Rugelach with Classic or Cream Cheese Fillings | Baking with Dorie

Rugelach is popular in our neighborhood in the New York metropolitan area. You can find them in every grocery store. We often pick up a box which’d last a day or two. The big decision lies: which flavor to choose. Our favorite is strawberry because the red jam spiral looks so festive and visually appealing. Dorie’s rugelach recipe comes from her mother-in-law and it’s known for its very forgiving dough.

The crust is made with a cream cheese dough. It’s equal part (113 grams) of cream cheese and butter, mixed with the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour (136 grams), baking powder (1/4 teaspoon) and salt. The dough comes together easily in a food processor. Blend until the dough forms large curds. Turn the dough out and gather into a ball. Then shape and divide it into two squares. The dough has to be chilled for two hours.

Forming the dough is easy. It’s when the dough meets the fillings when things start falling apart for me. The problem might have been confounded by overfilling the dough sheet with roughly chopped (instead of finely chopped) chocolate and raisin fillings. Furthermore, the rugelach is not rolled tightly enough. As a result, the cookies lose its spiraling shape, the filling oozes out and burns. All and all, not a good look!

I get better results when I roll out and shape the rugelach like a croissant instead of a cinnamon roll. The filling stays within the layers, not bleeding out; the dough rises and bakes properly.

Merry Christmas to you all!