My Favorite Hanukkah Cookie

Crescent-shaped and filled with goodies, rugelach might even help kids learn some geometry!

Cookies sprinkled with blue sugar and almond macaroons with nut or cherry centers—those are the Hanukkah cookies I remember from childhood. But in recent years, rugelach have become the stars of my holiday cookie plate and probably my favorite cookies, both to make and to eat.

It was a bit of serendipity that I became enamored of these twisty little cookies that look like mini croissants or, if you buy them at Canter’s Deli in the Los Angeles Fairfax District, like small, jam- or chocolate-filled pieces of strudel.

Canter’s rugelach

One day about 15 years ago, I happened to hear celebrated cookbook author Dorie Greenspan on NPR telling the story of how she learned to make rugelach from her mother-in-law during the first year of her marriage. The recipe she described sounded so delightful that I went out and bought the book she was touting, Baking: From My Home to Yours. I’ve been making and sharing these delectable, easily adaptable treats ever since.

Rugelach (no, not arugula!), both the Yiddish word and the sweet itself, probably originated in Poland, where there was a crescent-shaped pastry called a rogale. Like latkes (check out my story from last week about those here) and the custom of serving fried foods at Hanukkah to commemorate the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days instead of one, there are biblical explanations for serving rugelach and other dairy foods during this holiday.

Judith and Holofernes, a sculpture by Donatello in Florence, Italy. (Picture from the Encyclopaedia Judaica.

Unlike the Hanukkah story of the Maccabees, which is all about brave male warriors, this is a feminist tale about Judith, a beautiful widow in the Judean town of Bethulia some 2,500 years ago. Under siege by the Assyrians, the town’s Jewish citizens were ready to give up when Judith managed to charm her way into the company of the Assyrian general Holofernes. She proceeded to feed him a meal of salty cheese that caused him to slake his thirst with wine and fall into a deep slumber. Judith then grabbed his sword and cut off his head, causing the now leaderless Assyrians to flee and saving the town and its people.

So instead of feeding our enemies salty cheese, on Hanukkah we feed it to ourselves in the form of dairy products and cream cheese-enriched pastry! Hopefully no enemies will take advantage—perhaps they’d be mollified by a plate of rugelach!

But honestly, you don’t need to know your bible stories to make and enjoy these cookies!

Rugelach for our Hanukkah party last year. Click on the picture above or here to see a video my husband Jeff Graham made of me making rugelach.

Though simple, the recipe involves some prepping—especially if you include all the filling ingredients Dorie does—jam, nuts, currants, chocolate, cinnamon and sugar—but the results are worth the effort. Again, as with latkes, there are shortcuts that may render the work a little easier, particularly when it comes to making the trademark cream cheese dough. Dorie makes hers in a food processor. That can be a bit messy, especially if you have a small processor, as I do, and some of the flour escapes onto the counter and into your face! But it is a lot less time-consuming than using a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter and cream cheese into the dough.

One half of the rugelach dough is covered with a Nutella-like chocolate-hazelnut spread and pecans, the other with apricot jam, chopped dried apricots and chocolate chips. The circle is cut into 16 wedges and rolled into crescents.

Though Dorie’s suggested fillings include apricot and raspberry jam or marmalade, I’ve subbed Nutella (my husband’s favorite!), pineapple jam (from a farmer’s market in Hilo, Hawaii), blueberry preserves, and Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter. In other words, variations are limited only by the imagination of the baker. I came across recipes for poppy seed, cherry-pistachio, chocolate-espresso, marzipan, and date rugelach in a cursory online search. There are even savory possibilities, such as the spinach and feta version from blogger and Food Network host Molly Yeh. I’d like to make one with parmesan, cheddar and chives, though at that point, perhaps I should just make crescent rolls and call it a day.

Below is Dorie Greenspan’s rugelach recipe, which makes about 32 cookies. I usually double or triple it and freeze leftovers—if there are any! I’ve added a few of my own notes along the way.

For an online link to the recipe on the New York Times site, click here. It offers a suggestion on how to make larger rugelach from dough shaped into a rectangle instead of a circle. With all these shapes, I imagine this might be an excellent way to teach your kids some geometry!

For the Dough:

4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces

1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Filling:

2/3 cup raspberry or apricot jam or marmalade (or other jam or filling)

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped nuts*

1/4 cup plump, moist currants**

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

*Dorie likes pecans, but says walnuts and almonds are fine. I’ve also used hazelnuts. Usually I toast all the nuts I use first. If you do that, do it very carefully as they go from brown to black very quickly!

