Sweet Potato Walnut & Apple Bilberry Currant Rugelach
Rugelach has always been one of my favorite cookies. Lets just put it this way, if they were on a cookie tray with chocolate chip, sugar, and oatmeal raisin cookies, my hand would immediately go to the rugelach. It’s just something about the slightly tart, cheesy flavor of the pastry, combined with chocolate or fruit that reminds me of a miniature cheesecake but in cookie form.
Rugelach tastes amazing with tea or coffee. And they are quite filling because of the denseness of the cookie 2 or 3 are all you need, well in my case maybe 5 or 6. 🙂
The Inspiration
This rugelach recipe I’m going to share was inspired by Jovial Foods rugelach recipe. They are the company where I get all my einkorn products from which includes the einkorn flour used in this recipe. I’ve been on a serious einkorn flour kick since I realized my body digests einkorn flour extremely well. This explains the influx of einkorn flour recipes coming in full force. I’ll get back to the gluten free recipes very soon but I’m loving that I can bake using a grain that’s so easy to digest. Einkorn grain has been talked about numerous times on this site so I won’t go into it again how fabulous using this flour is, I’ll just provide a link to the info right here.
I was also inspired by the holiday season. This is a great cookie/pastry to have for Thanksgiving because it’s like a pretty combination of the holidays on a plate. This would also be a great cookie to make after Thanksgiving. Instead of my fillings, use up any leftover sweet potato or cranberry sauce you might have. 🙂
The Recipe
Do you like pie? Do you like cheesecake? How about cookies? If you said yes to any of these questions you’re going to love this cookie or should I say mini pastry! The best thing about this recipe is that it’s super easy to put together and it’s very low in sugar.
Firm coconut oil instead of butter is used in this rugelach recipe. The coconut oil works well to provide a nice flaky pastry but without the coconut taste. It also provides a nice clean back drop for the sweet potato which is the star of the cookie/pastry. There’s no competition from the strong flavor of butter.
A little ginger is added to the crust to give it a little dimension. And absolutely no sweetener is added to the dough mixture. After making the dough, the dough is cut in half. Half the dough is used for the sweet potato filling and the other half is used for the apple bilberry currant filling. Of course you can decide to make just one type of rugelach and in that case you just want to double the filling recipe.
Let’s continue talking about the filling for the rugelach. The sweet potato filling comes together very easily. It’s basically sweet potato, a little bit of maple syrup, cinnamon and sea salt. Most of the time spent making the filling is the sweet potato roasting in the oven.
The apple bilberry currant filling is a little more involved but not too much. For this filling no additional sweetener is used due to the sweetness of the apple, currants and bilberry fruit spread. This is why it’s important for this recipe to pick a sweet apple like a Fuji or Honeycrisp.
This is the bilberry fruit spread I use and it’s my favorite!
Hopefully you can find it in your market. If not, you can use any fruit spread that is all natural and doesn’t contain corn syrup or additional sweeteners.
Sweet Potato Walnut & Apple Bilberry Currant Rugelach Recipe
AuthorDesireeCategoryCookies, Desserts, Easy RecipesDifficultyBeginnerIf you like pie, cheesecake and cookies, you're going to love this recipe. It's like having all three desserts in one! This recipe makes a total of 24 to 27 cookies depending on how you cut the slices. And if you prefer only one kind of filling, just double the filling of your choice.
In a large bowl place flour, salt and ground ginger and mix together.
To the flour add the firm coconut oil. Mix the coconut oil into the flour with a fork or pastry blender till the flour mixture looks like small clumped particles of flour and oil.
To the flour mixture add the sour cream and mix all together with a fork. After the sour cream is mixed in, take the dough in your hands and knead the dough on a lightly floured surface till it becomes smooth and comes together in a ball.
Take the ball of dough and cut the dough evenly in half to make two pieces. Flatten out each piece into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap.
Place the dough discs in the refrigerator for about an hour.
Prick a medium size sweet potato and roast in a toaster oven or regular oven on 400 degrees for about 40 minutes till the sweet potato is cooked all the way through. Once cooked peel the sweet potato and mash the sweet potato in a bowl.
