Ahhh, rugelach. You’d be hard-pressed to find a Jewish dessert that is more beloved than sweet, flaky rugelach. Yiddish for “little twists” or “rolled things,” rugelach have become a popular dessert in America, enjoyed by Jews and non-Jews alike. They descend from an Eastern European pastry known as kipfel, which is a croissant-like cookie made with flour, butter, sour cream, sugar, and yeast. Sometimes kipfel are filled with fruit or nuts, sometimes not. In the early 20th century, American Jewish cooks took the concept of kipfel and added cream cheese to the dough, resulting in the delicious rugelach we know and love today.
Rugelach are often served on Jewish holidays like Hanukkah and Shavuot, though of course they can (and should!) be made throughout the year. Our family typically serves them during Rosh Hashanah, when sweet foods are made to signify a sweet new year. The rolled shape is similar to the spiral challah served at Rosh Hashanah, which symbolizes the cyclical nature of a year. Some people roll rugelach into a strudel-like form, then slice it to make spiral-shaped cookies. In today’s blog, I’m going to share the method for creating the more popular crescent-shaped cookies.
While rugelach filling recipes vary greatly, the dough most American bakers use for rugelach is pretty standard, comprised of equal amounts of flour, cream cheese, and butter. I add a bit of sour cream, sugar, and salt to mine because I like to shake things up. I’m a rugelach rebel! Actually, many people use sour cream in their dough instead of cream cheese, which is more similar to the way kipfel are made. I like to add both because I love the way the dough bakes up– crispy on the outside, soft and flaky and scrumptious on the inside. You’ll love it too. Promise.
I wish I could say that this recipe is healthy, but alas, it is just the opposite. That is, unless you consider fat, sugar, and starch to be healthy– and they might be, depending on how you look at it. After all, tasty treats in moderation are certainly good for the soul. I don’t recommend futzing with the recipe too much by substituting lowfat ingredients, since it’s the fat in the dairy products that ultimately makes these cookies so flaky and delicious. If you do try modifying the recipe for health reasons, let me know how it turns out for you– I’d love to hear! For the rest of us making full-fat rugelach, don’t worry about it too much. These cookies bake up fairly small, so you can treat yourself to a couple and not feel too terribly guilty. Life is there to be lived, am I right?? 🙂
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Rugelach
Ingredients
Dough Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Filling Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans
- 1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup berry preserves (raspberry, strawberry, or blackberry)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Egg Wash Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon water
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
NOTES
Instructions
- Chop cold butter and cream cheese into smaller pieces. Put pieces into your food processor along with sour cream, flour, salt, and sugar. Pulse together ingredients until a crumbly dough forms and begins to fall away from the sides of the processor. Don't overprocess; the dough should look crumbly, like cottage cheese.
- If you don't have a food processor: let the butter and cream cheese come to room temperature. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese together with the sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and sugar. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, mixing constantly, until dough holds together and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Don't overmix. Pour dough onto a lightly floured rolling surface...
- and form into a rough ball shape.
- Divide the ball into four equal pieces and form those pieces into rough balls.Cover each ball with plastic and place in the refrigerator. Refrigerate dough balls for at least 1 1/2 hours, for up to 48 hours.
- In a skillet, toast the chopped nuts over medium heat until fragrant.
- Pour the toasted nuts into a food processor along with the chocolate chips, berry preserves, and brown sugar. Pulse together until a thick, coarse paste forms. Reserve.
- Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl; reserve. Beat your egg wash with water; reserve.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly flour your rolling surface and rolling pin. Take one portion of the dough out the refrigerator (keep the rest of the dough cold until ready to use). Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. You may need to use the rolling pin to pound out the dough a bit at the beginning; the dough will be very firm and cold, but will become more pliable as it starts to warm. Just keep rolling with firm, even pressure, and eventually it will look like this:
- Lift the dough gently from the rolling surface (it may stick a bit) and re-flour your surface beneath the dough.
- Replace the dough onto the newly refloured surface. Use a round 9" cake pan as a guide to make a nice, smooth imprint of a circle in the dough.
- Cut the dough into a large circle, following the shape of the cake pan. If you don't have a cake pan, just guesstimate the size of the circle and cut it as smoothly as you can.Form the trimmed excess dough into a small ball. Wrap it in plastic and reserve in the refrigerator, adding to the ball with each batch that is made.
- Take 1/4 of the filling (about 4 tbsp) and place it in the center of the circle. Spread it very thin across the surface of the dough; a thick layer of filling will make your cookies expand and burst. You can use your fingers to make the spreading easier; I like to use my palm to flatten and even out the filling. Leave about an inch around the edges of the circle.
- Cut the circle into 8 equal triangles by first cutting the circle in half...
