A few years ago, Chef Jason Weiner of Almond attended a baby shower in Brooklyn. There was a lot of delicious food at the party, but the showstopper was the transcendent, cream cheese rugelach. Never a fan of such pastries, he suddenly saw them in a new light. This rugelach recipe came from baby Quentin’s grandmother, Risa Smith. She and the chef became fast friends, and the rest is history. Baker Risa Smith now comes to the restaurant every Wednesday and knocks out rugelach for the week.–Tracey Zabar
LC Not Your Grandma's Rugelach Recipe Note
We’ve come to understand that the best rugelach is the rugelach your grandma made. This cream cheese rugelach recipe isn’t that rugelach. It is, however, in the words of our testers, “flaky,” “tender,” “a dream to work with,” even “perfect,” although you can be the judge of that. Just don’t tell grandma.
Quentin’s Grandma’s Cream Cheese Rugelach Recipe
Ingredients
- For the cream cheese dough
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into chunks and chilled
- 8 ounces cream cheese, cut into chunks
- 2 tablespoons sour cream or Greek yogurt
- 2 large egg yolks
- For the raisin filling
- One 15-ounce box golden raisins
- Enough water to cover the raisins
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup walnuts or filberts (hazelnuts)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons rum
- For the apricot filling
- One 15-ounce box apricots
- Enough water (or orange juice), to cover the apricots
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup walnuts (or filberts)
- One 12-ounce jar of orange marmalade
- 2 to 3 tablespoons orange brandy
Directions
- Make the cream cheese dough
- 1. Pulse the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand with some pea-size pieces of butter. Add the cream cheese and sour cream and pulse just until the batter comes together into a rough dough.
- 2. Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a floured work surface and divide into 4 portions. Pat each portion into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about 45 minutes.
- Make one of the fillings
- 3. For the raisin filling: Put the raisins in a medium saucepan and cover with the water. Add the sugar, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Simmer over low heat until almost all the water is absorbed and the raisins are plumped, anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the heat and and size of pan. Transfer the raisin sauce to a blender or food processor and pulse. Add the walnuts and process again to form a paste. Stir in the rum to taste and set aside to cool.
For the apricot filling: Put the apricots in a medium saucepan and cover with the water. Add the sugar, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Simmer over low heat until almost all the water is absorbed and the apricots are soft and plumped, 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the heat and size of the pan. Transfer the apricot sauce to a blender or food processor and pulse. Add the walnuts and marmalade, and process again to form a paste. Stir in the brandy to taste and set aside to cool. - Assemble the rugelach
- 4. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper.
- 5. Roll 1 portion of the dough into a rectangle that’s between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Spread with 1/4 of the filling. Starting with the long side, roll up the dough to make a tight cylinder. Flatten it a bit and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the cylinder in the freezer or refrigerator and repeat the process with the remaining portions of dough.
- 6. Take just one of the cylinders out of the fridge or freezer and slice it into 1 1/2-inch-wide cookies. Place each cookie, seam side down, on the prepared sheet. Whisk the egg yolks and brush very lightly over the tops and then sprinkle sparingly or generously, as you see fit, with sugar. Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes. Repeat with the other portion of dough.
- 7. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden and crispy. Cool the rugelach for a few minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Hungry for more? Chow down on these:
- Chocolate Babka from Smitten Kitchen
- Hamantashen from Cupcake Project
- Baklava from Leite's Culinaria
- Walnut Crescents from Leite's Culinaria
Quentin’s Grandma’s Cream Cheese Rugelach Recipe © 2011 Tracey Zabar. Photo © 2011 Ellen Silverman. All rights reserved.
[Amy Iacopi] I hate the P word, but dare I say, these were perfect. I had two (admittedly, they were hungry and male) other testers who seemed to agree — two dozen of these little guys were gone in less than two hours. I used mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese and made the raisin filling. The raisins took nearly an hour on low heat to absorb almost all the water, so start that before making the pastry. The recipe reads very easily. Not only were these gorgeous, but they were perfectly spiced, with a nice dough that was both lightly sweetened and flaky. Also, I don’t really trust myself handling dough, yet these were a breeze to roll out and put together. Who knows, maybe I’ll try croissants next!
