Melted Ice Cream Rugelach Recipe

Ah the joys of a fresh carton of ice cream! Alas it is only a matter of time before little ice crystals form and the ice cream loses it's perfect texture. One way to prevent oxidization is to put a layer of plastic wrap or scrunched up tin foil on top of your ice cream before putting it back in the freezer. But when it gets to the bottom of the carton, it's pretty much hopeless. Unless of course you have a recipe for melted ice cream cookies.

For IMBB # 10 Cookie Swap let me introduce you to rugelach. Rugelach are rich butter or cream cheese pastry dough cookies shaped like little horns or crescents and usually filled with some combination of chopped nuts, raisins and jam. But some of the best homemade rugelach I ever had were made with a melted ice cream dough. They are positively delicious and often served around Christmas time at the Jewish holiday of Hannukah. Because the name is Yiddish, it is quite challenging to pronounce, especially if you aren't Jewish. Here is a recording of how to pronounce it properly:rugelach. If this proves to much for you, feel free to call these "melted ice cream cookies".

Rugelach (melted ice cream cookies)
makes 64 bite-sized cookies

Dough
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 lb butter (2 sticks)
1 cup melted ice cream (vanilla, strawberry, anything without big chunks)

Filling
1 cup chopped walnuts or combination walnuts and raisins
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup jam or preserves (raspberry or apricot are good, but experiment!)

Topping
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoon sugar

In a food processor or with a pastry blender, combine the flour and butter, when crumbly add the melted ice cream. Divide dough into 4 portions; place each on sheet of plastic wrap. Pat each portion into 1-inch-thick circle, using floured hands. Wrap plastic wrap around each circle to enclose. Place in freezer for one hour to firm up the dough (or refrigerate overnight, but why wait?).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheets with foil or parchment paper. Mix walnuts or nuts and fruit with 2 T sugar and set aside. Roll each disk of dough to 10-11 inch circle on lightly floured surface, lifting dough occasionally to add more flour to work surface as necessary. Spread each circle evenly with a tablespoon of jam or preserves.

Sprinkle nut mixture over the top of the cookie disk, towards the outer edge or border. Cut each circle into 16 wedges. Roll up each wedge, starting from wide end. Place, point sides up, on prepared baking sheets; shape into crescents by pinching the corners. Sprinkle with combined cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!