Rugelach, meet mini torte pans!

Ok...so the original plan for baking this weekend was to use the freakishly adorable molds lent to me by Frenchie. I had it all planned out...carrot cake with cream cheese icing. I bought edible spray paint. Colored sanding sugars. I was so darned excited. Until I tried the batter....hmm....well, maybe it would be different when it cooked and the carrots weren't crunchy. Yeah. Nope. Not only was the batter bad, but even if it had miraculously become edible in the oven (I can hope), the cakes refused to come out of the molds. So, no super cute, spray paint and sugar decorated, cream cheese frosted carrot cake. Damn.

I was determined to bake though, so I pulled out a Christmas cookie cookbook that my mom got for me recently and flipped to one I've been dying to try: Rugelach. The book says they are Eastern European and the cookie dough is made with cream cheese and topped with fruit and nuts then rolled into crescents. But it was Sunday afternoon. And I had to pick up a friend at the airport in like 4 hours. And hadn't really slept. So the prospect of rolling out the dough and making 40-some odd crescent cookies was not so much appealing. Enter the torte. I used my mom's Italian grandmother's recipe for the dough from her apricot and apple torte, sprinkled milk, cinnamon, and brown sugar on the crust, and topped with honey (not called for in the Rugelach recipe, but makes it oh so much better!). Here are the results: