What Is It?
Rugelach is a crescent shaped Jewish pastry that is very famous in Israel. It's commonly sold in bakeries and cafes. The crescent shaped is formed by rolling a triangle dough.
Its shape is very similar to French croissant. Though they share that similarity, the pastry doughs are not the same.
Rugelach dough can be made with sour cream or yeast and those are considered the traditional doughs. While rugelach dough also can be made using cream cheese, this is categorized as a more modern dough.
Today I'm sharing with you my take on this delicious rugelach.
The Dough
There are varieties of recipes for rugelach dough, I know.
The one that I'm sharing today is my favourite. Not the traditional or authentic of course but they are delicious!
I'm using both sour cream and cream cheese together with some butter for the dough. They make such flaky delicious crispy pastry.
Think of puff pastry and filo pastry getting together and had a kid. That's how I would describe this pastry.
Yummy!
Making a pastry dough cannot be simpler than this. You basically throw everything in a food processor and pulse until they come together.
A secret to share with you. Shh!
Once I ran out of sour cream and I used Greek yogurt instead. And you know what?
It worked extremely great with no problem at all.
So if you have anything against sour cream, use Greek yogurt. It works.
The Filling
Well this is a blank canvas, really.
You can basically put whatever it is that your heart desires.
Walnuts, almonds, pecans, hazelnut, peanuts.. go nuts!
Dried cranberries, figs, raisins, chocolate, Nutella.. how about candied fruits? That might work also. Why not?
For this recipe I'm going the simple route. Which is using what I have in the house.
I still have some balance of pecans from when I made carrot cake a while ago. Which talking about, have you seen it? You should, you know.
I'm also using some sugar, cinnamon powder and raisins. I always have those things in my kitchen.
I added a bit of salt to bring out the flavour a bit. Some of you might think it's weird but try it. You'll not notice it but it gives the filling a touch of rainbow.
If you watched the video below, you must have seen that I spread some jam on the dough. I like to use a tart jam to balance out the sweetness of the filling.
Use your favourite jam or skip it totally. No problem at all.
Like always, I hope you'll give this delicious beauties a try. They are so easy to make.
Before You Go
Looking for more sweet treats for the holidays? Perhaps you want to check these out:
- Chewy amaretti cookies
- Hazelnut chocolate chunks cookies
- Double chocolate fudge cookies
- Chocolate crinkle cookies
- Coconut macaroons
Video
Rugelach
Ingredients
The Dough
- 1 cup all purpose flour (130 gr)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup butter (75 gr), cold in cubes
- ¼ cup sour cream (55 gr), cold in small dollops
- 3 oz cream cheese (85 gr), cold in small dollops
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
The Filling
- some jam
- 3 tablespoon sugar
- ½ tablespoon cinnamon powder
- ⅓ cup pecans (35 gr)
- ¼ cup raisins (40 gr)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Other
- egg wash (egg with a splash of milk)
Instructions
The Dough
- Add all the dough ingredients in a food processor and pulse until everything comes together in chunks. Divide the dough into 2, form each piece into a ball and wrap tightly with a cling film. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
The Filling
- Add all of the filling ingredients, except for jam, into a blender and blend into a semi fine mixture. Set aside.
Assembling
- Place 1 dough on a floured surface. Roll into a 9 inch (23 cm) circle.
- Spread a very thin layer of jam on top. Sprinkle ½ of the filling evenly. Lightly press the filling with your hands. Using a pizza cutter, cut the circle into 8 equal triangles.
- Starting from the outer side, roll a triangle into a crescent shape. Place on a baking tray with baking sheet, pointy side down. Continue with the rest.
- Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. After that gently brush with some egg wash. Bake in a preheated oven at 350ºF (175ºC) for 25 minutes or until golden brown and fully cooked. Cool completely. Dust with some icing sugar and enjoy!
Nitasha says
Awesome recipe, any replacement for cream cheese
Bea says
You can use mascarpone cheese 😊.
Cindy says
Hello Bea,
I love your recipes! They are always delicious! This is my first time making rugelach and they are so tasty. Thanks for sharing your easy recipes!
Bea says
That's awesome! These rugelach are so easy to make, right? Thank you for the love Cindy!