- then quarters...
- then halve the quarters to make eighths.If you prefer to make smaller bite-sized cookies, divide each quarter into three to make 12 equal triangles.
- Roll each triangle, starting from the wide flat end and rolling towards the narrow point.
- Keep rolling...
- and rolling...
- until the entire triangle is neatly and firmly rolled.
- Press the end point into the cookie to secure it. Place the rolled cookies onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, end point down. Leave an inch between the cookies, as they will expand slightly during baking.When you are ready to bake, brush the top of each cookie with egg wash, then sprinkle lightly with cinnamon sugar.
- Place cookies in the oven and let them back for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.Roll out your next batch of cookies while this batch is baking. When the cookies are golden brown, remove from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.When you're finished making cookies from the four dough balls, make a smooth ball from the leftover dough trimmings you've reserved and roll it out to make your fifth batch.
- These cookies taste amazing served warm and fresh from the oven. They'll keep for a few days in a tightly sealed container. You can rewarm them in the microwave if you want to. Also, feel free to use this dough recipe with other rugelach fillings. If you're using a fruit-only filling, make sure it's an oven safe variety for pastry baking. Using simple jam or preserves alone (without firming them up with other ingredients) tends to make a runny filling that flows out of the cookies, which makes for a goopy mess. If you've never made these cookies before, start with my filling-- it's really yummy, promise!
Nutrition
tried this recipe?
Let us know in the comments!
can I freeze the dough ?
ps. a great recipe, though my filling was: “paint” with apricot jam, then fill with chopped dry apricots and walnuts and cinnamon and sugar. to me , perfection ! Thank you !
Hi Nancy, Tori’s assistant Ashley here! We have not frozen this dough, but I think it would be just fine, as long as it’s stored in an airtight container. Hope this helps!
Yes, I freeze it all the time. I just keep the plastic wrap on and then put them in a freezer storage plastic bag. I like to have the dough ready so I make a triple batch of đough …been freezing it for years and it tastes just as fabulous!
I have had issues with “neat” looking rugelach for so long, but tried this recipe and “voila” perfect and perfectly delicious. Made these a second time and doubled the recipe…for some reason these disappear !
How long to bake?
Tori’s assistant Ashley here. Place cookies in the oven and let them back for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Wonderful!
My grandmother used to make rugelach rolled like a pinwheel. The dough was not sweet or flaky. It was more sturdy and Crisp. And each piece was about 2 inches in diameter. Does anybody know how to make a dough like this? Thanks. Marcia
Hello Marcia I am thinking that your grandmother used a pie/tart dough
May I suggest jacques pepin’s tart dough from his book
“the art of cooking’ volume 2 – classic style – pate brisee
you can find it under rhubarb galette
also try his other doughs – his recipes are perfect – not like some other cookbooks i have had to correct ^^
I haven’t had these in forty five years since I was 6 years old and my grandma came for a visit and made them.
Grandma called them Cream Cheese cookies and I was confused because I didn’t see any cream cheese. I said, “Grandma where’s the cream cheese?” and she said “it’s in the dough”. I had no idea what she meant because I didn’t know what dough was, but when I ate the first one, the taste and experience was burned permanently into my soul. They were simply the best thing I had ever tasted. Though I though about those cookies from time to time, I hadn’t had any since. So the other day when I tried your recipe and tasted my first cream cheese cookie in forty five years, it all came back to me, every detail of the experience, and the taste? They were exactly as I remembered and still the best thing I have ever tasted!
Thanks for the recipe!
Best Rugelach recipe ever !!!! Complete with AMAZING insturctions &* glossy photos !!! THANK YOU for sharing !!!!!!!
Dough is right on. Filling not so much. TOO, TOO sweet. Here’s my version:
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1/4 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup berry preserves (raspberry, strawberry, or blackberry)
NO brown sugar
Do toast the walnuts. Let cool. Pulse with the chocolate until very fine. Put this mix into a bowl and THEN mix in the preserves.
I’m too lazy to do the egg wash and they come out just fine.
I found it too dry with only 1/4 cup of choc. chips. Been making rugelach for decades. My mom’s recipe calls for butter, cream cheese, flour baking, powder,eggs, but no sugar. have tried other doughs and don’t care for them
I make rugulah every year for family Thanksgiving and leftover parties. My dough is butter, cream cheese and flour. My filling is raspberry jam, cinnamon and sugar (have it mixed in a shaker), chopped walnuts and lots of mini chocolate chips. Will try your filling with a less sweet taste.
Can I make and assemble these with the filling and all rolled up, but not bake until the following day? Will the dough dry out overnight or the filling make the dough soggy? Thx!
