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This tender, petite cream cheese crescent pastry classed as a cookie, is laden with irresistible jammy apricot and walnut filling. This really simple apricot walnut rugelach is that one PERFECT bake folks find hard to have just one of!
If you love easy, crowd-pleasing Christmas treats, you’ll definitely want to try these recipes for cranberry pistachio Christmas biscotti and these gingerbread rum ball cookies.
Quick Look: Apricot Walnut Rugelach Recipe
- ⏲️ Prep Time: 35 minutes
- ⏲️ Cook Time: 30 minutes
- ⏲️ Total Time: 3 hours 50 minutes (including 2 hours 45 minutes chilling)
- 👨👩👧👦 Servings: 22 rugelach
- 🌽 Cuisine & Heritage: Jewish-American
- 🍽️ Calories: 120 calories per serving (more nutritional info in recipe card)
- 🥦 Dietary Info: Vegetarian; can be made Gluten Free or Dairy Free
- 🟢 Difficulty: Easy
- 🔥 Cooking Method: Oven Baked
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: fruity filling with a crunch and flaky pastry.
- 🔑 Top Tip: If you own a food processor, assembling rugelach dough takes less than 5 minutes. I make several balls of dough during the holidays, nestle them in plastic wrap, and keep in my refrigerator to fill and bake whenever.
- 🍷 Drink Pairings: I love enjoying these with a cup of coffee, or if you’re feeling fancy, pair with Champagne or Brut or even sparkling wine!
- ❄️ Storage: Store fully baked, uneaten portions in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days, or up to 10 days under refrigeration.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Make Ahead Friendly: This rugelach dough can be refrigerated overnight and baked the next day or refrigerated for up to 3 days. You can also freeze unbaked rugelach or baked rugelach!
- Easy to Tweak to Your Tastes: The filling can easily be tweaked to your preferences. For example, swap the walnuts for almonds or pecans if you prefer, or try a different jam in place of the apricot.
- Crowd Pleasing Dessert: This easy dessert is sure to be a hit at any Christmas cookie swap or festive gathering! My friends always have a hard time eating just one.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“Jenny, these look out of this world!”
Table of Contents
The dough components for rugelach could not be more conventional using only all-purpose flour, Kosher salt, unsalted butter, and cream cheese. Really, whatever you favored filling them with would be up to you. Today, I’m going with apricot jam. It’s a flavor I love–like in these apricot bourbon fizz.
Ingredients
Curious what simple ingredients you need for this easy Christmas dessert? Grab these key ingredients, along with a few others, and you’ll be ready to bake these rugelach!
- Cream Cheese: This is definitely one of the key ingredients for the simple dough. Like in my cream cheese pound cake, I highly recommend using full-fat, brick style cream cheese for the best results.
- Spices: A mixture of cinnamon and cloves add an incredible festive flavor to the rugelach!
- Apricot Jam: The flavor of juicy apricot jam in these rugelach is just incredible. If apricot jam ‘isn’t your jam’ (see what I did there 🙂 ?) look to anything with a spreadable consistency: raspberry jam, Nutella, poppy seed filling, mincemeat, brown sugar and cinnamon, or chocolate chips and nuts.
- Walnuts: A sprinkling of toasted, chopped walnuts in the filling adds a delightful crunch and wonderful flavor. If you love walnuts, be sure to try my recipes for walnut bottom peach and apple pie and these fig bars with walnuts.
See recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Apricot Walnut Rugelach
Scroll down for the full printable recipe or stick around for the step-by-step breakdown with photos to walk you through every delicious detail.
1
Prep and Preheat
In one small bowl, whisk together ¼ cup granulated sugar with a teaspoon-ish of ground cinnamon and just a pinch of cloves. From this mixture, remove a tablespoon to another of the three small bowls. Set both aside.
2
Make the Dough
Begin by pulsing all-purpose flour together with Kosher salt to combine. Add both COLD butter and COLD cream cheese that you have cubed, and pulse until a crumbly dough forms that holds together when squeezed.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead to form a cohesive mass. Use lightly floured hands to shape the dough into a 4×5-inch rectangle.
Divide dough using a knife or bench scraper, slicing the rectangle in half crosswise. Wrap each half tightly in plastic film and refrigerate for 1½ to 2 hours.
