Not just any rugelach- Nutella rugelach! Like a perfect little Jewish chocolate-filled croissant.
Happy Sunday! We have a pot luck lunch this week at work, and I wanted to make a tasty Jewish treat for my contribution. That way, my coworkers could revel in kosher deliciousness and I have a new recipe for you. Double duty! While perusing my recipes, one jumped out at me- rugelach. You may be asking, what in the name of Elijah is a rugelach? Well I am glad you asked! Rugelach is like a mini Jewish croissant, filled with goodness. Not get get sappy on you, bloggies, but I have many fond memories of making rugelach with my Mom growing up. We would mix the dough, roll it out, and fill our rugelach with cinnamon, sugar and nuts, and spread the rugelach love to friends and family. Lucky them! This is one tasty cookie; I am not going to lie to you. However, I thought I could improve on it. But how? And then, the answer came to me. I would simply add the world’s most perfect food. No, not bacon, though certainly that wouldn’t have hurt. I bring you, Nutella rugelach.
Oh yeah. I went there.
Here is all you need for rugelach success! I decided to substitute Greek yogurt for the traditional sour cream, as surely that healthy change negates the calories in two sticks of butter. Mmm butter.
First up, cut up your cold butter and cream cheese into bits. Make sure your butter is cold- that will make your rugelach flaky and delicious!
Voila!
In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, cardamom, salt and flour. Place flour mixture, cold butter and cream cheese in a food processor and pulse just until combined. You should have a crumbly dough. Then add in sour cream and vanilla. Pulse just until combined into a clumpy dough. Do not overmix.
Lightly flour a clean surface and dump dough onto the surface. Divide the dough into four equal sized balls (I use a scale) and flatten each into a disk. Dough will be slightly sticky.
Wrap each disk in saran wrap and chill for two hours or ideally overnight. It also freezes well for up to 2 months.
After two – 24 grueling hours, take one ball out of the fridge, leaving the others to chill. Roll out your ball into a circle on a floured surface.
Pre heat oven to 350 F.
Roll out each ball into a 9 inch circle on a floured surface into a circle, keeping the other balls in the fridge until you are ready for them. Make sure to use enough flour to prevent sticking.
Eat a spoonful of Nutella. This step is not optional.
Spread a thin layer of Nutella onto your circle. Avoid temptation to eat more Nutella. Or don’t.
Sprinkle a bit of sugar and nuts on top of the Nutella.
Then, slice your circle into 12 triangles.
Roll your triangles up starting on the wide end, and secure your point into the cookie. Place on cookie sheets and, just for the hell of it, sprinkle with even more sugar. Repeat with the other balls.
Freeze rugelach for 30 minutes to prevent spreading. Bake your cookies for 25 minutes at 350 and prepare to be all sorts of impressed.
Sweet sassy molassey! Feel free to try this recipe with preserves, or the traditional sugar, cinnamon, raisin and nut mixture. You just can’t go wrong!
Nutella Rugelach
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 sticks cold unsalted butter (1 cup) cut into chunks
- 6 oz cold cream cheese cut into chunks
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup hazelnuts chopped (or walnuts)
- 1 small 13 oz can Nutella
- 2 egg yolks and 1 teaspoon water whisked, for egg wash
Instructions
- Place flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Then add cold butter, cream cheese, sour cream and vanilla in a food processor and pulse just until combined. You should have a crumbly dough. Do not overmix.
- (If you don't have a food processor, let butter and cream cheese come to room temperature. With a stand or hand mixer with beater attachment, cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar just until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Then add in sour cream and vanilla and combine. Lastly, add in flour and mix just until combined. This method will lead to a chewier rugelach vs. the flakier cookie with cold ingredients but both are delicious.)
- Lightly flour a clean surface and dump dough onto the surface. Divide the dough into four equal sized balls (I use a scale) and flatten each into a disk. Dough will be slightly sticky. Wrap each disk in saran wrap and chill for two hours or ideally overnight. It also freezes well for up to 2 months.
- Pre heat oven to 350 F.
- Roll out each ball into a 9-10 inch circle about 1/8 inch thick on a floured surface into a circle, keeping the other balls in the fridge until you are ready for them. Make sure to use enough flour to prevent sticking.
- Eat a spoonful of Nutella.
- Spread a thin layer of Nutella on the circle, sprinkle with sugar and hazelnuts.
- Cut the circle into 12 triangles like a pizza. Roll up each triangle from the wide end, and secure the tip into the cookie so you have a little spiral. Place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and freeze for 30 minutes to prevent spreading. Repeat with other balls.
- Brush rugelach with egg wash, sprinkle with more sugar and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Cool for 5 minutes on the cooking sheet and then finish cooling on cooling rack.
Why can’t we do taste testing online??? This is such a tease!
That’s what I do best- tease!
Oh man, I don’t really like rugelach all that much, but you sold me at Nutella! Those sound amazing!
Thanks, Jenn! I have never been a rugelach fan either, but nutella makes everything better. One of my coworkers even proclaimed these are the best cookies she has ever had!