**I’ve also used raisins, chopped apricots, dates and other dried fruits.

For the Glaze:

1 large egg

1 teaspoon cold water

2 tablespoons sugar, preferably decorating (coarse) sugar

To make the dough in a food processor:***

Let the cream cheese and butter rest on the counter for 10 minutes so they are slightly softened but still cool.

Put he flour and salt in a food processor, scatter the chunks of butter and cheese on top, and pulse the machine 6 to 10 times. Then process, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds—don’t work it so long that it forms a ball on the blade.

Turn the dough out, and gather it into a ball. (Sometimes, if it’s a bit dry and crumbly, you may have to knead it by hand a couple of times to help it stick together, possibly dribbling a few drops of water into the dough just to moisten it a little). Divide it in half, shaping each half into a disk. Wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 1 day. Wrapped airtight, the dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.

A double recipe of rugelach dough

***If you want to make the dough by hand, just handle it as you would a pie dough, using either a pastry blender or cutting in the butter and cream cheese with two knives, then briefly kneading the dough together into a manageable ball. Some recipes for this kind of dough call for sour cream or a mix of cream cheese and sour cream. Some also add sugar, but I’ve found that the fillings and exterior decorating sugar is sufficiently sweet.

To make the filling:

Heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat, or do this in a microwave until it liquifies.****

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together.

Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Measure out other ingredients—chopped nuts, currants or other dried fruit, and chocolate chips—and put them in small bowls, separately.

****I skip this step as most of my jams seem sufficiently liquid to me, but it might make the jam more easily spreadable.

To shape the cookies:

Pull one packet of dough from the refrigerator. If it’s too firm to roll easily, either leave it on the counter for about 10 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11- to 12-inch circle (I used to measure, but usually I just gauge whether I think the dough is the right thickness and size).

I usually roll the dough on the plastic it was wrapped in, with another piece of plastic on top. It’s not so ecological to use so much plastic, but it does prevent sticking. I then remove the top sheet of plastic after the dough has reached the correct diameter.

Dorie’s suggested layers:

1. Spoon or brush a thin gloss of jam over the dough.

2. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon-sugar mix over the jam.

3. Scatter half the chopped nuts over the jam.

4. Sprinkle the currants over the nuts.

5. Last, scatter the chopped chocolate or chips.

Cover the filling with a piece of wax paper and press gently to secure it. Save the wax paper for the next batch. (I also skip this step and haven’t had any negative results.)

Using a pizza wheel or sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 pieces—beginning by cutting it into quarters, then dividing each quarter into four wedges (again, a great math lesson!).

Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each cookie becomes a little crescent. (In my opinion, it’s magic!)

Arrange the cookies on the baking sheet, making sure that the points are tucked under. Refrigerate. Repeat with the second packet. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before baking. The cookies can be covered and refrigerated overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.

Note: I have done this with great success. Just flash freeze them uncovered on a cookie sheet or in another pan. (Make sure not to do what I did once—forget that you’ve got a tin of cookies in the freezer and get bonked on the head by a sheet of tumbling pastry!) The next day, peel the the cookies off the pan and seal them in a plastic bag. When you’re ready to bake, just roll them in egg and sugar, put them on the tray. Bake for an extra minute or so.

The final steps:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Stir together the egg and water. Brush some of the glaze over each cookie, then sprinkle or roll the cookies in the sugar.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. They should be puffed and golden. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the cookies emerge from the oven surrounded by a puddle of brown liquid—melted butter and caramel from the dough. After the cookies cool, that liquid turns to a delicious sliver of hard caramelized sugar, with bits of chocolate, currants, nuts or whatever filling you used embedded in the crackly shards. Nice for a nibble!

The cookies keep for three or four days at room temperature, according to Dorie, but I prefer to freeze them in airtight freezer bags, assuming they aren’t immediately consumed or given away. And, if you are reading this post-Hanukkah (the last light this year is on Dec. 17), never fear—rugelach would be perfect on your Christmas cookie plate!

Thanks for reading my latest edition of Ruth Talks Food. If you enjoyed it, please click “like” and send me a comment. Also, please subscribe to receive future posts—and don’t forget to check out my previous posts on latkes, challah, blintzes, kugel, and hamantaschen.