Oliver BlakemoreWhy we love National Rugelach Day and those who love the idea of it
Baked goods help us celebrate. Every now and then we should return the favor.
Over the last year, The Think Digital Workshop team worked with Growth Path Harlem and New York Urban League to help businesses thrive. Particularly at risk post-covid aren't just SMEs with high overheads and sudden staffing issues with teams around the globe gobsmacked by sudden WFH imperatives. The businesses we are particularly keen to help are brick and mortar businesses who truly need to pivot and create a significant digital marketing footprint.
Lee Lee's Baked Goods in New York is literally a legendary bakery in Harlem. They decided to launch the very first National Rugelach Day....This is the beginning of a story series on how we helped.
Rugelach is a traditional Jewish cookie or pastry. The basic recipe starts with a sour cream or cream cheese dough and takes off from there. Areas and families have their own traditional variations. You’ll find it with raisins, currents, marzipan, chocolate, pistachios! Almonds. All sorts. There are as many “right” ways to bake rugelach as there are skilled bakers. And that is a tradition worth celebrating.
It’s a very old pastry. The first recorded instance of rugelach was in 1650 in Poland, but that record is suspect. There is an acknowledged culture of protectiveness around rugelach recipes. Families with the last word on the most perfect rugelach you’ve ever had protect their recipes with utmost private jealousy. As well they should. The mystique contributes to the pleasure. It can be fun wondering what gives this or that homemade rugelach the special tang it has. The secret ingredient is a well-respected tradition in the rugelach world.
The first recorded rugelach, likely as not, has nothing to do with the first time anyone baked rugelach. Due to the long tradition of closely guarded family recipes, odds are good that families were making rugelach for decades before anyone had the weakness of character to tell a reporter about it.
Once the cat leapt from the bag, countless variations of rugelach emerged.
Till now, when a deep tradition of celebrating rugelach’s deliciousness by embracing your own favorite recipe, has created an exciting culture of friendly competition. Everyone knows their family recipe is the best, and the only way of proving that is through comparing them.
We come, therefore, to National Rugelach Day. Established in 2022 by Alvin Lee Smalls of Lee Lee’s Baked Goods in Harlem, NY, National Rugelach Day will be celebrated on April 29th from this time forth! It will be a celebration of the traditions of rugelach. As a baked good, the most straightforward tradition related to rugelach is eating it. April 29th will be for that. National Rugelach Day will celebrate making the traditional pastry as well, and so it celebrates all the family recipes, and all the friendly competition between everyone who knows their family has the recipe representing the final word in rugelach since 1480. And National Rugelach Day celebrates the new bakers, making rugelach for the first time.
Confections have always put that little twist of specialness on special occasions. Cakes and cookies are punctuation, creating a sweet emphasis on a day—an evening—an hour. We have deep gratitude for our confections, and they have earned a day a year when we celebrate them.
We decided to help Mr. Lee and the Team behind Lee lee's Baked Goods celebrate it well...Mark The Date! Celebrate virtually or in their Legendary Bakery in Harlem.
Oh, and Mr. Lee is turning 80 years young on April 29 as well...Join us in celebrating it all, starting with signing his (kinda) online Birthday Card!
