Category: cookies

by Rachel Sally

Dat New New

Oh, hey.
Didn’t see you there.
Today is mostly photos (and is short and sweet), because I want to share my latest photographic development (get it?) with you, and I have some longer, more involved posts coming up (nothing too crazy).
 
I recently bought a 100mm macro lens to go along with my new camera.
I love it!
My cats, not so much.
They wish I had never bought it.
I’m still trying to get the hang of it; it’s not as easy as I thought.
Like most things, there’s a learning curve.
I’ve found that it’s the only one of my lenses that I prefer to shoot with on manual focus.
I shove the huge thing right up in my cats’ faces, because I love their eyes.  
My dog will have absolutely none of it.
So yes, these are some photos I’ve taken recently.
This is kind of a boring post; I don’t have anything to say.
I made these miniature crinkle cookies as part of small gifts I gave to my best friends.
They’re teeny tiny little things, only 2 teaspoons of batter per cookie.
The recipe is also teeny tiny, making exactly 10 cookies.
Perfect if you need a batch of cookies, but don’t want the burden of 3 dozen.
Meow.

Small Batch Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
adapted from Joy of Baking
ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 an egg (either weigh it and divide by two, or whisk it well and take approximately 2 tablespoons)
splash vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
pinch kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
directions:
Microwave chocolate and butter together on medium power until they are melted, set aside to cool slightly.
Whip the egg with the sugar until pale yellow and doubled in size.
Add the vanilla and chocolate and beat to combine.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt over the top of the mixture.
Beat until batter comes together.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.
Place the confectioner’s sugar on a plate or shallow bowl.
Using a 2 teaspoon cookie scoop or two small spoons, form 10 small balls.
Roll well in the confectioner’s sugar so that no brown is showing.
Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
Bake for 7-8 minutes, until the crackle pattern has formed.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

by Rachel Sally

More, More, More

All the s’mores!
I am so greedy.
Today, I said goodbye “see you later” to one of my best friends, S.
Yes, the S for whose birthday I made a s’mores cake.
What are the chances that this post would be about s’mores?
I didn’t engineer it this way, it just happened to be so.
It was meant to be.
I’m greedy because now is not enough.
The years I have spent with my friends, growing and fighting and partying and loving, are not enough.
I want more.  I want more time.
More chances to show them how much I love them,
how much I appreciate them and all they do and all their quirks.
I want more, more, more.
I want to drink up all of their love, all of my love, all of the times we have spent together, to soak in it and revel in it and I’m worried I haven’t done enough of that.
It is so bittersweet, this time in our lives.
We are both leaving and being left.
We are starting a new part of our lives.  It’s terrifying.
I’m not ready.
I don’t want to be ready.
I’m scared.
I took these s’mores to a farewell BBQ with just a few of my closest friends.
The marshmallows were soggy because it rained all day.  I was pissed.
But whatever, that’s not what matters.
I love these people.  That’s something I’ll never lose, and something I’ll never get enough of.
I don’t have many words today, so I will share pictures.
 
Marshmallows here.
Graham crackers here.
Love below.
by Rachel Sally

C.R.E.A.M.

Catz Rule Everything Around Me.
Meow.
I have a love/hate relationship with these two nasty little buggers.
See, Sasha and Kasha were both rescues of sorts- both rescued from dirty, teenage-boy apartments.
 
