Chocolate Walnut Rugelach . . . Like Christmas, it Comes but Once a Year!

It's a good thing that the level and intensity of baking that occurs in preparation for Dec. 25th happens only once a year. Despite our love for all-things-baking, we also love being able to fasten the top button of our pants--am I right?

That's just one of the reasons why homemade rugelach happens in my household once a year and once a year only. Oh yes, rugelach is delicate and delicious. Given its ingredients, it'd better be! Butter, cream cheese, and flour, all wrapped around sweet jam, finely chopped nuts, and sometimes (hopefully) chocolate. It's all in there.

Like the Ghost of Christmas Present, rugelach swoops in and, just as swiftly, swoops out. That's as it should be. Enjoy it while it's here, and look forward to its brief appearance again next year.

About this recipe . . . 

Today's treat comes from one of the greatest chocolate-baking resources I've ever found, Chocolate American Style, by food writer Lora Brody. This volume exudes a warmth that will envelope you.

No, let me rephrase that . . . It will enrobe you, because that's what fine melted chocolate does. Just ask any chocolatier! It's a book so luscious, you won't know whether to read it or take a bite of it, but I advise that you do the former.

I adapted this recipe slightly by rewording it, by adding a tiny amount of sugar to the dough, and by using an egg wash topped off with a petite sprinkling of cinnamon sugar before baking. Note that the recipe indicates use of a food processor, though you can try making it by hand with a pastry blender.

Chocolate Walnut Rugelach

(For a printable copy of this recipe, click here!)

For the dough:

8 oz. full-fat cream cheese, chilled and cut into small chunks
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small chunks
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar

For the filling:
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
3/4 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (Definitely use the mini-morsels or, if you can't find those, chop regular size semisweet chips evenly into small bits. Because the filling provides almost all the sweetness, you might want to stick with semi-sweet versus trying dark chocolate; I considered substituting dark chips--just because I adore dark chocolate--but realized that could make these rugelach simply not sweet enough.) 
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (Optional, per the cookbook, but I included this and I recommend it.)
1/3 cup apricot jam/preserves

For the top:
1 large egg lightly beaten with 1 Tbsp. cold water
1/4 granulated sugar, mixed with 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon


In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar.  In the large bowl of your food processor (fitted with the metal blade), place the chilled cream cheese and butter chunks, along with the flour mixture. Process until the dough comes together to just form a ball.

Divide the ball of dough into equal quarters, then flatten each quarter into a disk and wrap it securely in plastic wrap. Chill the dough for three or more hours, or overnight (I chilled mine overnight; it was very easy to work with the next day--not too soft or sticky).

When you're ready to roll out and form the rugelach, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line one or two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix together the chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, and cinnamon.

Heat the apricot jam in a small bowl; do this slowly in the microwave, or in a small saucepan over a low flame. The jam needs to be fluid enough for you to brush it onto the dough. Keep the jam warm.


Work with just one piece of dough from the fridge at a time. On a well floured work surface (I used a thin plastic mat designed for rolling out dough or fondant, with measured circles on it--very helpful, but of course not necessary!), roll the dough into a circle that's no more than 8 to 9 inches in diameter. If you roll it too thin, it may tear when you try to roll it up. Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the circle into eight equal wedges.

Brush the cut wedges with a thin layer of the warm jam. (I used a small paint brush--dedicated to food use only!--because of its soft bristles. This dough is tender and a coarse brush can mangle it. A soft silicone brush works well too.) 

Sprinkle about 1 tsp.--not much more or it will just spill out the sides--of the filling mixture onto each dough wedge.

Starting at the wide end of each one, roll the wedge up snugly without stretching the dough and place it on your cookie sheet. Brush the top of each with the egg wash and sprinkle with a pinch or two of the cinnamon sugar.

Bake the rugelach for 10 minutes; check to see how quickly it's browning (not a bad idea to peek at the bottom of one piece as well), and reverse the cookie sheet from front to back. Bake another 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the rugelach as soon as they appear lightly golden. Allow them to cool on the cookie sheet, set on a cooling rack, for five minutes before removing them to cool on the rack on their own.

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Raspberry Rugelach . . . and that's just for starters!