Lisa I have never tried this, if you decide to try it make sure you cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake. No promises on results though. Good luck!
I have been fixated on these biscuits, so much so that I decided that even on a hot Australian summer’s day I had to bake some. I followed your recipe step by step and TA-DAH–brilliant Rugelach! Even made a double batch of dough so I am letting my imagination run away with filling ideas: cherries, almonds, macadamias, figs–anything goes. Thanks, Tori!
Was hoping to impress a special friend who raved about and longed for the rugelach in Israel. Searching I came across this highly rated one so gave it a try. Certainly my attempt wasn’t going to rival anything in a Jewish Bakery in Israel, but with this I did about as best as I could hope for. Not too chocolaty with a hint of mystery with the tang of the Jam. I used blackberry preserves, will try strawberry next time. There are a lot of options for filling, but if your trying for first time, or if you haven’t tried this filing, I think you will be happy with it.
I love the idea of combining all 3 items for the filling in the cookies. In the past, I have done them separately, but this was a great idea and they came out wonderful! They looked great and tasted even better! Thanks for the terrific idea.
So I’ve made rugelach before butttt I would like to try this filling and I don’t have a food processor. Is there a way to make it without if I just chopped everything up really fine?
It would need to be chopped very fine Molly, so that it holds together and is sticky– or you could use a blender. Enjoy!
Tori, this is the best Rugelach recipe I have made. I have tried others that were disappointing. I want to thank you as this is easy and so mouth wateringly good. Every time I make these for others I get nothing but the highest praise. Note I said others, as I must get these out of the house after I sample a few……they are so dangerously good!!!! It is the rich dough that has just the right combination of butter, cream cheese and flour, but what takes it up another notch is that 1/4 cup of sour cream!!! This recipe is requested by many of my friends for their birthdays or other special occasions-they are fabulous!
Fabulous Rose! So pleased you like them 🙂
Thanks for the information Tori. I also live in South Africa and have always wondered how much a stick of butter is when I find it in recip
Hi tori, I have just got to know your website and I have to compliment you, I find your recipes are great except for one request please, if you don’t mind using also grams on your recipes as I am from South Africa and I would love to use your recipes, and another question, one butter stick , how much does it weigh? Thanks n bless you for your website
Hi Hanit, thank you I’m so glad you like the recipes. I would love to list the recipes in grams and it is a feature I have in mind for the future, right now I don’t have the staff/time to make it happen but hopefully soon. One standard 1/2 cup stick of butter is 4 ounces or roughly 113 grams.
These look amazing. I have made rugelach many times before, but never making the filling a paste. Can these be frozen once rolled before baking or once baked? Or is it a One shot deal, once you make them and bake them that’s it, you must consume them? I was always taught that you can freeze dough but not a baked off cookie but I know many people who freeze baked rugelach. Thanks. Can’t wait to try!
Baked rugelach freeze very well. In fact, they taste pretty yummy straight from the freezer with no defrosting! You can warm them in the oven a bit to recrisp them and get that freshly baked flavor back. Enjoy!
Holy cow these are insane! I don’t even think I will need the freezer because I cannot stop eating them. These are lethal! Yummy. Thanks so much. You never disappoint!
Great Tracy! So happy you like them 🙂
I made this recipe for Rosh Hashanah. Oh my, this is the best rugelach recipe I have ever made and tasted. It was actually fun to make too. I took Sandra Gold’s tip about taking your choc filling and smooshing it between two pieces of wax paper first and then putting it atop the dough circle. Brilliant!
Next time I make this recipe, after putting the dough in the fridge to chill, I would make the filling and prepare 5 circles of filling between wax paper and also put that in the fridge to chill. The first time, I found the filling softened and it was hard to pull the wax paper away and keep the filling circle in one solid piece.
Love so many of your recipes. I have been making rugelach for years. Tried your choc filing. Great for a change. Some tweaks for ease. I found difficult to spread choc. filling evenly evenly so I put on wax paper and rolled out thin Into a circle slightly smaller than dough circle. , then when ready to use peeled off wax paper put on dough peeled off other side and voila. Easy and even. When using apricot , blend in blender makes it easier to use. . After rolling out triangles I put on tray and into frig until all completed. then I use a beaten very frothy. egg white. ( Stiff but not over beaten ) Dip shaped rugelach in beaten egg white and then into topping ,mixture. Makes beautiful and less mess when baking. Always bake on parchment and always roll out on wax paper. Hesse are my tweaks over many years
Thanks for sharing Sandra!
Hi Tori,
These rugelach look amazing. They look like the rugelach from the marzipan bakery in Jerusalem. It’s been 2 years since I went to Israel on birthright and as soon as I get home from school I’m going to make them.
Enjoy Sarah!