Last updated on April 27th, 2026.
This isn’t just a sweet almond pastry, this is a flaky, tender, and delightful pastry made with a generous amount of butter and cream cheese, filled with a creamy almond filling, topped with sliced almonds, and baked to golden perfection.
Move over almond croissant, there’s a new pastry in town, and it’s flaky, buttery, and packed with creamy almond flavor. I used my classic rugelach dough made with butter and cream cheese. It’s the same dough used for classic strawberry rugelach cookies, but instead of rolling and shaping it into crescents (or envelopes), I stuffed it with a thick, about an inch! layer of almond cream and braided it into one giant pastry.
The best part is the baked bits of almond cream that ooze out during baking, then turn into a sticky, golden candy. It’s the baker’s legal right and privilege to enjoy them without sharing.
Let’s Bake!
The complete recipe is at the bottom of this post on the recipe card including measurement.
This recipe consists of three main components:
- The dough – A buttery, flaky pastry that provides the perfect base, make it up to five days in advance and refrigerate.
- Almond Cream Filling. Also known as almond frangipane, not common to find store-bough so you’ll need to make it from scratch but the good news is that it is super easy and fast.
- Shaping and baking – Below are step-by-step images for a visual gaudiness.
Make the dough
- Cold ingredients is crucial. It is the difference between a soft, playable and tender dough and a sticky, gooey mess that bakes into a tough pastry.
- Do not knead the dough, only press it into a disk, than refrigerate. During the rest time the gluten relaxes and gets slightly tighter, but just enough to easily roll it without bouncing back, or tearing.
Make The Filling
- For this almond cream recipe, I decided to use powered sugar. The cornstarch in the sugar will swell and absorb excess liquid during baking, and minimize the filling from oozing out.
- When the butter is melted and warm, it effects the texture of the filling. Set it a side to set the butter for about 20-30 minutes.
- When the filling is oozing out: That’s normal to some degree, and a delicious snack, make sure not to fold the dough too tight, to give the almond filling the space to expand without oozing out.
Shaping and Baking
- Roll the dough over a clean surface dusted with a light dust of flour, and make sure to rotate the dough by 90-180 degrees every 3-4 strokes. This is the best way to make sure it won’t stick to the surface. Sprinkle the surface and rolling pin with flour as needed.
- Fill and and shape the pastry over the baking pan lined with parchment paper. It is nearly impossible to move the pastry around once shaped.
- If the dough is too sticky as you roll it, allow it to cool in the refrigerator for an extra 15-20 minutes, and make sure to dust the surface and rolling pin with flour as you roll.
Serving Ideas
For a pastry with a finesse, serve it with a dollop of heavy cream, fresh berries, or stick to the classic timeless dust of powdered sugar.
Flaky Almond Pastry with Cream Cheese Dough
A flaky, tender pastry made with butter and cream cheese, filled with a rich almond cream, topped with sliced almonds, and baked until perfectly golden.
Servings 10 slices
Ingredients
- 1 Cup (120g) All-purpose flour
- 1 Tabelspoom Powdered sugar
- 1/2 Cup (113g) Unsalted cold butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
- 1/2 Cup (113g) Cold cream cheese, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
- 1 Large Egg yolk
- 1/2 Cup (60g) Sliced almonds
For The Almond Cream
- 1 Cup (100g) Almond flour
- 1/2 Cup (60g) powdered sugar (OR 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Flour
- 1 teaspoon Almond extract
- 1 Large Egg at room temprature
- 1/2 Cup (113g) Unsalted melted butter
Instructions
Make The Dough
- Place the flour (120g), powdered sugar (8g) and half of the butter (55g) in a food processor and process until the butter is the size of a small peas.
- Add the rest of the butter (55g) and the cream cheese (113g) and process until you have a crumble mixture and no dry flour.
- Dump the mixture over a clean work surface and use your hands to press the dough into a rectangle disk.
- Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for minimum of one hour or up to 5 days.
Make The Almond Cream
- Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until you have a smooth cream.
Shape and bake
- Preheat your oven to 400F (200C) and line one large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough over a lightly flour surface into a 10×15-inch rectangle. Trim the edges.
- Line the dough over the prepared dough.
- Top the almond cream over the center of the dough, shaping it to a 3×12-inches rectangle.
- Use a sharp knife to slice the sides of the dough into a 1-inch diagonally stripes, removing the first and last two.
- Fold the ends over the filling then, fold each stripe over the filling in alternating sides.
- Brush the pastry with the egg wash, sprinkle with the almonds and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and medium golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes before inverting.
Notes
- Store at room temperature for up to three days, to reheat bake for 5-7 minutes at a 300F preheated oven.
- Making Ahead: You can prepare the almond filling and dough a day in advance. Store the filling in the fridge and bring it to room temperature before using. Roll the dough cold.
- Freeze: unbaked, filled and braided pastries on a tray, then wrap the tray with few layers of plastic wrap, top with aluminum foil, and freeze for up to 6 weeks. When ready, unwrap and allow the pastry to reach room temperature before baking. To freeze baked pastries, let them cool completely, then wrap tightly and freeze for up to 1 month.
- Make sure not to braid the pastry too tight, the filling will expand as it bakes, and if braiding too tight it might rip the braid. (which is not a big deal and still delicious).
- Turn the pan mid baking, and if you notice the pastry is starting to brown too fast, cover it with a large piece of aluminum foil.
Hi Dee,
Thank you for your recipe 🙂 this looks delicious. I have a question about your ingredients. Did you mean to put egg yolk for the almond cream and not for the dough?
Thank you Kai, The egg yolk is to brush the pastry before baking, the dough does not call for any eggs. The filling calls for one whole egg.
Hi dee
What is cold cream cheese in hebrwe?
גבינת שמנת
The pastry came out delightfully flaky, but this did not taste almond-y enough for my hopes. If I were to make it again, I’d try 2 tsps of almond extract and see if that would do the trick. My husband and kids all liked it, but I was expecting more of a marzipan type flavor, which this did not have.
Hi Molly, the strength of the Almond flavor is a personal preference, and increasing the extract by an extra teaspoon should do the trick.
Hallo Dee,
I am gonna try this recipe soon, it seems so delicious. I’ve been reading your recipe for a while, I would like to know how is the difference btw Jewish baking and western baking? As I am not growing up with these two culture. Would you please explain it? I would like to learn more form you. Thank you.
Best regards,
Dor.
Hi Dor,
Thank you for your kind message! The main difference is that Jewish baking is often tied to religious and cultural traditions — like challah for Shabbat or honey cake for Rosh Hashanah — while Western baking tends to focus more on technique and presentation, with less ritual meaning. Jewish baking tells a story, often passed down through generations. But I will add that the recipes I share have all been tested and based on my knowledge of baking and baking science.
I’d love to share more anytime — feel free to ask!
Hi Dee…for the dough ingredients it states “1 Tablespoon Powdered Sugar, however in the instructions for the dough – it shows “Baking Powder” ;b since this is a last minute question (and bake) I am adding the Tblsp of P.Sugar & then a Tsp of B.Powder…just in case ;D
Thanks for any clarification you can provide, and as always, excellent recipe!
Zoritsa
Only use powdered sugar
Followed the directions but all the pastry filling oozed out during baking. Help, what did I do wrong? Smells good and tastes good but it’s a mess.
By any chance did you forget to add the egg to the filling? I would not worry about it, it is still super delicious and only looks like it all oozed out.