by: Kate McMillan
Cook Time
28 minutes
Prep Time
20 minutes
Yield
48 cookies
Total Time
28 minutes
Prep Time
20 minutes
Yield
48 cookies
summary
Rugelach—Yiddish for “little twists”—are a lovely treat year-round but especially for Hanukkah. In this raspberry rugelach recipe, the cookies are made from a cream cheese dough rolled into a circle and then cut into wedges. Each wedge is filled with raspberry jam, finely chopped walnuts and cinnamon before they are rolled up and baked. The result is a delicious and not overly-sweet dessert!
ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 6 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into small cubes
- ⅓ cup cold sour cream
- ¾ cup raspberry jam
- ¾ cup finely chopped walnuts
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons sanding sugar
directions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Add the flour and salt to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse 5–6 times to combine. Add the butter, cream cheese and sour cream and pulse until you have a very crumbly but soft dough, about 30–40 seconds of pulsing.
- Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl and use your hands to pull the dough together (do not knead the dough, just pull it together). Divide the dough into 3 equal parts and form each portion into a disc. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours.
- Remove one disc of dough from the refrigerator. Place this on a generously floured work surface and roll into a 10-inch circle. Using a small offset spatula, spread ¼ cup of raspberry jam all over the dough. Using a pizza cutter or a knife, cut the dough into 16 equal wedges.
- Sprinkle ¼ cup of the walnuts on top of the jam and then finish with ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon. Starting at the bigger end, roll each wedge of dough up to meet its small tip. Place each cookie, tip side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Brush the rugelach with heavy cream and sprinkle each with sanding sugar.
- Repeat this process with the remaining 2 discs of dough. Chill all the cookies in the refrigerator while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake rugelach until golden brown, rotating the pan once, about 28 minutes.
notes
Dairy ingredients need to be cold to make the dough for this raspberry rugelach recipe.
It is imperative that you chill the dough for at least 4 hours—this will make it easier to work with.
Sanding sugar has extra-large crystals and is used in baking. You can find it in the baking section of most grocery stores. If you don’t have any, you can use regular granulated sugar.
You can use any flavor jam you want in this recipe, including apricot and fig.
Baked cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
