Rogaliki (Polish Croissant Cookies)

Method10 steps

1. 1

   Step 1: Let the measured dough butter (1 cup) and cream cheese (8 oz) soften. In a medium bowl, beat all one cup dough butter, three egg yolks, eight ounces cream cheese and one teaspoon baking powder together with a handheld mixer until combined. Add the three cups plain flour gradually until the mixer can no longer handle the crumbly mixture; use all the measured flour.

   Uses 1 cup butter, softened for dough · 3 egg yolks · 8 oz cream cheese, softened · 1 tsp baking powder · 3 cups plain all-purpose flour

2. 2

   Step 2: Put away the mixer and gently bring the crumbly mixture together with clean hands into a cohesive pastry dough. Knead only enough to combine.

   Uses All dough mixture

3. 3

   Step 3: Shape the dough into a roll, wrap it in foil and put it in the freezer for fifteen minutes to firm it. Meanwhile heat the oven to 375 °F (about 190 °C). This is a short freezer chill, not freezing the dough solid.

   Firm pastry dough in the freezer · 15 minUses All combined pastry dough

4. 4

   Step 4: Take the chilled dough out and divide it into two halves. Work with one half at a time, keeping the other cool. Roll it thinly between sheets of baking paper and cut triangles about three inches across; gather and reroll offcuts gently so the dough is used.

   Uses All dough after fifteen-minute freezer chill

5. 5

   Step 5: Put a small spoonful of the fruit jam or preserves near the broad centre of each triangle, leaving the edges clear. Roll each triangle from its broad edge towards the point, enclosing the jam, and gently bend into a crescent. Make as many as will fit the first uncrowded baking sheet.

   Uses triangles from the first dough half · Small spoonfuls of fruit jam for the first batch

6. 6

   Step 6: Lightly grease a baking sheet with a little of the separate extra tray butter. Put the jam-filled crescents on it with space between them, then bake in the 375 °F (about 190 °C) oven for ten to twelve minutes, or until golden and the pastry is baked through.

   Bake one batch of jam-filled crescents · 12 minUses The first baking batch · A little extra butter to grease baking sheets, separate from measured dough butter

7. 7

   Step 7: Repeat the same rolling, cutting, small-spoon jam filling and crescent shaping with all the remaining dough and offcuts. Grease further baking sheets with the separate tray butter as needed and bake each formed batch for ten to twelve minutes until golden, using the same oven. Bake all the dough, in about three batches of twenty cookies each.

   Bake each remaining cookie batch · 12 minUses Only dough or triangles not yet baked · Small spoonfuls of jam for remaining cookie batches · A little extra butter to grease baking sheets, separate from measured dough butter

8. 8

   Step 8: Lift each baked cookie batch onto a rack and let it cool enough to handle, then lightly dust with the separate powdered sugar as desired.

   Uses The first baked batch · Each later baked batch · Powdered sugar for lightly dusting baked cookies, as needed

9. 9

   Step 9: Keep the finished batches together on a serving plate as they cool. Depending on rolling and portion sizes, the complete dough makes about sixty small cookies, roughly twenty in each of three batches.

   Uses All finished cookie batches

10. 10

    Step 10: Serve the cooled jam-filled crescents. Let any remaining cookies cool completely before storing them in a suitable covered container.

    Uses All finished cookies