Description
Rich, crumbly chocolate cinnamon rugelach, a traditional Jewish cookie
Ingredients
For the dough:
1 cup and 2 tablespoons flour, plus more for the counter
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
4 oz butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
For the filling:
3/4 cup bittersweet or dark chocolate, chips or chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp Dutch-process cocoa powder
For the top of the cookie:
1 egg or 1/4 cup of heavy cream or 1/4 cup of water
2-3 tbsp sugar of choice for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- To make the dough, beat cream cheese and butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add sugar and salt, continuing to mix
- Finally, add flour, little by little until fully combined. Once the dough starts to stick together, stop mixing. This should only take a minute or two. Don't over-mix.
- Remove the dough and place onto a cutting board or counter with a little flour on it. Roll into a ball, then gently pat down into a disk.
- Wrap and allow to cool for 1 hour in the fridge.
- While the dough chills, prepare your filling.
- Add all of your filling ingredients to a food processor and pulse several times. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and pulse again, until the mixture is well combined and a thick, spreadable paste. You may need to scrape down a few times. Set aside on the counter. Do not put into the fridge or anywhere cold, otherwise this paste will solidify and be impossible to use later.
- Once the dough is chilled, remove from the fridge.
- Cut the dough in half and roll two balls, flatten them both into disks, then roll into a thin circle. See photos for more details
- Working with one circle at a time, dollop ~half of the chocolate paste all over the dough round then gently spread, being careful not to tear the dough. This will take a minute or two. Use the back of a spoon and just gently press the dollops down over and over again, smearing across the dough round until it is mostly covered. A few empty spots are fine, it doesn't have to be perfect.
- Once the dough round is mostly covered, use a large knife to cut it into 12 even triangles. I like to cut in half, then quarters, and then I cut each quarter into 3 slices. This allows for the most even cuts.
- Starting from the outside of the dough round, roll each triangle into itself, towards the center, until it is a rugelach!
- Repeat with the second dough round. You should end up with 24 rugelach.
- Place the rugelach back into the fridge to chill for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350º.
- Place chilled rugelach onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet (you will need 2 or 1 large one) and brush with beaten egg (or cream, or water) and sprinkle with whatever sugar you like. I have used regular sugar, coconut sugar, and turbinado sugar with success.
- Bake rugelach for 15-20 minutes, or until nicely golden brown. Turn the cookie sheet halfway if you see certain cookies getting browner than others.
- Enjoy!
Notes
These are very small cookies, so plan on 2-3 per person. You can easily double this recipe if you'd like to make more!
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Sweets
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Jewish
Keywords: jewish recipes, jewish dessert, jewish baked goods, rugelach, rugelach recipe, chocolate rugelach, chocolate cinnamon rugelach, rugelach recipe, jewish rugelach, jewish cookies