Well, it's two weeks until the big day and there's no denying that bakers of all stripes are now in the thick of hardcore cookie-production. Can't you just hear the well-oiled gears of the Christmas cookie-baking machine churning away all over America? I can. I've been hearing them rev up for weeks now. Sometimes they're so loud they keep me up at night. Who's out there baking at 3 in the morning anyway? (Honey, whoever you are, just back away from your sanding sugar and go get some sleep. Don't argue with me.)

Until this morning, I hadn't yet put my own cookie-making pedal to the metal (forgive the mixed metaphors . . . you know I how I love to mix things). I am obligated to crank out a lot of cookies over the next few days. A few dozen for a church fundraiser, probably at least eight dozen for my husband's office holiday event, not to mention cookies to keep at home and freeze for the actual holidays themselves. Oh, and can't forget some for my 82-year old dad and my older brother. And let's not leave out my sister, Joanie, who has an annual craving for our late mom's old thumbprint recipe. She'll be blowing into town from Connecticut on the 23rd (she's always been one to cut it close).

Got my work cut out for me . . .

I waded buoyantly into the cookie-making fray at 8:00 a.m. this morning, mere minutes after my youngest son left for school. Clutching a recipe for raspberry rugelach, I felt compelled to get my foot in the holiday-cookie door largely because I knew I could throw the dough together really quickly, toss it in the fridge for its mandatory chill, and then go about the business of my non-baking life for a while and do the assembly and baking later on today (yes, I do sometimes engage in non-baking related pursuits, contrary to popular belief; woman does not live by baked goods alone, you know).

As for the particular recipe that I chose, I read through a handful of them for rugelach last night and thought this one seemed a little more logically structured than the others. It's from the book Baking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. (This is a great resource; the very first blog post I did was for blueberry muffins, from this book, and they were exceptional.) I made no changes at all to the formula. It sounded really good to me as is. I did, though, do some of my usual editorializing in the instructions, along with a little rewording here and there.

I'm glad I picked this recipe because the combined flavors meld together beautifully. We have raspberry (always a hit), a barely perceptible hint of chocolate (who could complain?), pecans (yeah, like those too), and cinnamon (nothing negative to say about cinnamon . . . it's so lovable). Rugelach is actually a pretty simple item to make, but it looks deceptively time consuming. That kind of deception is a good thing at Christmas. It gets you way more "ooohhs" and "ahhhhs" than a run o' the mill sugar cookie (though I have nothing against those either . . . you guys know I don't discriminate). So go ahead. No more procrastinating. Get your cookie engine running and go make some rugelach!

Raspberry Rugelach

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

2 cups All Purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 and 1/2 cups pecans, toasted
1/3 cup chopped semisweet chocolate (optional; I used mini chocolate chips)
1 cup raspberry jam (I used seedless)
1/3 cup cinnamon sugar (1/3 cup sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon)
egg wash (1 large egg, beaten with 2 Tbsp. milk or cold water; I used water)

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and set aside.

In a mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese and butter on medium speed for about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients just until combined, scraping the bowl as needed to evenly blend. Tightly wrap the dough and chill it for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it's firm.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it's 1 inch thick all over. Fold the dough over into thirds, like you'd fold a letter. Wrap the dough and chill it for at least 1 hour, and up to 24 hours.

To prepare the filling, combine the pecans and chocolate in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse repeatedly until the mixture forms a coarse paste. (I pulsed until a bit of it held together when I pressed with my fingers; it was not truly like "paste" for me, but it worked just fine the way it was.) Dump it all into a bowl, add in all of the jam, and stir until it's well combined.
When you're ready to assemble and bake, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Divide the chilled dough into 4 equal pieces. Return three of them to the fridge while you work on the first one.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 10" circle. Spread 1/4 of the filling evenly all over the circle, extending almost right up to the edge. Sprinkle 1/4 of the cinnamon sugar evenly over the filling.

Cut the circle evenly into wedges; 16 if you want very small rugelach, 12 if you'd like them slightly larger (I used a sharp pizza wheel to cut them; I made mine into 12 wedges and they were still small). Roll the wedges up, starting at the wide end. Curve the ends in slightly, like a crescent, if you wish.

Place them on your lined cookie sheet. Brush them gently with the egg wash, and sprinkle each one with cinnamon sugar.

Bake them until light golden brown, for approximately 25 to 30 minutes (mine only took about 22 minutes). Transfer the finished rugelach to wire racks and cool them completely before storing or serving them.


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