Sara Hohn – Food… Brooklyn & Beyond

Inspired by our new, used copy of the Brooklyn Cookbook, we paid a visit to Margaret Palca’s bakery whose rugelach recipe was reproduced in it. Her rugelach is widely considered to be some of the best around. Palca wrote that she developed the recipe with her partner, combining recipes from their grandmothers.

Rugelach is a pastry-like cookie filled with chocolate, jam, nuts and spices. Palca’s is chewy, nutty, light and flaky, with the perfect balance of nuts and filling. I always thought one had either jam-filled or chocolate rugelach, but Palca’s signature version includes both mini-chocolate chips and apricot preserves along with cinnamon and chopped pecans in a cream cheese dough.

Barry Popik, judge, etymology expert and foodie attempted to trap the linguistic origins
of rugelah. This proves tricky because the names and spellings vary widely. In this country, rugelach goes by “kipfel,” “cheese bagelach” and “cream-cheese horns of plenty,” in addition to the legions of spellings of “rogele,” “rogelekh,” “rugelah”…you get the idea. One source says “rugelach” means “little twists” in Yiddish. Another claims that “rugel” comes from the Yiddish word for “royal.” While some place rugelach as Middle Eastern in origin with its combination of nuts, fruits and spices, other attributions point to Austria, Hungary or Yugoslavia. The American version added cream cheese to the traditional European dough which was butter or sour cream-based. We say head over to the bona fide Margaret Palca’s, pick up a pound or two of rugelach, and discuss amongst yourselves.

Margaret Palca Bakes
191 Columbia Street

Originally published on Until Monday: Brooklyn