Strawberry Rugelach; Buttery, Flaky, and Irresistible

Making homemade rugelach with fruit filling may seem intimidating, but with a few essential techniques, you can achieve bakery-quality results at home, and you’ll never think about store-bought rugelach. Raspberry Rugelach are the most classic Rugelach cookies, but since the dough is lightly sweetened, we can go a head and us a variety of sweet fillings like strawberries, or apricot preserves. (or fig paste, like I used to make these Fig Rugelach).

These Jewish Eastern Europe cookies are a personal and a family favorite, and I like to bake a few batched during the holiday and add them to my cookie boxes (or for Purim’s Mishloach manot).

For more strawberry recipes check out these Strawberry Jam Cookies and this Strawberry Crostata.

The Rugelach Dough

The foundation of any Rugelach is its dough, which is traditionally made with a combination of all purpose flour, unsalted butter, and cream cheese. This results in a rich, tender, and slightly puffy pastry that reminds me a lot puff pastry. The keys to successful flaky cream cheese dough desserts are: one, keeping all ingredients cold and handling the dough minimally to maintain its flakiness, and two precise measurements of the ingredients. I highly recommend using a kitchen scale for the best results. Now let’s get baking.

Make It

The complete Strawberry Rugelach Recipe is at the bottom of this post in the recipe card. 

The dough can be made up to 48 hours ahead of time and refrigerated, or frozen for up to 4 weeks.

1.  In a bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, powdered sugar, and half of the butter, about 8 times, until the butter is the size of small pease.
2. Add the rest of the butter and cream cheese to the flour mixture, and process until you have a crumbly, and moist mixture. 
3. Drop the mixture over a large piece of plastic wrap and use the sides of the wrap to press the mixture into a dough.
4. Divide dough into two equal pieces, and shape each into a round disk. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour, or overnight.

Using a food processor is the classic method to make these cookies. But you can also use the help of a mixer wether it is a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or an electric mixer:

1. Cream butter and cream cheese.
2. Mix in the flour and powdered sugar.
3. Press the dough into a smooth dough, divide it into two equal pieces, wrap each with plastic wrap and refrigearet.

The Fillings

Strawberry rugelach can be filled with homemade strawberry preserves a or store-bought one, store bough strawberry jam, or even a combination of strawberries with nuts and spices. To prevent excess moisture from making the dough soggy, spread the filling in an even, thin layer of jam.  

Common Complaints and Fixes

• The filling leaks out during baking: Avoid overfilling and leave a small border around the edges when spreading the filling. Chilling the shaped rugelach before baking also helps, and Consider adding finely ground nuts or cookie crumbs to absorb some of the juices.
• The Rugelach isn’t sweet enough: Rugelach cookies are not very sweet. The dough contains a very small amount of sugar so its important to use a sweet strawberry jam, vs. tart one.
• The filling burns before the dough is fully baked. If that happens it means that some the filling oozed out and burnt, but not necessarily the cookies. In a way it is a signature quality of these cookies, and by the time the cookies chill the jam is mostly likley recrystalized and can be removed from the cookies (and enjoyed as candy).
• The filling makes the dough too soft or sticky: Use a thicker jam or slightly reduce the amount of filling.

Shape and Bake

To shape Jewish crescent cookies, 

1. Roll the first piece of dough into a 1/4 thickness over  lightly floured surface, and use a cake pan, or a one of your pan lids to cut the dough into a circle.
2. Spread the filling and top it with ground nuts, or crushed cookies.
3. Use a pizza cutter, or a sharp knife to cut it into wedges, similar to slicing a pizza. 
4. Roll each wedge wedge from the wide end to the narrow tip, creating the signature crescent shape. 
5. Place the crescent shapes cookies over the prepared baking sheets.
6. Brush the cookies with and egg wash, sprinkle with turbinado, or granulated sugar sugar. (Brushing the tops with an egg wash and sprinkling with sugar before baking enhances the color and adds a slight crunch.)

Common Problems and Solutions

• The dough is too sticky to roll out: This often happens if the butter and cream cheese have softened too much. Keep your ingredients cold, and chill the dough for at least an hour before rolling. If needed, refrigerate the dough longer. Make sure to flour your work surface and rolling pin.
• The dough cracks when rolling: If the dough is too cold, let it rest at room temperature for a few minutes before rolling.
• The texture is too hard or too soft: Overmixing, or over working with the dough can result in toughness, while underbaking can make it too soft. Handle the dough gently and bake until golden brown.
• The dough shrinks or loses shape: Overworking the dough or skipping the chilling step can cause this. Always chill the dough before rolling and shaping.
• ​The butter is melting during baking. That is normal and to prevent the butter from dripping into your oven, make sure to use rimmed baking pans.

Yields

Depending on the size of your wedges, a single batch of dough typically yields around 24-36 small pastries. If you prefer larger rugelach, simply cut the dough into fewer pieces.

Make Ahead, Store, and Freeze

Rugelach is an excellent make-ahead pastry. The dough can be prepared and refrigerated for up to 3 days before rolling and shaping. Fully baked rugelach stays fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for 5-7 days, or they can be frozen for up to 3 months. If freezing unbaked rugelach, arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet, freeze until solid, then transfer to a storage bag. Bake straight from frozen, adding a few extra minutes to the baking time.