Rugelach Is Our Favorite Holiday Cookie
Chocolate raspberry rugelach. If there is one cookie recipe that our children will associate with childhood, it’s these.
We make these all the time. All the damn time. The rugelach pastry is buttery and flaky (thanks cream cheese, we see you!) and gets made in a food processor so it’s incredibly simple. Even our young kids can make the rugelach cookie dough!
The filling? Loaded with chocolate and raspberry preserves! It’s just enough chocolate and just enough fruit to make the world’s best, most perfect rugelach.
Don’t believe us, yet? I know — we were skeptical too! But guys, we have been making this rugelach recipe for over a decade. Kid tested, Jewish mother approved!
Ingredients For Rugelach Cookies
For the rugelach pastry: all-purpose flour, cream cheese, unsalted butter, and kosher salt.
For the rugelach filling: granulated sugar, ground cinnamon, chocolate, and raspberry jam (seedless if you can find it!)
The unbaked rugelach cookies get brushed with a simple egg wash just before baking, helping to give them a beautiful light golden brown color!
What Is Rugelach?
Rugelach cookies, oh how we love you! Rugelach are small, bite-size cookies that are made from a cream cheese dough and traditionally filled with either chocolate, cinnamon, nuts, fruit preserves, or poppyseeds. Often there is more than one filling!
Rugelach can be rolled up into a crescent shape or into a log (as pictured here) and sliced into smaller spiral cookies. Doesn’t matter — they always taste delicious regardless of how they’re cut!
And let’s discuss the texture for one minute. The cream cheese and butter make this dough super smooth to work with while you’re rolling and folding it, but irresistibly flaky when you bite into each cookie!
How To Make Rugelach
To make rugelach cookie dough
The cream cheese-based dough comes together in a food processor, guaranteeing that novice and pros alike can become champion rugelach makers in no time.
- To make in a food processor: Place flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with blade attachment. Pulse to combine.
- Add cream cheese, chopped into large chunks, and run machine until fully dispersed into the flour. Add butter in large chunks and run machine until dough starts to clump. Dump out onto a large piece of plastic wrap and form into a flat disc.
- To make with a stand mixer: Let butter and cream cheese soften at room temperature. Beat both together until light and fluffy. Beat in salt. Add flour, beating until it disappears. Scrape dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and form into a flat disc.
- Both methods: Chill dough until totally firm, about 2 hours in the fridge or about 30 minutes in the freezer. The rugelach dough keeps in the fridge for up to a week, and in freezer for up to 3 months.
To make chocolate rugelach cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 F and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats.
- Stir cinnamon and sugar together in a small dish. Place chocolate in a second dish.
- Divide dough into quarters and roll first quarter out on a floured counter into a rectangle about 12″ wide and 7-8″ long, with the widest side to you. Thinly spread 2-3 Tbsp of raspberry jam on dough, covering all but the furthest ¼ inch from you. The cookies seal better if you leave the top area bare. Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp cinnamon-sugar mixture, then 4 tsp chocolate.
- Roll dough from the 12″ side in front of you into as tight a log as you can, using your fingers to lightly seal the ends onto the log. Repeat with remaining logs.
Cut and bake rugelach cookies
- Place log of filled dough in freezer for 10 to 15 minutes; it will cut more easily if semi-firm. Trim ends off each log so they have a clean shape. Cut log into 10 to 12 even slices. Arrange chocolate rugelach on prepared baking sheets a couple inches apart from each other.
- Brush tops lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with a total of 1 tsp of the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Cool only a few minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Cooled cookies keep in a container at room temperature for a week, and in the freezer for a month.
Rugelach Fillings
This rugelach recipe is focused around the combination of chocolate and raspberry. There’s a touch of cinnamon sugar because, well, that’s traditional on all rugelach cookies. But before you go testing other rugelach filling, we highly recommend our house favorite: chocolate and seedless raspberry preserves!
Here are a few other suggestions for if/when you want to branch out:
- Cinnamon
- Fruit jams or preserves, such as raspberry (duh) or apricot – the two most popular fruit fillings!
- Poppyseeds
- Chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pistachios
- Dried fruit, chopped finely, such currants, raisins, apricots, or prunes
Why chocolate and raspberry? Honestly, it’s what I grew up eating. Whenever there was an assortment of rugelach cookies, I always went for the raspberry rugelach first (and chocolate second).
One bite and you’ll be overcome by that familiar, yet unexplainable phenomenon wherein you immediately begin laughing, but you have no clue why.
The taste is familiar, but the texture! It’s layer upon layer of tender, pull apart flakiness. That is the beauty of a delicious, homemade rugelach cookie!!
This chocolate rugelach recipe is our family favorite and we are so excited for you to try it too!
