How to Make Classic Rugelach Cookies Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn

Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Make sure the tip is tucked underneath. Refrigerate cookies on the baking sheet, 20 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare remaining batches.

There is no resisting rugelach, no matter how nubbly or imperfectly rolled. They're buttery, flaky, and just the right amount of sweet. You can fill them with anything from ground nuts and honey to peanut butter and chocolate — the only real constant is using cream cheese to make a super-tender dough. Here's how you can make them at home.

I am a student of the Dorie Greenspan School of Rugelach. This means that I make my rugelach dough in a food processor rather than with a mixer or by hand. This makes an incredibly tender dough where the cream cheese and butter are cut into the flour rather than absorbed by it. If you don't have a food processor, though, no worries: take a look at the instructions for making rugelach by hand at the end of the recipe.

I like adding an egg yolk to my dough. It's not strictly necessary, but I like it for the extra richness and a guaranteed golden color in the oven. These are, after all, celebration cookies, so now is not the time to shy away from a decadent cookie.

Also as part of the Dorie Greenspan School, I prefer rugelach rolled individually into crescents rather than rolling the dough around the filling and then slicing them into pinwheels. This technique is a bit more labor-intensive, but I find the crescent shape to have a more satisfying bite and pleasing appearance.

I love making several different fillings for the ruglach and using a different one with each batch. I always make a classic honey-walnut filling, and chocolate is another favorite. If I have a really good summer jam in the cupboard, I'll fill a batch with a few spoonfuls straight from the jar. I've seen rugelach made with an amazing array of fillings, so you can really let your imagination go wild.

Like most classic recipes, there are lots of opinions about what constitutes a "true" rugelach. Do you have a favorite way of making them or a must-have filling?

How to Make Rugelach

Makes 64 cookies

What You Need

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 package (8 ounces) cold cream cheese, cubed
2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg yolk
1 batch filling (see ideas below)
Powdered sugar

Equipment
Food processor
Rolling pin
Pizza cutter or sharp knife
Baking sheets
Parchment or non-stick baking sheet liners

Instructions

1. Combine the flour and salt. Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse several times to mix.

2. Mix in the cream cheese and butter. Scatter the cubes of cream cheese and butter over the flour. Pulse 10 to 12 times until coarse crumbs form.

3. Mix in the yolk and vanilla. Whisk together the vanilla and yolk in a bowl, and the pour them over the butter-flour mixture. Run the processor continuously until the dough starts to clump together and form large curdlike pieces.

4. Refrigerate the dough. Turn the dough out onto the counter and gather the pieces into a ball. Divide into four portions and flatten each into 1-inch thick disks. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate the dough at least 2 hours or up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months (thaw in the refrigerator before using).

→ When ready to bake the rugelach, preheat the oven to 375°F and prepare your fillings.

5. Roll out the dough. Sprinkle your work surface generously with powdered sugar. Take one disk of dough from the refrigerator and let it warm on the counter for 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle the surface of the dough and the rolling pin with more powdered sugar. Roll the dough from the center out into a circle about 1/8-inch thick. Don't worry if a few cracks form near the edges. Use more powdered sugar as needed to prevent sticking.

6. Spread with filling. Spread the filling in a thin layer evenly over the surface of the dough. Make sure it goes right up to the edge of the dough.

7. Slice and roll the cookies. Slice the dough into 16 wedges, like a pizza, using a pizza cutter or sharp knife. Roll up each wedge, beginning at the wide outer edge and moving inward. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Make sure the tip is tucked underneath.

8. Chill the cookies. Refrigerate cookies on the baking sheet, 20 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare remaining batches.

9. Bake the cookies. Bake the first tray of cookies until golden-brown, 20-25 minutes. Cool on the sheet, 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack. Bake the remaining cookies.

Cookies will keep in an air-tight container at room temperature for about a week.

Ideas for Rugelach Fillings:

• Nut Filling: In a food processor, grind 1 cup walnuts and 1 cup pecans until they break into tiny crumbs, 30 to 40 pulses. (Be careful of over-processing and making nut-butter.) Combine the ground nuts in a bowl with 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) melted butter, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

• Fruit and Jam Filling: Warm 1/4 cup marmalade, apricot jam or raspberry jam in the microwave until it liquefies. Stir in the 1 tablespoon sugar. Set aside to cool until no longer steaming, still liquidy. Pulse 2 cups (roughly 10 ounces) dried fruit, such as apricots, cranberries, cherries or currants, in a food processor until it breaks down into tiny pieces. To assemble, spread the jam onto the rugelach dough; sprinkle the dried fruit on top.

• Peanut Butter and Chocolate Filling: Warm 1/2 cup peanut butter in a microwave until it liquefies. Spread over the rugelach dough; sprinkle with 1 cup miniature chocolate chips.

Additional Notes:

• Freezing Rugelach: The disks of dough can be frozen for up to three months; thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using. The shaped cookies can also be frozen for up to three months. Arrange cookies on a baking sheet, making sure they do not touch, and freeze until solid. Transfer to a freezer container for long term storage. Cookies can be baked straight from the freezer and may need an extra few minutes to bake.

• Making Rugelach by Hand: If you don't have a food processor, just cut the cream cheese and the butter into the flour mixture using your finger tips or a pastry cutter, just as you would for pie crust. Sprinkle the yolk mixture over the top and fluff the dough with your fingers until it feels heavy and can hold together when pressed into a ball. Proceed with the rest of the recipe as instructed.

