Rugelach

Rugelach is a delicious little Jewish cookie filled with sweet and buttery flavors! A cream cheese pastry dough is filled with walnuts, raisins, cinnamon, and sugar and rolled into miniature crescent shapes. As the pastry dough bakes, rugelach tastes like a buttery flaky crust. The sweetness of the sugars and walnuts rolled on the inside of the cookie creates perfect complimentary flavors. Walnuts always have a way of being the star of both sweet and savory recipes. I love the addition of walnuts in my banana bread and fudge, but you have to try this amazing honey walnut shrimp!

What Is Rugelach?

These traditional Jewish cookies get its name from the Yiddish word rugel, meaning “royal.” A cream cheese and butter pastry dough bakes to perfection as the sugars, raisins, and cinnamon melt and caramelize the inside. You are going to love rugelach because of the sweet inside flavors and the light flaky outside. This delicious treat is like biting through the best crust of your favorite pie! I love making them around the holidays and it’s fun to bring them to a cookie exchange. If you’re looking for more cookie recipes to bring to a cookie exchange you should bring these Twix cookies, butter pecan cookies, or my popular Grinch cookies!

Ingredients for the Best Jewish Treat

Rugelach may seem fancy, but the ingredients to make them are very simple! Most of the ingredients you will have on hand. The combination of cream cheese and butter creates the perfect pastry dough for these cookies. The baked pastry shell melts in your mouth and you are going to LOVE them!

Dough

Cream Cheese: Cream cheese surprisingly makes a perfect pastry dough.Unsalted Butter: Unsalted butter is best.All-Purpose Flour: All-purpose flour creates the best results.Granulated Sugar: Just a little bit of sugar helps sweeten the dough.Salt: A little salt helps balance flavors.

Filling

Granulated Sugar: You will love the combination of granulated and brown sugar together.Brown Sugar: Brown sugar caramelizes and creates the sweetest flavor.Raisins: I love the sweetness and texture of the raisins.Walnuts: The walnuts bake and soften so deliciously in this recipe. You can also use pecans if you prefer.Ground Cinnamon: I love the addition of cinnamon!

Making this rugelach recipe can seem intimidating with all the steps, but these come together very quickly. You can also freeze some of the dough for later if you would like. It makes a lot of them which is so fun to bring to parties and share with friends. Everyone will love how cute and little they are!

Dough

Filling

Assembly and Baking

Chill the Dough: Kneading the dough together can take a bit of work since there isn’t water or liquid to help it come together. Once the rugelach dough comes together, it’s important to give it adequate chilling time so the fat can become solid again and the gluten in the dough can relax, resulting in a flakier cookie. Press the Filling: The filling is coarse and dry, so use your fingers to press it into the dough as best you can. Roll the Rugelach Tightly: When rolling the cookies, try to keep the dough rolled tightly to prevent it from unraveling while it bakes. Other Nuts and Fruit Work Great: The filling in this recipe is easily adaptable! You can swap out the walnuts for other nuts, try adding different spices or even use alternative dried fruit in place of the raisins.

On the Counter: Store leftover rugelach in an airtight container for up to 5 days at room temperature. In the Freezer: The dough can be frozen once it is ready for the chilling stage, just wrap the discs tightly in 2-3 layers of plastic wrap followed by a layer of foil, and then in a freezer ziplock bag. It can be kept frozen for up to 3 months. Let it thaw overnight in the fridge before continuing with the recipe.

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All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.