My easy rugelach recipe yields super buttery and tender pastries filled with fig jam, chopped walnuts and cinnamon sugar. These little cookies may be tiny but they are packed with huge delicious flavors thanks to the jammy nutty sugary rugelach filling.
I am not Jewish and but I absolutely love making rugelach for the holidays. They are just delicious and one batch makes 4 dozen pastries so it’s shareable :). My rugelach recipe with the cream cheese pastry dough is super easy to make too; it’s rich, tender and oh so irresistible, you will want second or third or fourth… you get the drift.
What I love most about them though is that they are extremely versatile, you can make them with just about any filling. If all you have at home are cinnamon and sugar, no worries, make these simple cinnamon rugelach. Or maybe you are an almond lover like my husband, he loves these almond rugelach. Or perhaps you’re into something completely non-traditional, in that case try these tropical rugelach with guava jam, coconut and macadamias.
Table of Contents
What is rugelach pastry?
Rugelach are a type of Jewish pastries, typically made in the shape of a crescent by rolling a triangular piece of dough around some sort of filling. Their bite size crescent shape can be mistaken for crescent rolls or mini croissants, which is exactly what one of my coworkers called these when I brought them into the office one day, but you can think of them as little cookies.
I make mine with a simple butter and cream cheese pastry dough. There are also versions of these made with sour cream dough or yeast leavened dough. The yeast leavened dough is laminated with butter to be more like a croissant dough.
Traditional rugelach filling can include raisins, walnut, cinnamon, marzipan or almond paste, chocolate, fruit preserves, etc. But you’re only limited by your own imagination.
Helpful tools
Here are some of the equipment I like to use when making this recipe:
- A stand mixer to make the dough.
- A bench scraper makes dividing the dough quick and easy. It also helps with scraping and lifting the dough off your surface easily if it happens to stick.
- A rolling pin to roll it out.
- And a pizza wheel to make cutting it quick and easy, 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. I don’t recommend using light cream cheese here, you’ll want the full richness in the dough for the most delicious pastries.
- 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
- Fig jam – or fig preserves.
- Walnuts – pecans are great substitutes here.
- Cinnamon
- Egg wash – one whole egg beaten with a tablespoon of cream, milk or water.
How to make fig jam and walnut 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 will not be a super smooth dough but more on the soft side and just slightly wet, 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.
Prepare the filling
Toast walnuts in a skillet over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until lightly brown and nutty. Spread them on a cutting board to cool and then chop really finely. Mix the chopped nuts with brown sugar and cinnamon.
Assemble your fig and walnut rugelach
Take a disk of rugelach dough out of the fridge and roll it into a 9″ circle.
Spread 2 tablespoons of fig jam over the surface of the dough.
Spread a quarters of the nut filling on top and press it into the jam to adhere so the filling doesn’t fall out when you roll the cookies up. Some might still fall out but it’s okay.
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 fig rugelach cookies 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 lightly brown.
More baker’s tips
- Baking time – Adjust bake time depending on your oven temperature. A few of my readers wrote in to note that they had to bake 6 to 10 minutes longer to get the cookies to brown.
- Kneading the dough – You don’t need to knead the dough excessively. Just run your mixer until the dough comes together, that’s enough. But if you do knead it a little bit longer, it is also okay, this dough is quite forgiving and will stay tender when baked.
- Let the dough sit at room temp before rolling – 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.
Storage
These fig 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.
If you are making these ahead, the rugelach dough, unbaked, can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw and follow directions to assemble them per the recipe.
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.
Hungry for more?
Fig and Walnut Rugelach
Equipment
- Pizza Wheel
Ingredients
For the rugelach dough
- 8 ounce cream cheese, room temperature, 226 g
- 8 ounce unsalted butter, room temperature, 226 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 rugelach filling
- ½ cup fig jam, 160 g
- 1 cup walnuts , or pecans, finely chopped, 120 g
- ¼ cup brown sugar, tightly packed, 64 g
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Egg wash & topping
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon cream, or milk, or water
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar, 23 g
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Cream 8 oz of room temperature unsalted butter and 8 oz of room temperature 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 extract and beat on medium speed until combined and fluffy.
- Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add the 2 cup of all-purpose flour, mix 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.
- Toast the walnuts in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant and lightly brown. Spread them on a cutting board to cool. Then chop them up finely with a sharp knife or pulverize them a food processor or blender. Combine chopped walnuts with ¼ cup of brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in a small bowl, mix to distribute evenly.
- Remove one disk of dough from the refrigerator and roll out into a 9” circle. Spread 2 tablespoons of fig jam over the dough circle, leaving about ¼” from the edge clean. Spread a quarter of the filling over the jam and lightly press it down, it should stick to the jam.
- 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 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Beat one whole egg with one tablespoon of cream or milk to make egg wash. Combine 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar with ½ teaspoon of cinnamon in a separate bowl for the topping. Brush egg wash all over the cookies, and sprinkle cinnamon sugar generously over the top.
- Bake for approximately 18 minutes or longer if needed, until cookies are slightly brown. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes
- Adjust bake time as necessary depending on your oven temperature, a reader noted that she had to bake 10 minutes longer to get the same results.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I did have to bake them 10 minutes more (had the dough in the fridge overnight) but otherwise this was really great. Loved the taste and the texture, the finish!
Thank you so much for the feedback! I’m glad you loved these. I’ll note the bake time for other, I think it would be very helpful.
This recipe is DELICIOUS!! We tried them with fig and apricot. Thank you for the recipe.
Thank you so much for the 5-star review!
These were fantastic! Not my mother’s recipe for Romanian cornulete but they taste just as good, dare I say even better! I had to cook mine a good 6-8 min more than the recipe to get them to start to brown.
Thanks for making these Irina! I’m so glad you like them and wow what a compliment to be compared to your mother’s recipe 🙂
I made the recipe as directed and they were delicious! I’ll make these again.
So glad you like these Sheryl! Thank you for trying it and taking the time to leave a review 🙂
Delicious and easy recipe – used pear & fig preserves of my own making which worked just fine. Was a bit concerned that I’d worked the dough excessively but it’s resilient and baked up still tender. My Jewish partner, etc. approved of them so that means I’ll bake them again. Thanks for the great recipe, Trang ~
Thanks Kristin! So happy to hear they were approved by your partner!
I made these with my homemade fig jam. They were great. I crushed my walnuts with a rolling pin, and it worked just fine. I do recommend kneading the dough. I kneaded one half and did the other without kneading. The kneaded disc was much easier to roll out and the slices were much easier to roll up into crescents.
Thank you for sharing your recipe. I’m definitely going to make it again.
Thanks for the tips Heather and for taking the time to leave a comment! And I’m glad you enjoy them 🙂 I’ll be sure to try kneading them more next time too.
Are we rolling the triangles of dough with the filling on top? Won’t this disturb the filling?
Yes are you and yes it will, do your best to press the filling into the dough. Some will fall out but I’m usually able to keep almost all of the filling inside the dough.
Did you knead the dough before refrigerating it or just before rolling it out?
Thanks.
I would knead before refrigerating, after refrigeration, the dough should be pretty firm and you won’t be able to knead it. But you could just let your mixer go a little bit longer after the dough comes together instead of kneading by hand.
Thank you they came out great!
Awesome!
Do these freeze well?
They turned out amazing!
Used Nutella and Walnut 😊
Yes, you can freeze them up to 3 months. You can also freeze the unbaked cookies if you want and pop them in the oven whenever you wish.
These rugelach look so delicious! I love the combination of figs and walnuts!
Thanks Natalie!