Buttery, flaky, and sweet without being cloying, Bittersweet Chocolate Rugelach are a perfect addition to any holiday cookie assortment. It’s nearly impossible to eat just one!
With Christmas four three two days away, holiday baking has been in full swing here at Striped Spatula.
When the snow started falling two Saturdays ago, and cookie-making commenced, I had big plans for the upcoming week’s blog. I was going to share recipes for every! single! cookie! that would appear on my holiday gift trays. (New blogger enthusiasm.)
Things were going well when I posted the Venetian cookies. I even got a quadruple recipe of Rugelach dough mixed and chilled with no issues. Full steam ahead.
Then, fun things started happening in my kitchen. Halfway through Spritz production, my cookie press cracked straight down the center.
Cleaning it up, I managed to bump into a precariously-perched cooling rack, sending about 40 cookies flying into the air and onto the floor. It was one of those slow motion movie moments that you know isn’t going to end well, but you’re utterly defenseless to stop.
Falling slightly behind in my baking, I managed to photograph all of the recipes (a mere 917 shots), but pre-holiday schedules have kept me from writing up the recipes as planned.
If I curb my verbosity, one or two more cookies might just post before Santa makes his way down the chimney. Having devoured no less than four Rugelach in the past half hour, I figured they would be the best place to pick back up (just follow the crumb trail!).
Rugelach are a Jewish cream cheese (or sour cream) pastry rolled with a variety of sweet fillings.
As I’m not Jewish (but love Jewish cuisine—Matzo balls? Latkes? Anything from Russ & Daughters? I’m there!), I never had a tried and true recipe for them. Luckily, Ina Garten came to the rescue back in 2001 with Parties! (my favorite of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks), and I’ve been hooked on making them ever since.
Despite looking a bit like mini croissants, Rugelach are not difficult to make. Like the Venetian cookies, a lot of the time commitment is spent chilling the dough. After that, just roll, fill, and bake.
My favorite filling is bittersweet chocolate, with a touch of cinnamon and sprinkling of Demerara sugar on the top.
The Barefoot Contessa recipe fills the pastry with apricot preserves, walnuts, raisins, and cinnamon sugar, a combination that always gets rave reviews from my gift recipients. Prefer raspberry preserves? Pecans instead of walnuts? Go for it! Rugelach are endlessly customizable.
📖 Recipe
Bittersweet Chocolate Rugelach
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 8 ounces cream cheese , room temperature
- ½ pound unsalted butter (2 sticks), room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar , divided
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 8 ounces Bittersweet chocolate , finely chopped or shaved
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
To bake
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly
- Demerara sugar ("Raw"), for topping
Instructions
Assemble the Pastry
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and ½ pound butter until fluffy. Add ¼ cup granulated sugar, the kosher salt, and the vanilla, beating until combined. Scrape bowl. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour and mix just until incorporated.
- Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and roll it into a ball. Cut the ball into four equal pieces, and roll each quarter into a ball, flattening slightly. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for at least one hour. After the dough has rested, re-flour your work surface and roll each quarter into a 9-10 inch circle (about ¼-inch thick).
- In a small bowl, mix together the chocolate, cinnamon, and remaining ½ cup granulated sugar.
- Brush each dough round with melted butter. Spread with about ⅓ cup chocolate mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and gently press filling into dough.
- With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the round into quarters, and then each quarter into thirds to make 12 wedges. Starting at the widest edge, roll each wedge toward the center and transfer rolled cookies, point tucked under, to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate 30 minutes, until dough is firm. Repeat process for the remaining 3 rounds of dough.
Bake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine egg and milk. Brush each cookie lightly with the egg wash. Sprinkle with Demerara sugar.
- Bake pastry for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let sit 5 minutes before removing from baking sheets with a thin metal spatula and transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Josh says
This was my first attempt at rugelach. I found this recipe to be quite delicious, although the dough was a little tricky to work with because it got soft and sticky and I had to work quick. I was trying to emulate ones I found in a local bakery so instead of the traditional crescent roll shape I rolled the dough into a sheet and rolled it into a tube before slicing into individual pieces.
When I baked these the pastries kind of melted flat, any idea where I went wrong?
Thanks for the recipe, I’ll definitely try again.
Amanda Biddle says
Hi Josh,
All cream cheese pastry will warm up quickly at room temperature, but it shouldn’t have been overly sticky. I remove one round of dough from the refrigerator at a time when I’m rolling them out so it’s all as chilled as possible. The pastries will spread a little when baking, but if they singificantly lost their shape, they likely weren’t cold enough when they went in the oven. The shaped rugelach need to be very well chilled and firm to the touch before baking. I always make the crescent-shaped rugelach, but I know that extra chilling is typically recommended for rolls (before slicing and again before baking), because the dough is handled more.
Also, the rugelach you had from the bakery might’ve been the yeasted dough variety – you might try a yeasted recipe for comparison.
Happy Holidays ~
Josh says
Thanks so much for the feedback :)
I actually left my last batch sliced and on the baking sheet in the fridge overnight, I pulled it out to egg wash and sugar, then put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes until the oven was finished heating. Still melted so I think I messed up somewhere else. I made a double batch so who knows.
As for sticky, it wasn’t so much that the dough was sticky, rather once I rolled it out I had a problem rolling it up off the counter without it sticking to the pin or counter
They were definitely a hit although not beautiful like yours
Happy holidays!
Amanda Biddle says
Hi Josh,
I emailed you some info directly – it will come from [email protected] :)
Paul H says
Very good recipe. I made these for the first time a while back for a Jewish food auction to raise money for a charity. Well, I found out after my rugelach auctioned off, that the Jewish “Rugelach lady”, probably about 72 or so, was sitting at the table next to me. They took one to her to “taste”. She looked it over, then tasted it. Her eyes smiled at the first bite! It passed the test! She asked me later to bake some more for another function! I have since made them with preserve filling, apple pie filling (rendered down to a paste like consistency) and they just melt in the mouth!
Nina says
What can I used instead of an egg wash? My grand daughter has an egg allergy.
TIA
Amanda {Striped Spatula} says
Hi Nina, you can also brush the rugelach with a little heavy cream. Enjoy!
Becca says
Rugelach are one of my all time favorite bakery treats. Can’t wait to try making them at home!