Raspberry Chocolate Rugelach for Tu B’Av

Tu B’Av = the holiday of LOVE!

…Actually, the real point of the holiday is still a total mystery.

Well, not so much in its modern iteration; these days, it’s basically just the way less commercialized, less major, Israeli equivalent to Valentine’s Day. Romantic dinners, cards, and flowers are all fair game.

But the original idea behind this festival is a little less clear—no matter how hard you dig or where you look.

There is a Talmudic precedent for the celebration. It’s stated that on this night, the “daughters of Jerusalem would go dance in the vineyards,” and unmarried men would trail after them in search of a wife. So it’s safe to assume that it was some sort of rollicking matchmaking event (this was during the Second Temple period, by the way—between ~516 B.C.E. and ~70 C.E.).

But then there’s the matter of Tu B’Av being called “the greatest festival of the year, with Yom Kippur a close second” (sourcing Chabad here).

WHAT?!

Tu B’Av is supposed to be more important than Yom Kippur?

I needed a little clarification. So I called up my Israeli friend Yaffy Newman and asked her for guidance.

“So—is it a real holiday?” I asked.

“Ish,” she replied.

ISH.

It’s a holiday-ish.

“I mean, personally, it’s been on my calendar for weeks and weeks,” she continued. “It’s a fun, cute, romantic little day. But while most people here know about it, at least in some capacity, not everyone celebrates it.”

There you have it, folks: It’s an important day, it’s not really an important day; it’s about love, it’s not really about love; some people look forward to it, others don’t have the faintest idea that it even exists.

And you know what?

I love that.

⁣I love the open-endedness here. I love it for the same reason that I love so much of Judaism: it’s vast, all-encompassing, and inclusive. If ever there were an excuse to make your own traditions out of a holiday with zero sense of “Oh crap, am I supposed to be doing it THAT way?!”, this is it.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

Here’s what I plan on doing with Tu B’Av: going all-out. Celebrating it with everything I’ve got. Why not? Let’s have some fun with this day, and let’s make a tradition of doing so, because life is short, and love is beautiful.

May this somewhat ill-defined “day of love” be a reminder to extend some love to friends and strangers who need us, and to ourselves.
⁣⁣
May we match the best of who we are with the best of the world and call that romance.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
And may we somehow, to the best of our abilities, always find a way to involve pink cookies.

Okay. Rugelach:

Raspberry Chocolate Rugelach

Makes 24 cookies. Lightly adapted from Molly Yeh’s original Chocolate Sea Salt Rugelach.

What You’ll Need:

• 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
• 8 ounces cream cheese, straight from the fridge
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup very finely chopped semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup raspberry jam
• egg wash: 1 large egg beaten with a splash of water
• Pink sprinkles or sanding sugar

What You’ll Do:

1. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle. Add the cubed butter, distributing it all over the top of the dry ingredients, and dollop in the cream cheese (try for 1” dollops). Stir together on low speed until the mixture is mostly mealy and there are still some larger clumps of butter and cream cheese in tact. Add the yolks and vanilla; continue mixing until the dough comes together fully. Divide the dough in half, shape into discs, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour or up to two days.
2. When you’re ready to form the rugelach, roll out the dough. Working with one dough disc at a time, roll out onto a lightly floured surface until it is a wide rectangle, around 18” by 9”. Use an offset spatula or knife to spread half of the jam onto the dough in a thin, even layer, leaving a 1” border along the long edge that’s furthest from you. Next, sprinkle the jam with half of the chocolate shavings. Brush the 1” border with a thin layer of egg wash and then start on the end closest to you and roll the dough into a long tight log, placing it seam side down. Transfer to a cutting board or baking sheet and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to two days (depending on fridge space, you might want to cut the log in half so you’re dealing with four shorter logs as opposed to two really long ones). If you’re only refrigerating for an hour or two, no need to cover the logs. If longer than that, cover with plastic wrap. 
3. To bake, preheat the oven to 375ºF and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Brush the logs with a thin layer of egg wash, sprinkle with pink sprinkles or sugar. Cut into 1 1/2” slices and transfer to the baking sheets, 1” apart. Bake until golden brown on top; begin checking for doneness at 24 minutes (don’t over-bake or they’ll get too hard!). (You might notice that the cookies seem to sweat and leak out some fat while in the oven, this is completely normal.)
4. Let cool on the pans for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. or enjoy them warm! Leftovers can be stored at room temp for several days.