Cream Cheese Rugelach

Before you start

Rugelach, a pastry from Ashkenazi Jewish baking, are small crescents made from a rich dough that is rolled out, spread with filling, cut into wedges and rolled from the wide end into a curl. The American version most bakers know uses equal weights of butter and cream cheese, which makes a soft, tangy dough that bakes up flaky without any lamination.

Cold is your friend at every stage. The dough is too soft to roll straight from mixing, so it needs a proper chill; the filled crescents need another short chill so the butter is firm when they hit the oven. Keep the filling modest and finely chopped. Big nut pieces poke through the dough, and too much jam leaks out and burns on the pan. Parchment and a rimmed sheet make cleanup simple when some sugar does escape.

Ingredients

• Dough225 g (1 cup) unsalted butter — cold, cut into cubes
• 225 g (8 oz) full-fat brick cream cheese — cold, cut into cubes
• 250 g (2 cups, spooned and leveled) all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• ¼ tsp fine salt
• Filling100 g (½ cup packed) light brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 100 g (scant 1 cup) walnuts — toasted and finely chopped
• 75 g (½ cup) dried currants or chopped raisins
• 160 g (½ cup) apricot jam — smooth or strained
• Topping1 large egg — beaten with 1 tbsp milk, for brushing
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar — mixed with ½ tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Pulse the flour, 1 tablespoon sugar and salt in a food processor. Add the cold butter and cream cheese and pulse until the dough just starts to clump into large curds, about 15 one-second pulses. In a mixer, beat everything on low until it comes together.
2. Turn the dough out, divide it into four equal pieces (about 175 g each) and pat each into a flat disk. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until firm.
3. Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, walnuts and currants in a bowl. Warm the jam for a few seconds if it is too stiff to spread.
4. On a lightly floured counter, roll one disk into a 23 cm (9 in) circle about 3 mm (⅛ in) thick, trimming against the plate if you want neat edges. Spread 2 tablespoons of jam over it, leaving a 1 cm rim, then scatter a quarter of the nut mixture and press it in lightly.
5. Cut the circle into 12 wedges with the pizza wheel. Starting at the wide end, roll each wedge snugly toward the point. Set them point side down on a parchment-lined sheet, 2.5 cm (1 in) apart. Repeat with the remaining dough, 24 per sheet.
6. Chill the shaped rugelach for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 175°C (350°F) with a rack in the center.
7. Brush the tops with egg wash and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Bake one sheet at a time for 22 to 25 minutes, until deep golden brown all over, including the underside.
8. Move the rugelach to a rack right away, before any leaked jam hardens and glues them to the pan. Cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Tips for success

• If the dough softens while you roll or cut, slide it onto a tray and refrigerate for 10 minutes before continuing.
• Pale rugelach taste doughy. Bake until the outsides are evenly browned; the cream cheese dough stays tender inside.
• Shaped, unbaked rugelach freeze well. Bake them straight from the freezer, adding 3 to 5 minutes.

Substitutions

Apricot jam

Raspberry jam, fig jam or a thin layer of chocolate spread all work. Seedless jams spread more evenly; thin jams leak more.

Walnuts and currants

Use 120 g finely chopped bittersweet chocolate with a teaspoon of cocoa in the cinnamon sugar for a chocolate filling. It melts and may ooze, so roll tightly.

Cream cheese

Reduced-fat cream cheese makes a stickier dough and a less flaky pastry. Avoid tub-style spreadable cream cheese, which is too soft.

Variations

Rolled log rugelach

Roll the dough into a rectangle, spread the filling, roll it up like a jelly roll and slice into 2.5 cm pieces. Bake cut side down.

Cinnamon sugar only

Skip the jam and fruit. Brush the dough with melted butter and use a filling of brown sugar, cinnamon and finely chopped pecans.

Troubleshooting

Filling leaked and burned on the pan

Too much jam or a rim that was not left clear. Use about 2 tablespoons per circle, leave a border, and move the cookies off the pan while still hot.

Crescents unrolled in the oven

They were rolled loosely or set with the point up. Roll snugly, tuck the point underneath and chill before baking.

Dough cracks when rolled

It is too cold from a long chill. Let it sit at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes until it bends without splitting.

Pastry tastes greasy rather than flaky

The butter softened before baking. Keep the dough cold, chill the shaped crescents, and make sure the oven is fully heated.

Storage

Keep baked rugelach in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. Freeze baked rugelach for up to 3 months and refresh them in a 160°C (325°F) oven for 5 minutes after thawing. Refrigerate the raw dough and use it within 3 days.

Safety notes

Contains wheat, milk, egg and tree nuts. The dough contains raw flour, and the egg wash is raw egg; neither should be eaten before baking.