Chocolate Rugelach
From Greek baklava to Latin American alfajores, Italian pizzelle and now today’s Polish/Jewish chocolate rugelach, we really are making our way through a number of different cultures with our cookies this holiday season, aren’t we? While my Christmas cookie tray always starts off with a batch of my favorite sugar cookies, it’s fun to try something different, especially when the results are as remarkably delicious as today’s are. Perhaps you’ve had rugelach before? They’re oh-so buttery, flaky, and cookies (though technically perhaps they’re a pastry?). Traditionally they’re made with a nut and raisin interior, but today I’m doing a rich chocolatey twist that I think you’re going to love. Let’s get to it!
What You Need
The dough that we’re using today is not your basic pastry dough. It’s enriched with three different kinds of fat…
Butter. This is the first of many fats that we’ll be using in our chocolate rugelach dough. Use two sticks of unsalted and you want them to be very, very cold! Stick them in the freezer for a bit before you begin for even flakier rugelach. Sour cream. Another fat! I use this secret ingredient in my famous pie crust (well, it’s famous in my family, anyway). It gives a light and flaky results. Cream cheese. The final fat in our dough. This should also be as cold as possible (though I never freeze this like I do the butter). In addition, of course we need flour (all-purpose only, please), sugar, and salt.
Many recipes use only butter or sour cream but I found a blend of the two gives us the best flavor and texture. It’s an easy-to-work-with pastry dough that bakes into flaky, buttery, flavorful cookies/rugelach. Then there’s the filling…
Chocolate Filling
Chocolate rugelach filling is made of just three ingredients:
Melted semisweet chocolate. Chocolate bars are best, but chocolate chips work, too.Sugar. I like to use brown sugar (better flavor!), but you can substitute granulated if needed.Ground cinnamon. This is optional but I love the flavor it adds (I use it in my chocolate rolls, too).Salt. Just a pinch to make the flavor shine!
I know a raisin filling is traditional… but chocolate filling trumps raisin any day of the week in my book.
How to Make Chocolate Rugelach
Of course, chocolate rugelach would not be complete without chocolate filling…. I recommend you brush each of the rugelach with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar before baking, but that’s optional. Tip: Get festive! Instead of topping with coarse sugar, sprinkle the top of the rugelach with colorful nonpareils instead!
More Recipes You Might Like
Spritz CookiesSwiss RollButter CookiesSticky Buns
Enjoy! Let’s bake together! Make sure to check out the how-to VIDEO in the recipe card!
