It’s almost Christmas. Which means I’m crazy busy. Making desserts. Rolling out doughs. Making homemade gifts. Making last minute trips to the grocery store. Reflecting on the past year. Hanging out with the people I love. Aaaaand of course, making cookies.

Although cookies are appropriate for me at any hour minute or second, Christmas seems to be the time that people bust them out the most. But we usually see gingerbread, sugar cookies with royal icing, thumbprints. How about a Jewish cookie, though? With a Cuban twist. A Jewban cookie.

Rugelach are one of my favorite cookies in the world. I remember trying them for the first time with a friend of mine, and I became an addict. Who wouldn’t love a cream cheese dough, rolled and filled with an infinite possibility of fillings?! Usually, they are filled with a mixture of chocolate chips, apricot jam, pecans, currants, raisins, etc. But in my mind, cream cheese is married to guava, so I saw no other option.

To keep it slightly authentic, I did two other types as well: fig jam and chocolate, and golden raisin, brown sugar, and cinnamon. When I brought them to a crowd, the guava was met with delightful looks of surprise and “oh, yes’s”. If you can’t find guava, or want to fill them with something else, then do so! These are yours, and it’s your Christmas. Or whatever other hour cookies are appropriate, which is… always. Of course.

Guava Rugelach

Adapted from Alice Medrich

Note: Claudia Roden, who is a master cookbook writer, food eater, and just all-around the most elegant classiest woman in the world, tried these cookies and approved. I’d say that’s good enough for me.

Also, since the dough recipe below is technically three batches worth this recipe makes a lot of rugelach, about 40 or so. If you want to make them all, that’s great. If you just want to make one or two, feel free to freeze the other doughs for up to three months. Thaw them in the fridge for a day before you use them. The filling amounts below are for 1/3 of each batch.

Ingredients

For the Cream Cheese Dough (makes 3 batches)

3 3/4 cups (17 ounces/482g) unbleached all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons (38g)  granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon table salt

3 sticks (12 ounces/340g) cold unsalted butter

1 1/2 packages (12 ounces/340g) cold cream cheese

For the Fillings (for each piece of dough)

Note: You will need about 1 1/2 cups, total, of fillings. Like noted above, I did 3 types. Three because after you make your dough, you will divide it in 3. You don’t want to overstuff them because the filling will seep out during baking. Feel free to use whatever fillings you want. Any nut, sugar, dried fruit, spice, chocolate, white chocolate, would go.

For Guava Rugelach (1/3 batch)

1/2 cup guava marmalade

For Fig and Chocolate Rugelach (1/3 batch)

1/4 cup fig jam

1/4 cup chocolate chips

For Brown Sugar, Golden Raisin, Cinnamon Rugelach (1/3 batch)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 golden raisins

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Classic Rugelach (1/3 batch) (Medrich’s suggestion – I didn’t do this but feel free to do so)

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

1/4 cup dried currants

1/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar

1 Tbs. granulated sugar; more for sprinkling

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Make Cream Cheese Dough

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix briefly to distribute the ingredients. Cut each stick of butter into eight pieces and add them to the bowl. Mix on low speed until most of the mixture resembles very coarse bread crumbs with a few larger pieces of butter the size of hazelnuts, about 3 minutes. Cut the cream cheese into 1-inch cubes and add them to the bowl. Mix on medium-low speed until a shaggy-looking dough begins to clump around the paddle, 30 to 60 seconds.

Dump the dough onto the work surface, scraping the bowl. Knead a few times to incorporate any loose pieces. There should be large streaks of cream cheese. Shape it into a fat cylinder, 6 inches long and about 3-1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the dough in parchment or waxed paper and refrigerate until cold and slightly firm but not rock-hard, about 2 hours. Portion the dough by measuring the cylinder and cutting it into equal thirds. If you have a scale, weigh each third; each should weigh about 14 oz.

Roll, Shape, and Fill Doughs

Prepare your fillings. Mix each together in their own bowl.

Remember you have 3 batches of dough. Work on each one individually so the others can chill in the refrigerator while you work. They need to remain cold. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, stand it up on its rounded edge. Roll on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch round a scant 1/8 inch thick; check frequently to be sure it’s not sticking and reflour only if necessary. Spread your filling over the dough. If you have larger items like nuts or dried fruit, roll a rolling pin over the filling to press it gently into the dough.

Cut the dough like a pie into 12 equal wedges with a knife, bench scraper or pizza cutter. Roll the outside edge of a wedge up around the filling toward the narrow point. Set the roll on an ungreased or foil-lined cookie sheet with the point underneath to keep it from unrolling. Repeat with the remaining wedges, arranging the cookies 1-1/2 inches apart. Roll, fill, cut, and shape the second round of dough with the remaining filling. Sprinkle the rugelach with sugar. Bake until the cookies are light golden brown at the edges, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the sheets and then transfer them to a rack and let cool completely.