Rugalahs

Rugelach are one of those Jewish baking traditions that convert everyone who tries them. The dough is pure indulgence: butter and cream cheese cut into flour until it feels like moist, tender pastry. No sugar in the dough itself, which lets the filling do all the talking.

Each circle of rolled dough gets a layer of jam, then a shower of cinnamon-brown sugar filling spiked with cocoa and chopped hazelnuts. You cut the circle into wedges and roll each one from the outside in, curving into a crescent shape. An egg wash and a sprinkle of coarse sugar on top gives them a golden, sparkly crust.

The cream cheese dough is what makes rugelach different from a standard croissant shape. It’s tender and flaky without being as fussy as laminated dough, and it comes together with a pastry blender in minutes. Chilling at least an hour is a must, otherwise the dough is too soft to roll.

Pro Tips

• Let chilled dough sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling. Ice-cold dough cracks instead of rolling smoothly.
• Spread the jam thin. Too much and it leaks out during baking, burning on the pan and making the bottoms sticky.
• Roll from the wide end tightly. Loose rolls unravel in the oven and the filling spills out.
• These freeze beautifully. Freeze unbaked on a sheet pan, then bag them. Bake from frozen, adding 5 minutes to the time.

Variations

• Use apricot jam instead of raspberry for a more traditional filling.
• Swap hazelnuts for walnuts or pecans depending on what you have.
• Skip the cocoa for a pure cinnamon-nut version, or add mini chocolate chips for more chocolate intensity.