Gen­er­al Tips:

· Don’t over­work the dough — you want it to be flaky, so mix the dough until just com­bined and then cov­er in plas­tic wrap. Make sure to chill one to two hours, or overnight.

· The best fill­ing com­bo (IMHO) is some­thing spread­able com­bined with some­thing crunchy (chopped nuts, mini choco­late chips, shred­ded coconut, etc.).

· Don’t add too much fill­ing or it will explode — one even thin lay­er is plenty.

· Use a piz­za cut­ter to cut into tri­an­gles. It’s eas­i­er than knife. (This is a spe­cial trick via @ferrarokitchen.)

· Rugelach don’t need to be sweet — make savory rugelach as an ide­al movie-watch­ing nosh, to com­pli­ment a cheese board, or the next time we are allowed to social­ize with actu­al humans again.

Some of my favorite fill­ing combos:

· Rasp­ber­ry jam and chopped choco­late or mini choco­late chips

· Nutel­la and crum­bled halva

· Marsh­mal­low fluff, mini choco­late chips, and gra­ham crack­er crumbs

· Orange mar­malade or oth­er citrus‑y jam, and shred­ded coconut

· Nutel­la and chopped nuts

· Pesto and goat cheese

· Cream cheese and every­thing bagel spices

· Haris­sa and goat cheese

· Toma­to paste and shred­ded moz­zarel­la or parme­san cheeses

Recipe, from Mod­ern Jew­ish Bak­er: Chal­lah Bab­ka Bagels and More (Coun­try­man Press). 

Ingre­di­ents—

· 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

· ½ lb unsalt­ed but­ter (2 sticks), at room temperature

· ¼ cup gran­u­lat­ed sugar

· ½ tsp salt

· ½ tsp vanilla

· 2 cups unbleached AP flour, sifted

Direc­tions:

1. Cream but­ter and cream cheese in stand mix­er with a pad­dle attach­ment until creamy. Add sug­ar, salt and vanil­la. Mix well.

2. Add flour and mix until just com­bined. Dump the dough onto a well-floured sur­face and roll into a ball. Cut the ball in quar­ters and wrap each quar­ter in plas­tic wrap. Refrig­er­ate for at least one hour or overnight.

3. Pre­heat oven to 375 F.

4. Roll each piece of dough into a large cir­cle. Using an 8- or 9‑inch round, cut dough into a per­fect cir­cle. I rec­om­mend using a piz­za cut­ter for this task. 

5. Spread each cir­cle of dough with 2 to 3 table­spoons of mari­nara sauce in a thin lay­er, leav­ing 1/​4‑inch bor­der all around. Sprin­kle each cir­cle with 2 table­spoons of shred­ded moz­zarel­la and press gen­tly into sauce.

6. Using the piz­za cut­ter, cut the dough into 8 even tri­an­gles. Start­ing at the longer end, roll up each triangle.

7. Place the point side down on a bak­ing sheet lined with parch­ment paper or sil­i­cone bak­ing mat.

8. Brush each rugelach with beat­en egg and sprin­kle with dried basil, dried oregano, and red pep­per flakes.

9. Bake for 16 to 18 min­utes, until gold­en. Allow to cool on wire rack.