Easy Rugelach Recipe

 

Easy Rugelach Recipe gives you simple hazelnut version with cottage cheese. Small slices of flaky crust instead of rolled wedges are so attractive to enjoy for holidays. Delicious and simple to make perfectly sweet rugelach cookies is your new must do recipe!

 

Poland is wonderful country to explore and there are millions of reasons to do so. Here are the best places to visit once you decide to go there for your holidays. People are very friendly, polite and have big and opened hearts. Did you know they gave shelter to over 3 million refugees from Ukraine ? You really have to have a heart of gold to do so!

 

Since we are a world of foodies, there are so many great dishes to discover there as well! To find the best of traditional Polish dishes see what Anna  is doing !

 

And……. it brings me to my topic of the day: easy rugelach recipe !

 

What Is Rugelach?

Rugelach are filled pastry cookies originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. The word “Rugelach” is Yiddish (plural) meaning “little twists” and can be filled with a variety of ingredients.

In Poland, people call them rogale. They can be made in slices, so simple version I am presenting today, or in a more crescent or horn shape. To see crescent shape cookie version, look at Carrot Crescents with Nutella  .

 

What holiday do you eat rugelach?

Because of the cream cheese, rugelach are dairy food, and dairy is more traditionally eaten for Hanukkah, the festival of lights, and for Shavuot, a harvest festival celebrated seven weeks after Passover.

 

For filling, you can use whatever you prefer: Homemade Fig Jam  , because it’s thick and is not running out of your rugelach recipe. Further on, Rustic Apricot Jam is all right but in thin layer so you sprinkle finely chopped nuts or dried fruits and then roll it to form a log  or crescents. Have you thought how beautiful it could be to spread your version with Caramel Apple Jam  and some cinnamon sugar to have perfect comfort food for cold winter days? If you make kid friendly version, you just cannot go wrong with Nutella or dulce de leche and chocolate chips, right? For short description of “how to make dulce de leche from scratch” go here  .

 

Since this easy rugelach recipe without cream cheese ( but with cottage cheese ) is low in sugar, I sprinkled these handheld cookies with brown rock sugar.

 

What is brown rock sugar?

Brown Rock Sugar is crystallized when melted and turned into beautiful stone-like pieces. Usually, we add it to tea, coffee, and liquors. It is less sweet than regular white granulated sugar. You can find it in candy shops, lollypop shaped, so you use it multiple times to stir your drink using it. Nice, right?

To see how I did this batch of best rugelach recipe, here is a short photo version of “how to”:

 

And once baked, cookies look like this:

 

 

Can you freeze raw rugelach cookies?

Both the rugelach dough and shaped, unbaked rugelach can be made ahead, wrapped, airtight, and frozen up to 2 months before using. For best results, thaw in the refrigerator overnight, wrapped, before using.

 

Is it safe to freeze baked rugelach?

Yes. Just make sure they are cooled completely before you wrap them or place in airtight container and freeze. Before serving, let them reach room temperature.

Just before you see our detailed recipe, let me add something important:

Why should you chill the dough when preparing your cookies ?

Chilling cookie dough controls spread.

And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread. In addition, the sugar in the dough gradually absorbs liquid. If you bake the dough immediately, before sugar has a chance to absorb much liquid, that liquid remains “free” in the dough, and promotes spread. For detailed description, go here .