Rolled Cookies

This was the most distinctive feature of my childhood's holidays - rolled cookies, made with my grandmother's recipe. Later on, the cooking marmalade, so necessary for the filling, disappeared from the stores, and that was the end of it. We tried substitutes, like dried apricots with walnuts, but this just was not the same.
However, I do not live in San Francisco for nothing. Thanks to the local specialty stores and farmers markets, I have been able to come up not with one, but with three different substitute options. In Parkside Farmers Market I found dark and gooey bricks of baking dates, and bright-orange sheets of pressed apricots. In Los Gatos Gourmet I've got a brick of quince paste - hard, sweet, and just a little bit tart.

Ingredients (for 32+ cookies):
3,5 oz butter or margarine, melted
4 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
4 tablespoons sour cream
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (mix it into 2nd cup of flour)

For the filling:
baking dates, or pressed apricot sheets, or quince paste

Method:

Mix butter and sugar, add eggs and sour cream. Mix well. Gradually add flour. The dough is going to be very hard, so it is better to empty your mixing bowl onto a large cutting board. Knead the dough for a while, form it into a ball. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Take the dough out of the refrigerator. Divide the dough ball into 4 parts. Pull out your large cutting board, or just use a table or a counter. Using a rolling pin, roll each part into a round. With a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut each round into 8 wedges. I usually roll out each wedge a little bit, to make it thinner. If the wedges' outer ends look rugged, cut off the rugged part - you can use the leftover dough for extra cookies.

Here comes the filling. Basically, you would need stripes of whatever you use - baking dates, or pressed apricot sheets, or quince paste. Put the filling on the wide end of every wedge. Press lightly into dough. Roll wedges from wide to narrow, as you would do with Rugelach cookies.

Arrange cookies on a baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden. The smell would tell you that the cookies are ready!