Nut Rolls are one of those things that have many names throughout Eastern Europe – often with slightly different recipes.  According to my sources, the Polish is “strucle z orzechami”  and refers to the traditional Walnut recipe

Our recipe is the one handed on by my Aunt Juel (my dad’s sister) and it is the one most of us in the family use since she is the one who taught us all.  My brothers and I always preferred my version with Pecan with white raisins, but my Dad like Poppyseed and Mom wanted Prune –

So because I keep misplacing Aunt Juel’s version, putting it someplace “safe” like the internet seemed the thing to do.

Someday I might have to take pictures – all the ingredients are in the cupboard and refrig –

Cold Nut Roll Dough

5 C flour (plus enough to get it unsticky as you knead)

4 eggs, beaten

1 lb butter

1 tsp. salt

2 cakes yeast [or packets]

1/2 pt. light cream

Powdered sugar for rolling

* Flavors to mix with Powered Sugar In Filling
Powdered Cinnamon “to taste”
Powdered Vanilla “to taste”
* NOT traditional, just my successful experiments

Desolve yeast in lukewarm cream.
Mix flour and butter as for pie crust.
Combine eggs, salt, yeast and cream
Gradually add “wet” mix to the flour/butter
Mix really well, you may have to add a little more flour to get the right dough consistency
Roll in powdered sugar.
Will make 6 nut rolls. [
Divide in 6-8 parts and chill dough overnight before rolling

Filling

5 cups of coarse ground nuts and
2.5 cups of sugar.
Mix together.
(I like to include about 1/2-1/3 cup of white raisins lightly coated with powdered sugar & cinnamon or vanilla or both makes it easier to get them to mix into the nuts evenly instead of clumping together and adds another layer of flavors)

Remove one piece of chilled dough
at a time from the refrigerator, keeping the rest chilled.

Roll out that one into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.

Spread one sixth to one-eighth of the filling onto the dough and roll it up, jelly-roll style.

Put on ungreased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper while you do the rest.
DO NOT Have sheet sitting on stove where oven is preheating

Bake 30-35 minutes in 325 degree oven.

This includes notes from Ceil – she makes them smaller.

With thanks to Jennifer Eggers for sharing her notes

Wheat’s Notes: My dad loved the Poppy seed and my mom wanted the prune – somewhere along the line I lost their instructions for making it “from scratch”. It turns out that you can buy pretty much the right amount of Prune or Poppy seed “filling” for a small roll when mixed with stiffened egg white – Look for the Solo Brand in the stupid market baking aisle – that was the one they always said tasted best.

Have tried apple pie filling, with white raisins dusted in flour in hopes of making it a bit less “juicey” resulting in soggy crust. but this dough can be used in a pie pan, weighted and pre-baked for a maybe 5-6 minutes and then bake according to the instructions for pie filling. We like the no sugar added. I do add a LOT more cinnamon/apple pie spice, but then I tend to treat cinnamon like a food group