Sasha was a farm kitty who was bought on a whim by my older brother and his roommates.  
They brought her back to NYC and she promptly (and tragically) fell out of a four story window.
She survived with just a tiny cut on her chin…  She now has 8 lives left.
She’s the nicer of the two cats, but certainly lacks in the beauty department.
She also has a bad habit of escaping outdoors when you’re least expecting it (our cats are firmly indoor cats), and then manages to evade recapture for ages.  
She lets you get in very close, almost as if to catch her, then sprints away.
That little ratfink.  
Kasha was just a little kitten “rescued” from my friends’ apartment last summer.
They had initially rescued her from a field.
She is truly a feral cat… Raised among teenage boys, what else could one expect?
She’s a pretty one, covered in stripes and spots, but she’s very small.
I don’t expect she’ll grow much more.  We call her Peewee.  (More often than we use her real name!  She’s such a dinky little thing.)
Kasha is not very friendly, and doesn’t like to be held or pet.  Real lovely personality.
She eats like a starved and crazed animal, which she is not.
She’s even got a tiny pudgy little belly. 
If you even come near her eating her food, she will make a strange, high pitched gurgling/growling noise and proceed to try to fit everything in her bowl in her mouth.
It’s grotesque.  Seriously nauseous eating habits.
Also, Kasha tends not to purr.  Or meow.  She beeps.
She sounds like a bird mixed with a telephone.
I don’t know where this is going.
But basically, all I do is take photos of my cats and food.
And all I talk about are my cats.  I don’t even like them that much.
Welcome to my life, I guess.
It’s very exciting and instagram-worthy.
I don’t have a recipe for these cookies.  
I dumped a bunch of things in a bowl and hoped for the best.
When I experiment like that (which is very often), I always make notes on a post-it.
Trouble is, I have so many damn post-its that I can’t remember what they mean!
Also, I can only find two- I don’t know where the others go.
Somehow, I still have notes for an orange-olive oil cake, and I swear I’ve thrown this very one out three times.
It keeps coming back.
But alas, the search for the maple-bacon-brown butter-brown sugar cookie post-it has been in vain.  I will update this if I find it!
 
Be back soon… With ice cream!
by Rachel Sally

Spectacular

Just the name of this dessert gives me the goosebumps… Hello, lover.
This should be a sin.
This probably is a sin.
Gooey.  Biscoff.  Butter.  Cake.
Wait.  I went even further.
Gooey.  Biscoff.  Brown Butter.  Cake.
Good Lord have mercy on my poor, poor soul.
 
Speculoos cookie butter is blended into cream cheese and eggs, augmented with sugar, and poured over a brown butter cake base, then baked until barely set.
 
When you cut into this (first you have to endure the agony of a multiple-hour cooling period), the filling oozes and sticks to the knife and by Jove, you know you’re in for a treat.
It’s subtly spicy, and so creamy.
It’s decadent and delicious.
I packaged this up and sent it with my mom to her office.  
In her words, people “freaked out.”
It’s called a gooey butter cake, for Pete’s sake, what do you expect?

This was part II of the speculoos series on this here blog.
There’s still more to come.
Praise Yeezus.

P.S. I graduate today… If all goes well, I’ll post about that soon enough.  Weird.
Gooey Biscoff Brown Butter Cake
adapted from Bake Your Day, via Confessions of a Cookbook Queen
ingredients:
for the cake base:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg
1/2 cup (4 ounces, 8 tablespoons) butter, browned
2 tablespoons milk
splash vanilla extract
for the gooey layer:
8 ounces cream cheese
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup Biscoff (make your own!)
16 ounces powdered sugar
directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
Make the cake base: whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together, then add in the butter, milk, vanilla, and egg.
Whisk very well to combine, then press into the bottom of the prepared pan.
Make the gooey Biscoff layer: beat cream cheese on high until softened and fluffy.  
Add both the eggs in and beat on high until mixture is lightened in color and homogeneous.
Beat in the Biscoff and vanilla.
Mix in the powdered sugar, making sure that everything is combined and there are no lumps.
Pour over the cake base in your pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is puffed and shiny and the edges are set.  
The interior of the cake will continue to cook, so it should still be jiggly when you pull it out of the oven.
Allow to cool completely before cutting into the cake.
by Rachel Sally

Speculative

These cookies are wholly counterproductive.
Welcome to the first installation of uses for your homemade speculoos spread (other than ravaging it with a spoon).
Basically, we made cookies to make cookies.
Oh, my lyfe.
 
These cookies are similar to peanut butter cookies, but they use cookie butter (can we just appreciate that for a minute?) in lieu of the traditional nut butter.
They’re big and soft and they make perfect sandwich cookies when pressed together with some dark chocolate ganache.
I’m telling you, these are not gingersnaps.  
Stop trying to make them gingersnaps in your head.  
They’re not.  I did it too.  Trust me. 
They’re more like lightly spiced peanut butter cookies.
Make them and you will appreciate this sentiment.
You will also be annoyed that you had to make cookies, grind them up, and then make cookies again.  It’s worth it my dear.
 