If you make these Chocolate Raspberry Rugelach, please let us know by leaving a review below!
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For more chocolate desserts, check out the following recipes
- Double dark chocolate chunk scones
- Magnolia bakery banana pudding recipe
- Chocolate funfetti mini muffins
- Italian rainbow cookies
- Epic peanut butter brownies
- Chocolate bourbon pecan pie
Chocolate Raspberry Rugelach Recipe
Video
Ingredients
For the dough
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ pound unsalted butter
- ½ pound cream cheese
For the filling
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate very finely chopped
- ½ cup raspberry jam
To finish
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water or milk
- Remaining cinnamon-sugar from above
Instructions
For the dough
- To make in a food processor: Place 2 cups flour and ½ tsp salt in work bowl fitted with standard blade. Pulse to combine. Add ½ lb cream cheese, chopped into large chunks, and run machine until it's fully dispersed into the flour. Add ½ lb butter in large chunks and run machine until dough starts to clump. Dump out onto a large piece of plastic wrap and form into a flattish disc.
- To make with a stand mixer: Let ½ lb butter and ½ lb cream cheese soften at room temperature. Beat both together until light and fluffy. Beat in ½ tsp salt. Add 2 cups flour, beating until it disappears. Scrape dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and form into a flattish disc.
- Both methods: Chill dough until totally firm, about 2 hours in the fridge or about 30 minutes in the freezer. (Dough keeps in the fridge for up to a week, and in freezer much longer.)
For the cookies
- Heat oven to 350 F and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats.
- Stir 1 ½ Tbsp cinnamon and ⅔ cup sugar together in a small dish. Place 1 cup chocolate in a second dish.
- Divide dough into quarters and roll first quarter out on a floured counter into a rectangle about 12" wide and 7-8" long, with the widest side to you. Thinly spread 2-3 Tbsp of jam on dough, covering all but the furthest ¼ inch from you. The cookies seal better if you leave the top area bare. Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp cinnamon-sugar mixture, then 4 tsp chocolate.
- Roll dough from the 12" side in front of you into as tight a log as you can, using your fingers to lightly seal the ends onto the log. Repeat with remaining logs.
- Place log of filled dough in freezer for 10 to 15 minutes; it will cut more easily if semi-firm. Trim ends off each log so they have a clean shape. Cut log into 10 to 12 even slices. Arrange rugelach on prepared baking sheets a couple inches apart from each other.
- Brush tops lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with a total of 1 tsp of the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Cool only a few minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Cooled cookies keep in a container at room temperature for a week, and in the freezer for a month.
Notes
- Make ahead: Filled logs of rugelach can be frozen until needed. Wrap well in plastic wrap before storing. Cookies can be sliced straight from freezer and baked while still frozen — just add a few extra minutes.
- Dough will keep in a refrigerator up to 1 week or in a freezer for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
*Recipe adapted slightly from Deb at Smitten Kitchen. Check out her original post for detailed instructions on other shapes to make!
Perfection. I will never buy rugelach again! Thank you so much.
RIGHT?!? I agree, when we can make rugelach this good at home (and relatively easily!), there is no reason to buy it! xo, Ari
The flavor of these is amazing but if I make them again I would 1) roll the dough thinner and 2) chop the chocolate super fine OR melt it. Also I put too much filling so it was coming out of the ends.
Glad you loved the flavor, Amy! Yes, chocolate should be very finely chopped or there will be large chunks in your very small cookies. I will make sure the wording of the instructions are updated to reflect that more clearly!
These are so flaky and delicious! I cut each piece a little too small and some rolled open a little because I didn’t seal them well, so they aren’t very pretty. This has not stopped us from eating these tasty bites though. Thank you, Ari!
We are IN LOVE with these rugelach! Yes, the dough is extremely flaky! So, so glad you’re enjoying. xo, Ari
It will be better if you can write the recipe with weight measurement such as grams or ounces. But i’m gonna try to make this recipe anyway
Thanks for the suggestion, Christian, which is a good one. I’ll try to remember to weigh ingredients the next time I bake these so I can include them. But giving the recipe a rating of 4 stars without ever making it and/or tasting it is misleading to other folks. I’d urge you not to do that — on this website and other websites — as there is a direct effect for us small business owners on google. Best, Ari
Just made these and the dough is PERFECT! So easy to work with! The only change I made was I used a trick from another Rugelach recipe I’ve used – instead of flour on the counter for rolling, I used a little confectioners sugar…
The best cookie!! Great tip, thanks for sharing! xo, Ari
Always wanted to make rugelach and this recipe will not disappoint. Followed all directions and was super easy. Made a sample batch and froze all the logs to bake when I needed.
YES, love this dough! It’s so buttery and has the best texture. Thanks for the feedback! xo, Ari