Raspberry Rugeleh from Tibby Speare. Holiday Dessert bake-off Christmas Special recipe. 

Ingredients 

Dough:

½ pound cream cheese, softened

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons sugar

Filling:

1 cup pecans

½ to 1 cup dried currants

½ cup sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

16 ounces raspberry, apricot and/or cherry jam (4 ounces per circle of dough)

Method

Mix dough ingredients together until just blended. Divide into four balls, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight. Meanwhile, make the filling. 

Use a food processor and pulse pecans, sugar and cinnamon together until there are still very small chunks of pecans; do not over-grind pecans.

Add the currants and set mixture aside. Roll each circle of dough sandwiched in wax paper into a larger circle, about 10 inches in diameter.  This may require you to flip it over once or twice to get the best circle. 

Take the wax paper off one side and spread a layer of one type of jam, about 1/3 to ½ of a cup, sprinkle with a fourth of the filling mixture, and cut the circle as you would a pizza, with approximately 12 to 16 wedges all together. For sixteen wedges, that would mean 8 cuts.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Starting from the outer part of the circle, roll each wedge up to the point, and place, seam side down, on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper; you do not need to give too much space between the cookies as they do not spread very much. 

Bake at 350 for 16 to 19 minutes until light golden brown. Let them sit a couple of minutes before removing them from the pan.

Notes and Tips:

I like to make various flavors of these, as noted by the different flavors of jam. 

Some people add mini chocolate chips or dried cherries instead of the currents. If you don’t want to make the entire batch at one time, you can keep the dough refrigerated for a few days, at most. 

Make sure to thaw it out until you can work with it, about 10 to 15 minutes, but not too much.