This month’s King Arthur Flour’s baking challenge is a rugalach redo. Actually, they are calling it a Best of Bakealong Challenge choosing last October’s cranberry currant rugalach recipe.
Well, King Arthur Flour, once again I accepted your challenge and turned a traditionally sweet Jewish pastry into a screaming sweet hot sesame sensation.
Admittedly this could have been more of a hot mess than a sensation but the result was outstanding.
Instead of the cranberry, currant raisin walnut filling. I created a savory sesame spicy version brushing the pastry with tahini then adding dabs of harissa on top of the tahini layer before rolling it up.
To finish, I brushed them with milk and sprinkled some red cayenne flavored salt over the top before baking.
It was hard to believe such a small sized pastry could deliver such a huge flavor punch. I put too much salt on top of the first batch. Live and learn or bake and learn. If you are using finished salt to top the rugelach, do so sparingly.
To make these, follow the King Arthur Flour rugelach recipe. Swap out the filling and topping ingredients in the original recipe for the following:
3/4 cup tahini
1/3 cup harissa
1 tablespoon large grain or flake salt.
Use a flavored version of the salt if you have some. Smokey, spicy, herb or lemon flavors would all work well.
Add more harissa if you want a super spicy result. To balance the heat you could also drizzle a tablespoon or two of honey on top before rolling up the pastries. I made a note to try that next time.
Creating these opened up a world of savory rugelach ideas in my baking brain. I’ve been jotting them down and can’t wait to try a few more.
