I was very excited when my Baking with Julia book arrived!
And in plenty of time to join in on this week’s recipe scheduled for Tuesdays with Dorie!
I planned to enjoy making this recipe.
I set aside the last weekend of summer to take my time and play in the kitchen.
And this recipe fit the bill perfectly as it could be stretched over a couple of days.
No rush.
I made the dough and placed it into the fridge.
I had a two days up my sleeve until I had to cook it, so how easy was step 1!
In fact, it was so easy and stress free I decided to start on the prune lekvar.
(The prune lekvar is made with walnuts while the apricot lekvar has almonds. Two of my children are allergic to almonds while only one is allergic to walnuts, so prune lekvar it was!)
Harm minimisation!
We went on to have a great weekend at the beach with the kayak and the kid’s various boards.
Relaxing and leisurely!
It’s amazing what kids can do with boards when there are absolutely no waves around!
Creativity can be expressed in so many ways!
It was great knowing that whenever I was ready, my dough and lekvar were there, waiting for me.
No pressure.
And breaking the steps up like this, made what initially looked like a daunting recipe, into something manageable.
Easy even!
Processing the nuts, cinnamon and sugar was where I seemed to fall apart…
My food processor was sealed but somehow I ended up with a fair amount of this nut dust all over the kitchen.
It was a deliciously nutty, sugary, cinnamon-y mixture.
Unless you’re somewhat allergic to nuts!
Then it’s just a nerve wracking experience with kids coughing and complaining of heavy chests.
I used a mixture of hazelnuts, walnuts and pecan (the least allergic of all the nuts to our family).
But I guess with 3 kids, all allergic to various degrees to different combinations of nuts, it was going to be disastrous to some degree!
So after dosing kids up on antihistamines, I decided to skip the dried fruit and finish as quickly as possible!
I loved these!
I’m kind of glad I skipped the dried fruit.
I could really taste the prune butter and it was balanced beautifully with the nuts. Any more dried fruit and I think it would have been too sweet for my taste.
Granted, they’re not the prettiest looking things, but I loved these.
You can find the full recipe at Jessica of My Baking Heart and Margaret of The Urban Hiker blogs. Our hosts for this week!
To see what others thought of this recipe head over to Tuesdays with Dorie and check them out!
Kitchen Therapy 
March 6, 2012 at 11:23 pm
They look yummy!
March 6, 2012 at 11:30 pm
I hope everyone survived 🙂 Your cookies came out beautifully.
Actually, I only used nuts in the lekvar and didn’t put any in the rest of the cookie. You probably could have even made the lekvar with out any nuts and not lost any flavor.
I am glad you enjoyed these.
March 7, 2012 at 1:58 am
I agree with Cher, you could skip the nuts. All the fruit gives so much flavor on its own. Your last weekend of summer looks delightful and your cookies do look really good.
March 7, 2012 at 3:50 am
Your rugelach turned out fantastic! I skipped the dates because I don’t care for dried fruit. And, I’m impressed you made your own lekvar!
March 7, 2012 at 5:35 am
Gorgeous cookies, they turned out beautifully!
It’s windy and cold here today so your beach shot warmed me up, thanks;-)
March 7, 2012 at 5:20 pm
I’m glad you liked them!
March 7, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Looks delicious! I used golden raisins and dried cherries in mine and I wish I’d skipped them – they kind of overpowered the lekvar I actually put effort into! Lol.
March 7, 2012 at 11:10 pm
They look great. I agree with Cher–I had barely any nuts and I skipped the dried fruit and found that the lekvar & cinnamon sugar made for a great cookie.
March 8, 2012 at 2:05 am
Your rugelach look great! Glad no one had too severe a reaction! I think you can actually fill these with anything you want.
March 8, 2012 at 10:47 am
I am laughing because I am picturing the nuts flying and the kids coughing and you trying to stay put together. I would have lost it! Congratulations!!!!
March 9, 2012 at 1:53 pm
Yours look beautiful, glad everyone is safe.
March 13, 2012 at 11:52 am
I left some nuts out of some of mine, but the nuts really did make a difference I thought. Where are you located? I saw English isn’t your first language, but you’re doing great at writing. This is good practice!