe, here it is, written out by Mom, who made me a book of family recipes, my favorite present ever, about 30 years ago.
I love the sweet nod here to my Cousin Ann, who loves these so much that my Mom made them for her wedding.
You can tell this one has been made a lot, it has a little splash of ingredients-smears on it.
As Marissa and I discussed, I always make this recipe as written and have never deviated (except for having a slightly heavy hand on brown sugar and cinnamon), but in the vaccine-fugue I was in, I missed the nuts I’d left in the front of the fridge, and decided spur of the moment to do a version with mixed berry jam and cardamom. The results were delicious, and I highly recommend this variation.