3
Roll out the Dough
Leave one piece of dough in the refrigerator while you work the other into a 9×12-inch rectangle on a floured surface. I place a ruler directly in front of my dough, so I am accurate with the size I am rolling.
Notice how LOVELY the dough is to work with, and so soft. IF you feel you need to flour the top as you’re working, do so. Just be sure not to over-flour.
4
Assemble the Rugelach
Once you have your 9×12-inch rectangle, spread ¼ cup of the jam over the entire surface; the layer will be thin. Sprinkle with ¼ cup of toasted, chopped walnuts and half of the remaining spiced sugar. Beginning at the wide end, roll the outer edge toward the other edge into a log.
Transfer to a prepared baking sheet and pop into your freezer until completely firm, or about 30 minutes. Then repeat with the remaining dough, apricot jam, toasted walnuts, and remaining spiced sugar.
5
Slice & Brush with Egg
Preheat the oven to 350°F and have the second cookie sheet you prepared at the ready. In the last small bowl, whisk a single large room temperature egg.
Transfer each well-chilled log to a cutting board, one at a time. First, trim the edges. Then, use a serrated knife to slice each log into 1-inch wide pieces, yielding approximately 11 rugelach cookies per log.
Place each cookie onto the second prepared baking sheet, dough side up, and space them 1½ inches apart. Freeze 15 minutes more.
Lightly brush the tops of the rugelach with the egg wash using a pastry brush. Sprinkle all with remaining tablespoon of spiced sugar.
6
Bake & Enjoy!
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The rugelach will appear golden brown, and the jam will be bubbling slightly around the edges. Using a flat spatula or tongs, immediately transfer the rugelach to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy these delicious treats!
Recipe FAQs
Yes! And in fact, the dough may be assembled and refrigerated for to 3 days.
No, I don’t recommend it; this recipe intentionally calls for just a thin layer. The big deal that happens when jam leaks is that it tends to burn. For this reason, more jam doesn’t equal better. Any more results in leaks, and ultimately less jam than if you’d kept it to the ¼ cup per dough directed.
If you Google rugelach, you will get results for two very different shaped cookies. Both are correct. The first is as I show herein, a lovely textured and golden baked swirl. The second is a deliberate crescent and is considered the traditional shape. In this recipe, I am specifying slices, not crescents.
While rugelach will keep tightly wrapped at room temperature for up to 3 days, it does last a bit longer if refrigerated, up to 10 days.
Rugelach dough or fully assembled unbaked rugelach may be stored/wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 4 weeks before pulling out to bake. To thaw them, place still stored/wrapped in the refrigerator overnight.
Serving Suggestions
I enjoy both coffee and tea with rugelach, though tea is considered traditional. These petite pastry cookies are not overly sweet, which is why I also encourage serving them alongside savory appetizers, like herb and cheese puff pastry wheels, pineapple cheese ball, and Hawaiian ham and cheese sliders.
Pair the rugelach and appetizers with Champagne, Brut, or even sparkling wine. My personal recommendation is Lingot Martin Bugey-Cerdon’s Traditional Sparkling Gamay Rosé, a bottle you can easily pick up in the States for around $24. This sparkling Rosé is apricot’s BFF…
Expert Tips
- I recommend using a food processor to bring this cream cheese dough together.
- Do not use more than the indicated amount of jam per dough. The layer you spread will be thin, and this is intentional. Any more jam may leak from the cookies during the bake and burn.
- Rugelach dough can be refrigerated overnight and baked the next day. It may be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
- To freeze rugelach dough and fully assembled UNBAKED rugelach, wrap/load into airtight and freeze for up to 4 weeks. To thaw, place in refrigerator overnight. Bake according to the directions in this recipe card.
- Store fully baked, uneaten portions in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days or up to 10 days under refrigeration.
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Apricot Walnut Rugelach
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 4 ounces cold cream cheese, cubed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch ground cloves
- ½ cup apricot jam, divided
- ½ cup walnuts, divided; lightly toasted and chopped
- 1 large egg, room temperature; lightly beaten
Instructions
Making the Dough
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar, cinnamon, and a pinch of cloves. From this mixture, remove 1 tablespoon to a separate small bowl. Set both aside.
