The Baking Sisters

My aunt Jay is back in the kitchen baking today making her famous rugelach. For a little Italian lady she makes a mean Jewish pastry, even her Jewish friends agree. This time her only assistant in the kitchen will be my grandmother, no gentlemen callers today.
My grandmother will be transporting some of that rugelach back to Rochester for all of us, aren’t aunts and grandmothers’ the best!

Rugelach

1 cup of butter
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted flour
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped raisins
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts
2 Teaspoons ground cinnamon

Blend butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add flour and sour cream; beat until it is mixed well. Cover; refrigerate overnight. Add together sugar, raisins, nuts and cinnamon. Divide dough into 6 parts.
On a floured board, roll the balls into a 9 inch circle then slice into 10 wedges. Place a heaping teaspoon of sugar mixture in center of each wedge. Roll each wedge. Place on baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for approximately 25 minutes.

Makes about 5 dozen.

Sisters Italian Style

My grandmother flew to Florida for my Cousin Stephen's wedding and will be staying with my aunt Jay. You would think that my eighty-eight year old grandmother would be glad to get away from our seven degree weather. Unfortunately the temperature has only been in the seventies in Florida (which qualifies as freezing by my grandmothers standards). It’s always interesting when my grandmother and my aunt Jay get together, they tend to lovingly disagree on just about everything and I mean everything! Aunt Jay is the older sister, she is in her early nineties, they are the last of five siblings so we as a family treasure every moment even though those moments may require popping a few antacids (sometimes quite a few). Trust me when I say that we would all prefer to suffer from a little bit of heartburn rather than the heartache the alternative would bring.

Here’s a recipe that is hard even for the sisters to disagree with....although, my aunt Jay’s are crisper which to my grandmother means aunt Jay's are too dry. Supposedly my grandmother’s could use a little more anise, which to aunt Jay means my grandmother’s lack flavor.

Oh well, I hope you enjoy these too dry flavorless biscotti as much as we do.

Traditional Anise Biscotti

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

3 eggs (save one yolk)

1 teaspoon anise extract (or 2 teaspoons of anise liqueur)

1 teaspoon anise seed, ground

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition and reserving one yolk. Add flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix well at medium speed of electric mixer.
Form dough into flattened log shapes or domed loaves, 2 inches wide by one half-inch high in the center.
Beat together remaining yolk and 1 tablespoon of milk. Brush over tops.
Bake in a preheated 375°F oven 20 minutes. When cool enough to handle, use a serrated knife to slice diagonally into 1 1/4" thick slices. Place on a baking sheet and toast five minutes.