My Cinnamon Rugelach recipe is made with an easy cream cheese rugelach pastry dough, filled with a simple cinnamon brown sugar filling. They are the perfect little cookies for cinnamon roll lovers.
Cinnamon rolls are probably my very first baking love. I used to bake them for a living, for real life! So the smell of cinnamon sugar and butter is one of my absolute favorite thing about baking season. These Cinnamon Roll Rugelach bring back all the good memories.
I think you will love them too for many reasons. They are so easy to make; the dough is very forgiving and will always turn out super tender. The rugelach filling is simply cinnamon and brown sugar, with a light brush of melted butter. You will likely have most of the ingredients to make them at home; if not they’re just a trip to the grocery store away.
Also, it is super fun to experiment with different rugelach fillings using the same dough. You can add jams, preserves and nuts like these fig and walnut rugelach, or these guava jam, coconut and macadamia rugelach, and these almond paste rugelach.
Table of Contents
Helpful tools
Here are some of the equipment I like to use when making this recipe for cinnamon rugelach:
- A stand mixer to make the dough.
- A bench scraper to divide the dough into portions quickly. It also helps with scraping and lifting the dough off your surface easily if it happens to stick.
- A rolling pin to roll out the dough.
- And a pizza wheel to simplify cutting, though you can also use a knife.
Ingredients and substitutions
As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips:
- Cream cheese – full fat brick cream cheese.
- Unsalted butter – I don’t recommend substituting salted butter here since it will make the dough saltier than intended.
- Sugar – use granulated sugar for the dough and the cinnamon sugar topping, and brown sugar for the filling. If you don’t have brown sugar, you can use granulated sugar for the filling too, but I do like the additional depth of flavor brown sugar brings to the table.
- Kosher salt – just a small amount is used in the pastry dough. If you use table salt, use half as much.
- Pure vanilla extract
- All purpose flour
- Cinnamon
- Egg wash – one whole egg beaten with a tablespoon of cream, milk or water.
How to make cinnamon rugelach
The following instructions, step-by-step photos, and tips are here to help you visualize how to make the recipe. You can always skip straight to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
Make the dough
First, cream together room temperature butter and cream cheese to combine and make sure there is no lump.
Then add sugar, salt and vanilla extract and beat until combined and fluffy.
Sift in the flour and stir until the dough forms. It does not need to be super smooth, so you don’t need to overmix it. The dough will look slightly wet, slightly sticky, and somewhere between a cookie dough and pie dough.
Scrape the dough out on a floured surface and pat together into a disk. Keep the dough, surface and your hands floured as needed.
Divided the large disk into 4 equal portions and forms 4 smaller disks. Wrap each one in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, this will allow the dough to hydrate and make it easier to work with later.
Assemble and bake
Take a disk of rugelach dough out of the fridge and roll it into a 9″ circle.
Tip: If your dough has been in the fridge for a while or overnight, it might be too hard to roll straight from the fridge. Just let it sit on the countertop for about 30 minutes to soften, it will be easier to roll.
Brush melted butter all over the surface of the dough.
Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon to make the cinnamon roll filling, then spread a quarter of the sugar filling over the buttered dough and tap it lightly to adhere.
Cut into 12 and roll them up into crescent shape cookies. Keep assembled cookies on a lined baking sheet in the refrigerator or freezer while you work with the rest of the dough.
When ready to bake, brush the little cinnamon rugelach with egg wash and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar. Then bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 18 minutes until the top of the cookies are slightly brown.
Tip: Adjust bake time depending on your oven temperature. If your oven runs a little cooler, you may need to bake a few minutes longer to get the cookies to brown.
Storage
These cinnamon rugelach will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for 3-5 days. You can also keep them refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or freeze them for up to 3 months. Thaw completely before serving.
The rugelach dough, unbaked, can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
You can also freeze the unbaked assembled cookies for up to 3 months. Bake directly from frozen and increase the baking time a few minutes until the cookies brown to your liking.
📖 Recipe card
Easy Rugelach with Cinnamon Sugar Filling
Equipment
- Pizza Wheel
Ingredients
For the Rugelach:
- 8 ounce cream cheese (room temperature, 227 g)
- 8 ounce unsalted butter (room temperature, 227 g)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (47 g)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cup all-purpose flour (270 g)
- Extra flour for rolling
For the cinnamon roll filling:
- ½ cup light brown sugar (tightly packed, 120 g)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Egg wash & topping:
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream (or milk, or water)
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar (23 g)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Cream the softened 8 oz of unsalted butter and 8 oz of cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl with the paddle attachment on medium high speed until combined and creamy.
- Add ¼ cup of granulated sugar, ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt and 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and beat on medium speed until combined and fluffy.
- Sift in 2 cup of all-purpose flour, and stir on low speed until just combined.
- Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and shape into a disk. Divide into four equal portions, shape each into a ball then flatten into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Combine the ½ cup of brown sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in a small bowl, whisk to distribute evenly.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out into a 9” circle, working with one disk of dough at a time.
- Brush the top of the dough with melted butter leaving about ¼” from the edge clean. Spread a quarter of the brown sugar cinnamon filling over the top, and tap it down lightly to adhere.
- Cut the circle into 12 triangles using a pizza cutter. First cut the circle into quarters, then cut each quarter into thirds.
- Roll the larger end of each triangle in to make a crescent shape cookie. Place cookies on a parchment line baking sheet. Keep assembled cookies in the refrigerator or freezer while you repeat the process with the remaining disks of dough.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Beat one egg with a tablespoon of cream (or milk, or water) to make egg wash.
- Combine 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar with ½ teaspoon of cinnamon in a pinch bowl for the topping.
- Brush egg wash all over the cookies, and sprinkle cinnamon sugar generously over the top.
- Bake for 18 minutes, or longer as needed until cookies are slightly brown. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Nutrition
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Great directions and delicious cookies! My family loved these.
So glad to hear Carrie! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review 🙂
Made these last night! The cookies came out looking and tasting delicious. These are definitely more labor-intensive but the look is worth it in the end. Thanks for a great recipe!
These sound delicious! Have you ever tried freezing the dough before baking? Maybe after rolling into the crescent? I’d love to make a batch of these this weekend, have a few and freeze the rest for later.
Hey Daire, yes you can certainly freeze them after shaping and rolling. I would freeze them in one layer for about 30 minutes to get them frozen and put them in an air tight container, layer parchment paper between each layer if necessary. You can bake from frozen but increase the time a couple minutes.
These look so beautiful and yummy!
Xx Taylor
http://www.lightscameracatwalk.com/
These look so lovely and what a clever idea to use a pizza cutter – that would really make them quite quick
These little treats would be perfect for tea time ! And anything cinnamon does always smell so holiday-ish 🙂
Nice recipe!I love the idea of making stuff for your loved ones.Economical,heartfelt and awesome!