(Also, any excuse to pull out my Swedish pearl sugar is worth it.  
Let me just say how obsessed I am with this stuff.  It’s like sprinkles.  Addictive.
I actually prefer it over the larger, coarser Belgian pearl sugar, but you could theoretically coat these in the Belgian stuff, although it will add a lot more sweetness and crunch.  
You could also sub regular or turbinado sugar, but you’ll get less crunch.
 
I’m starting to think you could also coat these in sprinkles and then you’d have sprinkle Biscoff cookies and whaaa that’s a trap I’m getting out okay bye.)

 

Biscoff Cookies
adapted from Baking Bites
makes 6 large sandwich cookies
ingredients:
4 ounces (8 tablespoons, 1/2 cup) butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
pinch each cinnamon, ground cloves, and ginger
scant 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup Biscoff (make your own!)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
swedish pearl sugar, or turbinado sugar, for rolling
for the ganache:
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
2 tablespoons heavy cream
directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
Beat butter on high until fluffy and soft, about 1 minute.  
Add in the sugars, spices, and the salt and beat on high until all of sugar is dissolved and mixture is very light in color and shiny and not-gritty in texture, about 3 minutes.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the egg and vanilla extract.  
Beat for 3 more minutes.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the Biscoff and beat for 1 minute.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
Mix just until homogeneous, about 1 minute.
Using a large cookie scoop, or an ice cream scoop, scoop out 12 cookies. 
Gently roll them in the pearl sugar, making sure to coat all parts of the cookie.
Bake for 9-10 minutes, until puffy.  
They will look very underdone and will still be extremely soft in the middle; they will look somewhat uncooked in the very center.
Allow to cool on the sheet pans; the cookies will decompress and retain their softness, but the residual heat will ensure that they are not raw.
Once cooled, make the ganache.
Microwave the chocolate chips and cream together until the chips are mostly melted; do this in 30 second bursts.  
Stir to combine and finish melting the chocolate.
Spread between two cookies and sandwich them!

by Rachel Sally

Specialty

Have you spent much time on the (food) blogosphere in the past, oh, say, year?

If you answered yes, you can pretty much skip down to the recipe.

Because you’ll want to make it.  I just know it.
Ready?  
Okay, I made some Biscoff spread.
AKA speculoos spread, AKA cookie butter.
But… I made it from scratch.
Starting with the cookies.

Speculoos (speculaas) cookies are lightly spiced, buttery, brown sugar cookies that are typically found in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, where they are important while celebrating Sinterklaas’ (Sint Nikolaas, St. Nicholas) feast.
They’re tinged with nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, ginger, and cardamom, but much less so than other gingerbread cookies.
The brown sugar really shines through the gentle spices.

Speculoos spread is basically ground up cookies with oil.  
And people love that s&!#.
Obsessive love.  To the extent that Trader Joe’s speculoos nearly went extinct.
Probably because people shove this stuff in EVERYTHING.
Pies, cookies, brownies, candies, their mouths.
Basically, spread it on bread or crackers or cookies or a spoon, then
eat.

Obviously, I had to make some myself.
(By the way, you can’t taste the peanuts or nutella at all; the tahini adds a certain richness and spiciness that is very difficult to pinpoint or detect.  These three spreads keep the cookie butter emulsified with a proper texture.)
Then, I had to stick it in EVERYTHING.
Look out ahead, because everything in the foreseeable future is speculoos-related.
Yum.

