Raspberry Rugelach

Wait till they smell these...they'll come running! (What makes these more fun to make than Grandma's recipe? There's ice cream in the dough!)

Cooking Time: 35 min

Ingredients

• 1 pound (4 sticks) butter, softened
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup ground cinnamon
• About 2/3 cup raspberry jam
• About 1 ¼ cups raisins

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, cut the butter into the flour. Add the softened ice cream and work it into the mixture with your hands. (Add more flour if necessary to make the dough easier to handle.) Cover and refrigerate the dough overnight (it will become hard).
    
2. The following day, preheat the oven to 350°F.
    
3. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the sugar, nuts, and cinnamon. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the sugar-nut mixture onto a clean smooth surface. Lightly flour a rolling pin; separate dough into 5 equal pieces. Place one piece of dough on the sugar-nut mixture and roll it out (to about 1/8" to 1/4" thickness) to form a circle. Spread about 2 tablespoons jam and 1/4 cup raisins over the rolled dough.
   
   
4. Cut dough into small pie slice-shaped pieces (about 12 to 14 pieces) and roll up each piece from the outside to the center. Place the rolls, seam-side down, on a cookie sheet that has been coated with nonstick cooking spray.
   
   
5. Repeat the process, placing more sugar-nut mixture on your smooth surface each time before rolling out the dough into circles, covering each dough circle with the jelly and raisins. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the bottoms turn golden brown.
   
   Makes about 5 dozen.

Notes

You can leave out the raisins if you prefer, but the flavor and texture are best with them.