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People, rugelach needs to be in your entertaining tool pack. They can sleep away, quietly tucked into the freezer, ready at a moments notice. At the last minute, you flick on the oven, whip out a baking sheet, and slice up a few frozen rolls of dough filled with jam, chocolate shards, coconut shreds, orange zest, and nuts, and you are ready to rock and roll. Your friends will be wowed that you were organized and talented enough to make such a high-end, gorgeous treat plus whatever amazing meal you’ve whipped up.

And then they’ll have a bite. Then two. Pretty soon they’re squirreling away little rugelach rolls in their purse so they can mainline a couple on the car ride home. Seriously. These cookies are that good.

And don’t tell me they’re too tricky to make. Not true. Both Dorie and I have your back on this.

A couple of months ago, I was contacted to participate in a joint promotion for Dorie Greenspan’s newest cookbook, Baking Chez Moi: Recipes From My Paris Home To Your Home Anywhere, her masterpiece (and I don’t use this word lightly) recipe for rugelach, and Driscoll’s raspberries. It was an easy sell:

I have some other Dorie cookbooks, and love them.
Rugelach is my husband’s favorite cookie in the whole world, and
I always buy Driscoll’s berries.

Sign me up.

I can’t say enough about Dorie’s newest cookbook. Everything I’ve made so far has been foolproof. It sounds basic, and it should be always true, but it really is refreshing when a recipe works the way the author says it will. Dorie’s do. And this rugelach recipe is hands down the best I’ve ever made. I made a few tweaks, and I found her recipe very tweak-friendly:

First of all, I made some super-quick, fruity refrigerator jam with Driscoll’s raspberries boiled with coconut sugar, lemon juice and chocolate liquor for the first layer smeared on the dough.

Then I added some pumpkin purée and allspice to the dough.

Both my husband and I are allergic to nuts, so I nixed them from the filling, and added orange zest to the coconut, chocolate, and dried currants.

Rugelach Tips:

The trickiest part of making rugelach is the rolling action. No question. So here are my top 10 tips to make it easy. Yes, I said easy.

Don’t even think about eliminating the cream cheese from the dough. It’s crucial to having a pliable dough that’s much easier to work with.
Don’t mix the dough ingredients long enough to form a smooth ball. Stop as soon as a dough is forming.
Form the dough into a square or rectangle before chilling. This makes it much easier to roll into the shape and size you need.
Roll out the dough on lightly floured parchment paper, but don’t sandwich it in two pieces of parchment paper — even if that’s what you usually do. Be sure to flip the dough on the parchment paper as needed during rolling, feathering a little flour over the surface each time, just as you would if rolling the dough directly on your countertop.
Chill the rolled out dough in the refrigerator while the oven heats up.
Leave a ¾” border all around the dough when smearing on the jam and sprinkling with the filling. As you roll up the dough, the filling is going to move.
When rolling the dough, use the parchment paper to roll it by lifting the edge under the side you plan to start with. Fold the parchment over the dough away from you, forcing the dough into a roll. You may need to assist the first tuck with your fingers. If the dough is sticky at all, lightly flour your fingers before working the dough into its first tuck.
As you roll the rugelach, smooth out the roll, lengthwise, to maintain the same size all along it’s length. You want a cylinder, not a huge pierogi.
Freeze for 10 minutes before slicing.
Bake on parchment paper. You can use the same sheet of parchment throughout.

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