 

Faux-Speculoos Spread
cookie portion from Eat the Love
ingredients:
for the cookies:
1/2 cup (1 stick or 113 g) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (75 g) white granulated sugar
3/4 cup (165 g) packed dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 3/4 cup (235 g) all purpose flour
to assemble spread:
pinch of cinnamon and cloves
scant 1/4 cup (50 g) coconut oil
6 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup half and half
2 tablespoons nutella
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1/3 cup tahini
directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream butter on high until softened and fluffy.  Add in the sugars, baking soda, salt, and spices, and cream for at least 3 minutes, until fluffy, lightened in color, shiny, and completely smooth.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the egg.
Beat on high until fully combined and fluffy, 2 more minutes.
Scrape the sides of the bowl. 
Add in the flour and mix until homogeneous, about 1 more minute.
Pinch off balls of dough and flatten them- they’re going to be crushed up, so don’t bother making them perfectly evenly sized or shaped.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden and fragrant.
Remove from oven and let cool completely.
Place all cookies into a food processor and process with extra cinnamon and cloves until finely pulverized.
Add the coconut oil, half and half, and canola oil, and process until mixture is wet.
Add in the nut butters and nutella and process until mixture is a very smooth paste.
Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
by Rachel Sally

Pitter Pater

Happy Father’s Day!
Especially to my wonderful father, who is currently in London. 
(I know.  He missed out on father’s day.  I shouldn’t be baking him anything!!)
Shout out to you, Pops!
Father’s day seems to be about doing classic flavors in a new way… 
Last year was an Elvis cake, based on the famous friend banana and peanut butter sandwiches that the King loved.
This year, I made knockoff Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies.  You know, the ones you remember from your childhood.  Soft, squidgy, filled with marshmallow and only slightly spicy.
My dad loves soft, chewy oatmeal cookies, and I know he likes OCPs.
When I found Stella of BraveTart’s recipe, I knew I had to make them.
The cookies aren’t exactly intuitive in the making, but once you bite into one, you know exactly what they’re supposed to be.  They taste amazingly similar to the store-bought, factory-processed cookies, but fresher and better, and slightly more complex as well.
I had to ship these internationally to my dad, and I’m just hoping that they get to him on time, before he leaves to come back to America.
If they don’t, it’s his loss, right?  That’s what you get for ditching your kid on Father’s Day.
Just kidding.  I love you, Daddy, and miss you even more.  
I hope you like the cookies.
Head here for the full Oatmeal Creme Pie recipe: these are dead ringers for the real deal OCPs.
The ingredients list is a little strange and involved, but it’s totally worth it.
Also, be sure to take your cookies out after exactly 8 minutes: they should be completely puffy and really soft- practically not baked at all, just warmed.  Once you take them out of the oven, they will fall and become very chewy and soft, just the way they should be.
by Rachel Sally

Protips

Dirty little kitchen secrets shortcuts.
I never bother to sift.
(Except for royal icing, when lumps will cause certain failure and imminent disaster.)
Heck, I rarely even bother to combine the dry ingredients before adding them to the wet.
As long as everything is evenly distributed, it’ll all work out just swell.
Or temper eggs.
The idea behind tempering eggs is to ensure even heating of the eggs, preventing the proteins from clumping together and scrambling.
An immersion blender solves this issue very nicely.  
As long as the eggs are well blended into all the other ingredients and you bring them all up to temperature at the same time, blending constantly to ensure even heating, your eggs will not scramble.
I’m positive about this.  A lot of these tricks are just time-savers for evenly distributing ingredients and heat; traditional methods are equally effective, but often take longer and are fussier.  
I don’t like fuss.
 
I taste (constantly) as I go.
No explanation necessary.  Ahem.
 
 
I microwave pretty much everything and I never use a double boiler.  Ever.
Admittedly, ye of much patience and time to spare may prefer bain maries because they ensure even heating, but I prefer things done quickly and efficiently.  
You can insure even, slow heating yourself, by whisking, or better yet, blending, constantly and vigilantly.  
I make my curds, crème pâtissière, and crème anglaise (for ice cream) this way.  
I melt (and temper) my chocolate in the microwave; for ganache, I don’t even bother adding the cream to the chocolate afterwards.  I microwave them all together.  It’s faster.
(I will admit that for tempering, if you are not experienced and/or do not feel comfortable with chocolate, you should try tempering on a stove top first, so that you can constantly monitor the temperature of the chocolate.  Once you get the hang of it, ‘nuke it!)
 