- Pulse all-purpose flour and salt to combine. Add both cubed cold butter and cubed cold cream cheese and pulse until a crumbly dough forms that holds together when squeezed. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead to form a cohesive mass. Use lightly floured hands to shape the dough into a 4×5-inch rectangle. Divide dough using a knife or bench scraper, slicing the rectangle in half crosswise. Wrap each half tightly in plastic film and refrigerate for 1½ to 2 hours.
Shaping the Rugelach
- Leave one piece of dough in the refrigerator while you work the other into a 9×12-inch rectangle on a floured surface. I place a ruler directly in front of my dough, so I am accurate with the size I am rolling.
- Spread ¼ cup of the jam over the entire surface. The layer will be thin. Next, sprinkle with ¼ cup of the walnuts, followed by half the spiced sugar.
- Beginning at the wide end, roll the outer edge toward the other edge and into what will look like a log. Transfer to a prepared baking sheet and pop into your freezer until completely firm, or about 30 minutes. Then repeat with the remaining dough, apricot jam, toasted walnuts, and remaining spiced sugar.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and have the second cookie sheet you prepared at the ready. Lightly beat a single large room temperature egg. Transfer each well-chilled log to a cutting board and trim edges. Use a serrated knife to slice each log into 1-inch wide pieces, yielding approximately 11 rugelach cookies per log. Place each cookie onto the second prepared baking sheet, dough side up, and space them 1½ inches apart. Freeze 15 minutes more.
Bake & Serve
- Lightly brush the tops of the rugelach with the egg wash using a pastry brush. Sprinkle all with remaining tablespoon of spiced sugar and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The rugelach will appear golden brown, and the jam will be bubbling slightly around the edges. Using a flat spatula or tongs, immediately transfer the rugelach to a wire rack to cool.
Notes
- Do not use more than the indicated amount of jam per dough. The layer you spread will be thin, and this is intentional. Any more jam may leak from the cookies during the bake and burn.
- Rugelach dough can be refrigerated overnight and baked the next day. It may be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
- To freeze rugelach dough and fully assembled UNBAKED rugelach, wrap/load into airtight and freeze for up to 4 weeks. To thaw, place in refrigerator overnight. Bake according to the directions in this recipe card.
- Store fully baked, uneaten portions in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days or up to 10 days under refrigeration.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can you freeze them after they have been baked?
Gerry, great question and my answer to this is two-fold. Freezing unbaked rugelach often provides the freshest-tasting result, as baking them fresh after freezing preserves their buttery texture and rich flavor. To freeze unbaked, shape the cookies and freeze them in a single layer before storing them in an airtight container.
Freezing baked rugelach is also effective, but the cookies might lose a touch of their crispness over time, though reheating helps restore it. Ultimately, the choice depends on your preference and schedule—unbaked offers peak freshness, while baked is more convenient.
Let me know how you and yours enjoy these if you make them – we are ‘6 dough batches in’ for rugelach-making so far, all doughs/individual rugelach assembled and frozen. I thaw and bake them off as I know we will be visited by company or have a gift to give. Merry Christmas, Gerry! Jenny
Cut dough Crosswise? So if i hav s 5×4 rectangle ill end up with 2 thinner 5×4 rectangles? Or am i taking up crosswise wrong?
Nora, roll your dough into a rectangle. Use a ruler to roll to roughly 8×5 inches. Cut the dough in half on the long end, so 1 8×5 rectangle becomes 2 4×5 rectangles. Chill and then roll one at a time to a 12×9 rectangle. The reason you keep the dough small and chill it is so it has stability for the big 12×9 roll.
Jenny, these look out of this world! I am excited to be featuring you at the Home Imagined Link party! Congrats! We will be sharing features next week on social media. But still will be on our holiday break, so we will have our next party on the 10th and will feature you again then too.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Meagan, what a wonderful early Christmas gift! Thank you!! I’m soooo glad to be a part of your parties and glad to have come to them late rather than never! Merry Christmas, Meagan 🙂 Jenny
These look awesome!! Pinned! I’d be honored if you shared these at our What’s for Dinner party – and the the Great cookie exchange!
Merry Christmas Helen!