• Halving This Recipe: Nix the egg yolk and cut the rest of the ingredients in half.

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(Images: Emma Christensen)

Comments (18)

These look spectacular!

I love rugelach! And I agree, the little crescents make them even more irresistible. I think I may have to try a dark chocolate raspberry filling this year.

They look delicious, but this nice Jewish girl has never seen rugelach called "cookies"--that's like saying challah bread or bagel roll :) Happy holidays!

This looks too rich. Butter and cream cheese and an egg yolk? I know it's a dessert but still. I like the idea of freezing the dough. But I'm going to look for a healthier version. My grandma made these with whole wheat pastry flour, much less fat, and they were still wonderful.

These look like.... other things.

These look great! Rugelach are one of my favorite things to make...and eat. And yes, they must be individually rolled into mini-crescents!

I'd never seen "pinwheel rugelach" until I moved to the Midwest and I can't even express how wrong they seem to me. I appear to have a really intense disdain (hatred?) for those pinwheel bastards. They're never as flaky or crispy or as fun to eat as the individually rolled ones.

Unfair! I should not even be thinking of such goodies, but I am a complete sucker for rugelach.

Decidedly unorthodox, but I'd like to make some with mincemeat filling.

Courtney, I have the perfect recipe for you! Chocolate + raspberry jam = perfect sweet and tart! http://www.exploreasheville.com/seasonal-fun/holidays/holiday-recipes/raspberry-rugelach/

I do what Joy of Cooking suggests : apricot jam, walnuts, cinnamon-sugar and raisins. Yum and yum and yum.

I always made them without eggs and with butter and COTTAGE CHEESE instead of cream cheese. They're still really good but LESS FATTENING! I would sub cottage cheese for cream cheese (equal weight). I roll out a circle, spread on some apricot jam or fruit spread, sprinkle on some cinnamon and sugar and chopped nuts, cut it like a pizza and roll 'em up and bake. They're delicious and less fattening.

i made these today and did half with nut filling and half with jam filling. the honey in the nut filling all melted and came out of the cookies, pooling around them and burning black as coal by the time the cookies were done. i saw it happening but didn't know what to do. it ruined every cookie in those batches because the bottoms are totally disgusting and burnt. i'd say avoid that option unless you want perfect rugelach with black bottoms and carcinogenic lacy crusty stuff all on the edges.

Mee too!!! The recipe is really tasty, but the same thing happened to me with the honey, nut filling. I ended up taking them out and transferring them to another baking sheet to finish up in the oven, and shaving the burnt bits off the rest. The rugelach's were a hit for the cookie trade with my girlfriends, but I still have half the batch in the fridge and was wondering if there is anything I can do to resolve the recipe before trying again??

The dough came out wonderful, but the preserves leaked out as the others described :( If there is a way to avoid this, I would love to know.
Many thanks!

Had the same problem! A very time consuming baked good for it to burn into crusty sugar nut bits in the oven. What is the fix ...we followed the whole recipe, down to the last detail!!! What a disappointment.

Mine burned too... any rugelach pros wanna weigh in?

I also had burnt bits in the oven with the fillings. This occurred with the peanut butter and chocolate bits as well as the fruit and jam filling. Since my first two batches were already made, I shaved off the burnt bits and continued baking on a new cookie sheet.

With another three batches to go, I googled rugelach for insight for other bakers who may had the same issue. The Shiksa provides a very similar recipe, and specifies the key to the filling is a thin layer and to "fill" the filling with goods. [http://theshiksa.com/2011/02/02/rugelach/]

My nut filling was much more successful since I learned to very thinly spread the filling across the dough. Rather than using the food processor, I diced the nuts with a knife until it was very fine (akin to the size of sesame seeds).

The emphasis for the filling is a thin layer with little-to-nothing sticking out. So, in theory, the fruit and jam filling should work as long as the dried fruit is cut very finely. I would also chop the chocolate chips further down. I used regular chocolate chips rather than mini chocolate chips, so that may have been my fault.

For those of you with already prepared chunky, thick fillings. My temporary solution was to transfer the rugelach onto a new baking sheet (with a new sheet of parchment paper) half-way and then continue baking.

Good luck.

!hank you cowbunpants for posting the link to this alternate rugelach website! I was hesitant to use the filling listed on here after seeing the many comments about filling seeping out etc. I used the filling from theshiksa website and my rugelach turned out fantastic. Thank you again for sharing!

They are yummy and beautiful. Last year I have baked 3000 rugelachs for family and friends. It is my most requested of all the items I make. My recipe has Sourcream in it
It came the King Arthur website. I tested 4 other recipes before settling with the KA recipe.
Your rugelachs looks so good, tomorrow I will make a batch with the honey nut filling to start. As for the fruit filling, there is a brand called Solo that is a filling friendly for cookies etc... It has less liquid than most preserves or jams in the market. You can buy it directly from the company. Minimum is 6 cans but they have so many choices of fillings. Here in Los Angeles, CA I can find it at Bristol farms, Ralph's, Safeway. Thank you for sharing.
Let you know my result.
P.S. I check my rugelachs 1/2 way of the baking time given and rotate my pan because some spots have uneven baking. I also bake mine at 375 degrees F.