I sling salt like cowboys do guns in Westerns.
A pinch in my book is approximately 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt.
I never measure salt, I’ll admit it.  That’s what tasting is for!
Too often I find that recipes call for a measly amount of salt, too small to have an impact on the flavor.  Salt brings out and heightens flavors, especially sugar.
 

 

I eyeball things; I always add more vanilla and citrus zest than is called for.  

Again, just like salt, these additions heighten flavor.  
I rarely strain zest out of curds and batters and whatever because a) I like the texture and b) the rind contains a ton of the essential oils that give flavor, which is why we used it in the first place.  Why take that out?! 
Oh, and c) it’s less work.  Right.
 
Whenever I use melted butter, I brown it.
Um, duh.  No explanation necessary.
 
I indiscriminately swap yogurt, sour cream, and buttermilk; 
I even use milk with a little acid added, whether in the form of a baking powder swap or a touch of lemon juice.
Baking powder is baking soda with tartaric acid added, so if you add acid in the form of buttermilk or yogurt or sour cream in place of milk, switch some of the baking powder in the recipe to baking soda, which reacts with the acid.
 


I bake by weight 95% of the time.

This is one of the most important things; people’s measurements of cups and pinches and all sorts of things vary wildly, depending on how they measure them.  
Volume is not the best way to bake, especially not when precision is called for.
 
I very rarely soften butter.  
In fact, the only time when I do is for meringue buttercreams.
See the next shortcut for an explanation.
No matter what a recipe calls for, I cream my butter for a minimum of 5 minutes.  
This means that starting with cold butter is no problem.  Just beat it on high for 30 seconds before adding the sugar to cream.  
Easy peasy, and no pesky waiting.
(This especially applies for cookies, which I beat for a minimum of 10.  
I learned this trick from Christina Tosi.)
 
I temper my chocolate.
Tempering chocolate frees you from needing to use shortening or other fats and/or corn syrup in your candies.
The result is a cleaner, deeper, and richer taste: one of chocolate alone.
Granted, tempering chocolate takes (minimally, once you’ve got the hang of it) longer than candy melts, but it is way more flavorful and, in truth, healthier.
Candy melts= paraffin wax.  Yes, wax.  
Um… I’ll pass on those traditional cake-pops.

Even better? Cookie dough pops.  Om nom nom.
There’s nothing better than raw cookie dough.  Except raw cookie dough that’s safe to eat and is covered in more chocolate.
One last protip?  Stick these in the freezer (if you’ve tempered your chocolate, this won’t create any ugly blooms) and you have heaven on a stick.

Cookie Dough Truffles
ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick, 8 tablespoons, 4 ounces)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
heaping 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons milk
splash vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2-3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
bittersweet chocolate chips, tempered, for coating
popsicle sticks
directions:
Beat butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy and softened, about 2 minutes.
Add in the sugars and beat for 3 more minutes, until very fluffy, shiny, and not gritty.
Scrape the sides of the bowl.
Add in the milk, salt, and vanilla, and beat for 2 more minutes.
Add in the flour and mix on medium low until homogeneous.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Roll into balls, dip popsicle sticks in a little bit of chocolate, and stick into the balls.
Freeze until solid, dip into tempered chocolate and allow to set.
Enjoy!
by Rachel Sally

