This topic -- where to find good rugelach -- comes up periodically, but it's been awhile, so perhaps we could revisit it.
The rugelach I grew up on is what was sold at Lederman's Bakery in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. The bakers there -- Sam, Walter and Morty (that really was their names) -- made rugelach by rolling out big sheets of dough, adding the fillings (at Lederman's, the choices, IIRC, were chocolate, raspberry and apricot), and then cutting the sheets into strips which were then rolled into small tight logs and cut lengthwise into two-bite pieces. In NYC, I more commonly see rugelach where the dough has been cut into triangles and then rolled into small crescent shaped pastries. I do sometimes see the Lederman's style of rugelach, but it tends to be much larger squares rather than the two-bite pieces that Lederman's sold. Bread's Bakery sells the crescent variety. Russ & Daughter's sells the square variety.
So while I'm mostly interested in learning where to find the absolute best rugelach in NYC, irrespective of which style, I'm also interested in hearing anything interesting people have to offer about the different styles. Is one more traditional than the other? Are the different styles from different parts of Europe? Ok, but mostly I want to find the best!
Lee Lee's baked goods makes amazing rugelach- apricot and chocolate are usually on offer. They're rectangular not crescents and 2-3 bites each. Bring cash, take your few pieces to go and head to double dutch coffee around the corner for a nice espresso to go with them. I may or lay not do this myselt at least once a month ;)
Zucker bakery in the e village makes a great version, crescent shaped. The chocolate is very chocolatey.
I really like the version from Breads bakery but it's really quite rich and indulgent, kind of over the top in the best way.
I make my own rugelah. Depending upon how lazy I am, I might roll out all the dough at once and cut them into the logs, but to me, although more time consuming, rolling each piece into a triangle is the more traditional way to make them. While I'm no expert on the history of each style, my guess is that it simply has to do with the time you save by doing a mass roll out and cut vs the more time consuming roll out of each piece.
My favorite is Zabar's chocolate rugelach (which is the square variety). To me it has just the right amount of sweetness. I prefer it to the Breads version which IMO is too sweet, although I do love their chocolate babka.
Margaret Palca Bakes on Columbia St. in what is these days called Columbia Heights (not quite Red Hook but across the expressway from Cobble Hill) makes outstanding rugelach. I've never liked chocolate and consider raisin/nut/cinnamon to be the only true rugelach. Which is a ridiculous position, but it means that's usually all I've sampled. Nevertheless, hers are the real thing, and the measure of the real thing is the pastry, which should be made with cream cheese and will be therefore very rich and with a slight tang, and not the filling. Despite what I said earlier. The bakery is very modest (I think most of her business is custom cakes for weddings, etc.), but the rugelach is always there and worth the trip.
Another great source in Brooklyn is Lord's bakery in Flatbush. (And just off Flatbush too, for that matter.) Their giant sign advertises their photo cakes, and they've added many items to please their local clientele, now majority West Indian and Hispanic. But they continue to make outstanding traditional (cream cheese dough) rugelach. (Good plain and marble sponge cake too! Hard to find.) Lord's are definitely of the small square variety, cut from a log, as you say.
I'm totally with you on this reco. M. Palca's are the real deal. Of course, second only to the trays that come out of our oven at home...the Ina Garten recipe - and the one closest to the kind I was in charge of (full-disclosure here) when, for a short while back in the day, I mixed, rolled, filled and baked the rugelach overnights at the "Well-Bred Loaf" in Yorkville.
FYI, we were gifted a box of mixed "Z"-type for Rosh Hashanah...not surprisingly, the chocolate leftovers were abundant!
I am absolutely not a baker, but the few times i have made rugelach have been with that Ina garten recipe and even with my amateur technique they come out fantastic...
The Well Bred Loaf! Just last week in Soho I walked into M & O deli on Prince Street with the conscious if unhinged thought that just by walking in, I could make it the early '80s and there would be a stack of Well Bred Loaf blondies on the counter, and I could have one again.
Didn't work.
HA! The WBL's original retail outlet was a hole-in-the-wall (IIRC, near the corner of 2nd Avenue and East 91st street), which then moved to 3rd Avenue. The piles of signature brownies, blondies, Irish soda bread, oatmeal-raisin and other richly-appointed cookies...and those incredible rugelach...all had a chance to breathe freer. I worked at the plant, which was on East 91st Street near York Avenue, where the ol' Baker's Mustard factory once stank up the neighborhood, in the same kinda way that Ruppert-Knickerbocker Brewery did just 2 blocks away until it closed in the '60s. Those 50 lb. industrial blocks of AA butter (used in virtually everything!) and cream cheese logs, huge bags of walnuts and raisins and 100 lb. flour sacks...impressive.
All that said, if they could only resurrect "Hershy's KnishShop" in Borough Park, I'd have the same great brain-spark.
I miss the jelly rolls from Lederman’s. Would love to find a recipe that approximates it!
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