To the mashed sweet potato add the pinch of sea salt, cinnamon and maple butter or maple syrup. Mix all together till it's smooth and set to the side.
Dice up one Fuji or Honey Crisp Apple and place in a small saucepan on low to medium heat. Sprinkle in some cinnamon and add 3 Tablespoons of currants to the apple mixture.
Add 3 tablespoons of bilberry fruit spread and stir it in. Once the fruit spread is incorporated into the apple mixture and the apples are soft take the saucepan off the stove and let it sit to the side to cool down.
Take out a dough disc and allow to warm up and soften slightly (about 5 minutes). On a lightly sprinkled flour counter or board, roll out the dough to about 10 inches across and 10 inches down.
On the rolled out dough spread the sweet potato mixture out on the dough. Then evenly sprinkle the chopped walnuts on top of the sweet potato mixture.
Very carefully from the top lengthwise portion of the dough start rolling the dough tightly to make a long cylinder shape. Then cut 1 inch pieces and lay them on a parchment lined baking sheet. I was able to get 14 pieces cut out.
*I decided to lay them flat like pinwheels instead of straight up. I feel it makes a prettier presentation.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown. After 5 minutes on the baking sheet, place them on a baking rack to cool. Store them in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Follow the instructions above for rolling out the pastry dough. On top of the dough evenly spread out the apple bilberry currant mixture. After that is done grate some lemon peel on top of the fruit mixture.
Roll up dough tightly starting lengthwise from the top. Once rolled up cut into one inch pieces.
Place the rugelach on a lined parchment paper baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
*13 cookies were produced from this half of pastry dough. So a total of 27 cookies were made.
Ingredients
Directions
In a large bowl place flour, salt and ground ginger and mix together.
To the flour add the firm coconut oil. Mix the coconut oil into the flour with a fork or pastry blender till the flour mixture looks like small clumped particles of flour and oil.
To the flour mixture add the sour cream and mix all together with a fork. After the sour cream is mixed in, take the dough in your hands and knead the dough on a lightly floured surface till it becomes smooth and comes together in a ball.
Take the ball of dough and cut the dough evenly in half to make two pieces. Flatten out each piece into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap.
Place the dough discs in the refrigerator for about an hour.
Prick a medium size sweet potato and roast in a toaster oven or regular oven on 400 degrees for about 40 minutes till the sweet potato is cooked all the way through. Once cooked peel the sweet potato and mash the sweet potato in a bowl.
To the mashed sweet potato add the pinch of sea salt, cinnamon and maple butter or maple syrup. Mix all together till it's smooth and set to the side.
Dice up one Fuji or Honey Crisp Apple and place in a small saucepan on low to medium heat. Sprinkle in some cinnamon and add 3 Tablespoons of currants to the apple mixture.
Add 3 tablespoons of bilberry fruit spread and stir it in. Once the fruit spread is incorporated into the apple mixture and the apples are soft take the saucepan off the stove and let it sit to the side to cool down.
Take out a dough disc and allow to warm up and soften slightly (about 5 minutes). On a lightly sprinkled flour counter or board, roll out the dough to about 10 inches across and 10 inches down.
On the rolled out dough spread the sweet potato mixture out on the dough. Then evenly sprinkle the chopped walnuts on top of the sweet potato mixture.
Very carefully from the top lengthwise portion of the dough start rolling the dough tightly to make a long cylinder shape. Then cut 1 inch pieces and lay them on a parchment lined baking sheet. I was able to get 14 pieces cut out.
*I decided to lay them flat like pinwheels instead of straight up. I feel it makes a prettier presentation.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown. After 5 minutes on the baking sheet, place them on a baking rack to cool. Store them in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Follow the instructions above for rolling out the pastry dough. On top of the dough evenly spread out the apple bilberry currant mixture. After that is done grate some lemon peel on top of the fruit mixture.
Roll up dough tightly starting lengthwise from the top. Once rolled up cut into one inch pieces.
Place the rugelach on a lined parchment paper baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
*13 cookies were produced from this half of pastry dough. So a total of 27 cookies were made.
Notes
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