Raisin in the Sun

Or does it explode?
It’s hot, hot, hot.
Summer is coming.
The other day, it was about 90 degrees here in Ithaca, which translates to approximately 110 degrees on the inside of a certain little red Volvo.
Obviously, I raced home and did the one thing any sane person would do in the heat:
I turned on my oven.
My pup has never faired well in the heat, but as she ages, it becomes even more difficult for her.
Her lethargy is taken to a whole new level.
The other day, I took her on a walk (it was cool, but the sun was very strong), and, right in the middle of it, she sat down.
And refused to move.
She is no lightweight, either.  When a 95-100 lb chocolate lab makes up her mind to sit, your walking plans better change, pronto.
What ensued must have looked hilarious to passerby, but was most certainly not amusing for me.
We had stopped at the bottom of a shallow hill.
When Ginger decided she could take no more and wanted to go back, I realized her mortal mistake, but it would take her a few more minutes to come to the same realization.
We had to turn around and go UP the hill.  In the sun.  
Actually, she didn’t go up the hill.  She sat.
I pulled.  I pushed.  I wanted to carry her, but that would have been a feat perhaps to great for me.
I was sweating.
She was panting.
I was mad.
She sat.
When we got home, the poor old dear was panting so heavily, she sounded the way I do when I’m having a panic attack.
She slumped down on the cool stone floor of our porch.
I set a bowl of ice water near her and strategically placed a fan aimed at her belly.  
So lazy was she that she could not even get up to drink the water.
I had to push it closer so that she could half drink it by flopping over on her side.  
I mean, really?
Alright, ready for me to bring this back around to rugelach?
Ready?
We got Ginger when I was 7- my mom likes to say that we were puppies together.  
At that point in my life, I was still a good little devout Catholic and my family attended church every Sunday, without fail.
Um… Best part about church?  You always got doughnuts or cookies afterwards at the faith group that met on Sundays.
Ithaca Bakery, here in town, makes killer rugelach.
Rugelach that we often indulged in on Sundays.
(I know, Jewish cookies for Catholics.  Cookie love unites all!!)
Ithaca Bakery makes their rugelach in scrolls, like those shown, rather than the more traditional crescent shape.
When I first saw the rugelach in Dorie Greenspan’s book, I was very confused.
Those were not rugelach.
I did not trust these strange moon shaped cookies.
Surely they were not those that I knew and loved.
Turns out, they are.  Egads!
 
 
I find that the scroll shape holds the innards in far better than do the crescents, and it’s the shape I like, so I stuck with it.  
Feel free to shape the cookies into crescents if you so desire.
I slicked my dough with a thin layer of apricot jam, then a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar, and finally, a thin topping of walnuts and raisins.
You could do raspberry jam, or orange marmalade- or anything- run with it!
Same goes for the nuts.  Use whatever floats your boat.
I’m also thinking of some rugelach with sour cherries or golden raisins.  Yum.
The key to your filling not spilling out and burning the bottoms of your cookies to kingdom come is to be frugal with it.  Trust me.
 
With rugelach, it’s all about the shatteringly flaky pastry.  This pastry is seriously flaky, people.  Like, crumbs everywhere-unless-you-eat-it-in-one-go type flaky.
If that doesn’t convince you to make these, then I don’t know what will.
 
Anyways, me and Ginge enjoyed a few of these cookies together, just like the good old days.
She approves.  

Rugelach
for the dough:
from Dorie Greenspan
ingredients:
4 ounces cream cheese, cut into 1/2 ounce pieces
8 tablespoons butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces
1 cup all purpose flour
3/8 teaspoon kosher salt (she calls for 1/4 teaspoon of regular salt; I always prefer to use kosher or sea salt and I generally use pinches rather than measurements; here, a good, hearty 2 pinches will do.)
directions:
Place flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine.  Sprinkle the chunks of cream cheese and butter over the top of the flour and pulse until a rough dough forms.  
Gently form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap.  
Flatten slightly and refrigerate. 
to assemble:
ingredients:
apricot or raspberry jam
3/4 cup sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 handfuls of raisins
chopped walnuts
1 egg mixed very well with 1 half egg-shell full of water
directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll out your dough into a rectangle that is 1/8-1/4 inch thick.
Spread a thin, thin, thin layer of jam all over the dough.
Sparsely sprinkle a thin layer of cinnamon sugar all over the dough, then press a handful of raisins and walnuts over the sugar.  
Do not fill your dough too full with the fillings, because they will leak out and burn in the oven.
Roll up your dough rectangle tightly (roll starting with the long end of the rectangle, NOT the short, unless you want gigantic rugelach).
Cut into 1-inch wide pieces, and place 1 inch apart on a baking sheet.
Brush lightly with egg wash, and sprinkle more cinnamon sugar on top.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until puffed, golden, and crispy.