[Steve Dunn] It’s official. Now that I’ve made this fabulous recipe, I am spoiled forever for lesser rugelach. I found this recipe to be nearly perfect, and the resulting rugelach absolutely delicious. The fat-rich dough (two sticks of butter AND a block of cream cheese!) was a dream to work with and came together beautifully in my processor with the recipe’s clear instructions. I ran the Cuisinart just until the dough started to pull from the sides of the bowl and gather together in a mass. While I prepped the raisin filling, the four thin discs of dough rested in my fridge for about one hour. My raisins, just covered with water, took about 30 minutes over a medium-low flame to reach plump perfection, and smelled wonderful as they cooked in their cinnamon-spiced bath. To the hydrated raisins and walnut puree I added two tablespoons of a dark, Haitian rum that really made the filling pop. The cookies were easy to form and cut, though I had about 1/4 cup of the filling left over. They baked up all nice and brown in 23 minutes with my oven at 375℉ on the convection setting. I shifted my sheet pans top to bottom and front to back halfway through the cooking time. Once cooled, I found the cookies to be perfectly delicious, the crust soft and rich, but with a nice crunch from the crystalized sugar sprinkled on top. The gooey raisin filling was wonderfully spiced, and is reminiscent of my favorite ice cream flavor of all time…rum raisin!
[Melissa Maedgen] I don’t think I’m fit to judge what would constitute “transcendent” rugelach, but this was very good. One of my friends stated it was the best he had ever had. I made the apricot filling, although the recipe made almost twice as much filling as I needed for the amount of pastry. The other issue I had with the recipe is that it would have been helpful to give an approximate size for the rectangle of dough you are supposed to roll out. The cylinders of dough are easiest to roll up if you keep the dough cold, and don’t roll too thin. And don’t skip the step of chilling the cylinders for a bit before slicing, as once again, the dough is easier to handle cold.
[Linda B.] These are delicious. Tender and flaky. The dough was easy to work with. Everybody at work loved them! Unfortunately, a lot of the filling ended up on the cookie sheet when I baked them, but they were still good. Next time I’ll let the logs of filled pastry almost freeze or get very cold before I cut and bake the rugelach.
[Sheri Codiana] Really terrific rugelach. The dough turned out to be really nice, flaky, and easy to work with.
I made these this weeeknd and my hubby loved them. Great for our own Superbowl party!
We’re not surprised to hear that your hubby loved them, Vandana, not at all. Though we’re really tickled that you took the time to let us know. There’s another recipe from the same book, One Sweet Cookie from the lovely Tracey Zabar, which readers are raving about and which you may wish to try. It’s for a simple but spectacular shortbread-like sugar cookie.
One of my all time favorites!!! I pretty much lived on rugelach from 17 to 18 years old~ <3
And see how lovely you turned out, Jessica?! Clearly more of us should incorporate rugelach into our everyday routine…
In my grandparents’ German/Hungarian household, we used to make dough like this (w/cream cheese & butter). I always make my own apricot butter and prune butter. They are my favorites – sometimes I put a dab of each on the Kifli. If you roll the dough and cut into squares (or circles) and fold over, instead of the rolled rugelach style, the filling stays where you put it. You can just fold 2 of the corners over the center to show the filling or pinch all four corners over the center. YUM–I can feel the lbs coming on!
Your rendition sounds lovely, Zanne. I’d be hard-pressed to name a favorite between apricot or prune butter, both sound tempting…
Risa’s rugelach are famous all the way from Montreal, Québec, to the Dominican Republic, where we had the priviledge to taste them for the first time. And what a delight they are! Thanks for the detailed recipe.
Danielle, our pleasure. I hope you enjoy them!
Thanks for reposting this link on FB! My grandma never made rugelach that I know of and if she did I doubt they would be this gorgeous! I love rugelach and am always searching for a fabulous recipe Thanks for this one which will be made for Hanukkah!
You’re quite welcome, Jamie. Tracy Zabar certainly knows her cookies, and fortunately we know a good thing when we see it..look forward to hearing what you think…