Can’t wait to bake and devour these… yum!
Thanks, Mir! Glad you like the recipe. And don’t fret, matzah balls are on my list to make soon!
Love the blog — can’t wait to see more!
Thanks, DJ!
Where can I order two dozen of each treat; the sweet potato pancakes and the nutella rugelah (these were not around in my day). I think you give The Barefoot Contessa a run for her money or gelt! I am so proud I am just kvelling! I must start now for it will take me a year to duplicate these treats by next Chanukah!
Love you, #1Bubbe
Hahaha you are too funny. Thanks Bubbe #1 and Bubbe #2!!! See y’all soon!
with your brother right now he just told me about this- this is amazing!! i am making nutella rugelach asap!!!!
congrats!
Thanks a lot! That’s funny, I just “liked” your Scrabble photo on Facebook. I may be addicted. Tell Andrew hi, and game on!
Looks really good…I absolutely love nutella, but because it’s dairy, I’m left to only use it only for dairy stuff, for example – this mascarpone cheesecake with nutella drizzle (http://thekoshergastronome.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/mascarpone-cheesecake-with-nutella-drizzle/)…if you have any leftover nutella, i highly recommend it
Hatzlacha on your new blog!
Thank you! Um your cheesecake looks insanely good. Alas, Nutella doesn’t last more than a day in this house!
Thanks…yeah I know what you mean…I’m thinking of making some home made hazelnut spread…ill keep you posted
Sold- I would love to get my hands on a Nutella recipe. I believe that is the secret to world domination.
these look just like my mother-in-laws! the homemade ones are always 110% better than the ones you find in stores, etc.
when i was on my last deployment, my MIL sent a box of these EVERY.SINGLE.MONTH. everyone in my squadron became obsessed and kept asking when she was going to send “more of the cinnamon roll-tasting jewish cookies”.
i am lovin’ your blog, amy!
Thanks, Molly! What an amazing MIL you have.
Yum- your rugelach looks delish. I made a similar recipe this year as well. It was my first time making rugelach so I went the traditional route and made apricot and then made a nutella version. Everyone love them!
Thanks, Brittany! The possibilities are endless with rugelach- I’d love to try one with peanut butter and chocolate chips next. Yum!
Thanks, Amy! Great vid! Both of my grandmothers were masters of rugelach..I only wish mine turned out as well as theirs did! Close, but there was a certain something…….
Anyway…love rugelach..love nutella…these are winners!
Thanks, Lisa! Bubbes all seem to have a magic ingredient. We’ll never know I guess!
Just made rugelach out of curiosity and I love it. My family love it too! Nutella? Hmmm…. I will try this bcos it’s my favourite spread! And yours are too tempting not to make!
Let me know if you try it- it’s delicious!
I just made a small batch of your rugelach, In mine I spread tons of nutella so they are huge!! But sooo delicioussss ???.
Thank u for the recipeeee
Yay enjoy!
Hi Amy,
Yum I really want to make this, looks delicious!
Do you know how many grams are 2 sticks of butter? The butter I buy is in grams.
Thanks
Thanks, Nat! Two stick of butter is 226.81 grams.
Thanks Amy, I am keen to cook these as soon as possible. Yumo!
Mmmmmm! But I have a question: You divide the dough into 4 balls, and each ball yields 12 pieces of rugalach, but it says on the recipe that it serves 36 cookies…Hmmmm…do I get to eat 12 before the offical cookie count? :^)
Well would you look at that. You’re right!! It should make 48. I’ll update it!
Is there anyway to make this recipe by substituting the butter for grape seed oil? I have a no butter policy for my cooking because otherwise I’d blow up like a blimp.
Either way this looks delish! Great blog.
Thanks, Yelena! I haven’t tried this particular cookie with oil in place of butter before, but based on past experiments with other cookies I think it should work. Let me know how it turns out!
I just made them. They’re delicious! I added a bit more water to the egg wash and a thicker sugar sprinkled on top. Perfection!! Thank you.
So glad you enjoyed!
Nutella Rugellah is fantastic ! I’ll do this again.
So glad you like it!
These were delicious and pretty easy to make. I didn’t have a food processor but I put the ingredients in my blender and it worked fine.
Glad you enjoyed! Good idea with the blender.
Amy, please, where can I find the gluten free recipe?
The person on Instagram just substituted 1 for 1 flour and added a little xantham gum.
I love this recipe and have made it many times to rave reviews. Then I moved to Colorado and found that the cookies spread a lot more and were still tasty, but too flat. Any suggested modifications for high altitude baking without sacrificing the amazing flavor? Perhaps cutting out the sugar? Thank you!
Thanks! Ooh I am not an expert on high altitude baking. I saw this article. https://www.wikihow.com/Adjust-a-Cookie-Recipe-for-High-Altitude
Do you also freeze them before baking? That prevents spreading in general.
Can these be stored at room temperature and if so, for how long? I’d like to make them and ship them from New York to Colorado but that could take five or six days and I don’t know if they would still be fresh.
That should be fine if they are wrapped well!