Rohalyky (рогалики, jam crescent rolls)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •A rolling pin
• •Two lined baking trays
• •A pastry brush
• •A sharp knife or pastry wheel

Instructions

1. 1

   Wake the yeast

   Stir the dried yeast into the warm milk with a pinch of the sugar and leave it until the surface looks creamy and smells faintly bready. It does not need to foam like a festival. It only needs to wake up.

2. 2

   Rub the butter

   Put the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt in a wide bowl. Rub in the cold butter with your fingertips until the mixture looks like uneven breadcrumbs, with a few pea-sized flakes left. Those little flakes give the baked rohalyky their tender bite, so don't rub them into dust.

   Cold butter matters more than perfect rubbing. If the bowl starts feeling greasy, put it in the fridge until the butter firms up again.
3. 3

   Make the dough

   Beat the sour cream, egg, and woken yeast together, then pour into the flour mixture. Bring it together with a fork first, then your hand, just until there are no dry pockets. The dough should feel soft, cool, and a little shy of sticky. If it grabs your fingers badly, dust in flour one spoon at a time.

4. 4

   Rest until relaxed

   Pat the dough into a thick disc, wrap it, and chill until it firms and relaxes, at least one hour. You are not waiting for a big rise. You are letting the flour drink, the butter settle, and the dough become willing under the rolling pin.

5. 5

   Prepare the filling

   Spoon the povydlo or jam into a bowl and test it: it should mound, not run. If it slides like syrup, stir in ground walnuts until it thickens enough to hold a line when you drag a spoon through it. This is the step that decides the dish. Thick filling stays inside; thin filling escapes and burns before the pastry is ready.

   Povydlo is the old friend here because it is cooked down hard. Modern supermarket jam often needs walnuts, breadcrumbs, or poppy seed to make it behave.
6. 6

   Roll and cut

   Divide the chilled dough into four pieces. Roll one piece at a time into a thin circle, roughly the thickness of a coin, keeping the rest cold. Cut the circle into eight triangles, like a sun with sharp rays. If the dough resists, leave it for five minutes; dough sulks when rushed.

7. 7

   Fill and curl

   Place a small teaspoon of filling at the wide end of each triangle. Roll from the wide end toward the point, gently stretching the point so it tucks underneath, then curve the ends into a small crescent. Set them seam-side down on a lined tray. My hands want them neat, but the table likes the funny ones too.

8. 8

   Glaze and bake

   Brush lightly with the egg yolk and milk, then scatter with granulated sugar. Bake at 180C until the bodies are golden, the tips are darker, and the kitchen smells of butter and cooked fruit. Listen when you lift one: the bottom should sound dry and crisp against the tray, not soft.

9. 9

   Cool and sugar

   Let the rohalyky sit on the tray until the bubbling jam quiets, then move them to a rack. Dust with icing sugar once cool, if you like that snowdrift look. Eat one while standing up. This is quality control, not theft.

Chef Tips

• •Use thick povydlo if you can find it in a Ukrainian, Polish, or Romanian shop. Plum is classic, apple is gentle, apricot is bright, and poppy seed filling turns the pastry toward winter holidays.
• •The dough forgives uneven circles and strange little crescents. It does not forgive warm butter or watery jam, so keep the dough cool and thicken the filling before you begin.
• •For a bit more modern finish, brush the baked rohalyky with a thin honey syrup instead of dusting with icing sugar. Let them cool first so they stay crisp at the edges.
• •Store in a tin once completely cool. They keep well for several days, and the fruit smell gets deeper by the next morning.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made the night before and kept in the fridge. Let it sit on the counter just until rollable, not soft.
• •Baked rohalyky keep for 4 to 5 days in a tin. They are good picnic food because they travel without fuss.
• •The filling can be thickened with ground walnuts ahead of time and chilled until needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 40g)