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These walnut rugelach are soft, crumbly and flaky. Rugelach (a.k.a. ‘rogaliki’) are the perfect cookies and are surprisingly easy to make (the cookie dough will surprise you)! My Mother is famous for her rugelach recipe (a.k.a. ‘rogaliki’ cookies) and they ALWAYS disappear fast. These walnut rugelach are based on Mom’s classic recipe and filled with a cranberry-apricot and walnut filling.
This recipe is sponsored by our friends at Fisher and these cookies are loaded with crunchy Fisher walnuts making the flavor and texture of the rugelach irresistible.
Watch the how-to video until the end to see 3 generations get in on the taste test – SO FUN! Seeing my Mom and baby girl loving on the cookies just makes my heart sing. I hope you love these rugelach cookies – they are perfect for Mother’s Day or any holiday really, but are easy enough for every day.
Watch How to Make Walnut Rugelach Recipe:
I really want you all to discover this rugelach recipe. It may just become your go-to cookie! We have been loving these cookies for as long as I can remember and Mom makes them for nearly every potluck. She taught me how to make these after all and getting her seal of approval is just the best! I just love that she was in this video.
Happy Mother’s Day Mama – I love you more than words could ever express!
Ingredients for Walnut Rugelach Recipe:
1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, melted (not hot)
1 cup (8oz) warm milk (2% or whole milk)
4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour, *measured correctly
3/4 Tbsp active dry yeast
For Rugelach Cookie Filling/ Topping:
10 oz apricot preserves
1 cup Fisher walnuts**
3/4 cup dried cranberries/craisins, (or dried cherries, or raisins)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Powdered sugar to generously dust cookies
**A Big thank you to our friends at Fisher Nuts for sponsoring this recipe! I feel good about buying Fisher nuts for my family because they don’t have preservatives and are non-GMO project verified. You get the nuts and only nuts – it’s as if you had cracked them out of the shell yourself, minus all the effort and mess of course ;). You’ll recognize the right nuts by their blue resealable “Fisher” brand bags.
I wasn’t kidding when I said to lay on the powdered goodness at the end. My kids always go for the ones with the most and I don’t blame them! Mmm… These walnut rugelach cookies are impossibly good!
⬇ Print-Friendly Rugelach Recipe:
Walnut Rugelach Recipe (VIDEO)
Ingredients
Ingredients for Rugelach Cookies:
- 1 cup 226 g unsalted butter, melted (not hot)
- 1 cup 8oz warm milk (2% or whole milk)
- 4 cups 500 g all-purpose flour, measured correctly*
- 3/4 Tbsp active dry yeast
For Rugelach Cookie Filling/ Topping:
- 10 oz apricot preserves
- 1 cup walnuts
- 3/4 cup dried cranberries/craisins, (or dried cherries, or raisins)
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Powdered sugar to generously dust cookies
Instructions
How to Make Walnut Rugelach Recipe:
- In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together 1 cup walnuts, 3/4 cup dried cranberries, 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon until ground up.
- Melt 1 cup butter over low heat (it should be warm, not hot), and add it to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with dough hook attachment. Stir in 1 cup warm milk.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 4 cups flour (measured correctly*) and 3/4 Tbsp yeast. With mixer on speed 2, add flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time, letting it incorporate with each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed then continue mixing/kneading the dough another 3-5 mins. Dough should be very soft and won't stick to your hands.
- Divide dough into 5 pieces and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Work with one piece at a time, rolling it into an 11-inch circle. You should not have to flour the work surface. Spread 3 heaping Tablespoons of preserves evenly over the surface then sprinkle the top with 1/3 cup of the nut mixture.
- Use a pizza cutter, slice through the circle (just like a pizza), cutting into 12 triangles. Roll each triangle from the outside in then transfer rugelach with the points facing down to a parchment-lined baking sheet.***
- Let cookies rise in a warm oven (no more than 100˚F) for 30-45 minutes or until noticeably puffed and about 50% larger. Remove from the oven and preheat oven to 350˚F. Bake in preheated oven for 30 min or until tops are lightly golden. Transfer to serving platter while still warm and dust each layer generously with powdered sugar - remember the dough has no sugar in it so don't skimp on this last step :).
Notes
*To measure flour correctly, spoon flour into a dry ingredients measuring cup and scrape off the top, or if you have a scale, weigh out 500 grams.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Fisher nuts. As always, all opinions and text are my own. Check out all of the Fisher Nuts recipes for more Mother’s Day inspiration.
I hope you all have a beautiful Mother’s Day! And if you’re thinking about what to get the Mom’s in your life this Mother’s Day, keep in mind the best gifts are tight hugs, “I love you’s,” and homemade treats of course! 😉
Hi Natasha,
Recipe looks delicious but I can’t use nuts. Could I just use the jam and cranberries, or just the jam. Suggestions please for filling without nuts?
Gloria, this recipe will work fine without nuts. I only used preserves in this version of the recipe.
The dough was my favorite part! This was seriously the easiest dough to work with and turned out so soft and crumbly! Thank you for sharing:)
My pleasure Vita! I’m glad you found the recipe to be easy! Thanks for sharing 😀
Natasha, these looks amazing. I know you probably haven’t tried this but do you think I can substitute butter for coconut oil?
Hi Oksana, you’re right! I haven’t tried that unfortunately so I can’t really say how it would affect the recipe. If you experiment, let me know what you think! I searched through my original cookies post and no one mentioned using coconut oil. Sorry I can’t be more helpful!!
I baked those today. Everytime somebody mixes yeast with flour my inner voice say – it wont work for you! And it didn’t this time either. Over the years I learnt to dissolve yeast in milk or water before adding to dry ingridients. Therefore, I cant definitely say that the problem was coconut oil. The dough didnt rise. But you know what is funny – rugelach turned out tasty anyway))). Though I used Nutella instead of apricot jam.
Hi Oksana! I’m so glad you enjoyed them and nutella sounds so good! I know what you mean about the yeast but this one doesn’t follow the rules and rises nicely :). I haven’t tried it with coconut oil so I’m not sure if that could be the culprit. I am always happy to help troubleshoot though – could it be that your yeast was no longer fresh or that your coconut oil or milk were too hot? Also, if they rise in an oven that is more than 100˚F, it will deactivate the yeast and keep it from rising. I hope that helps for next time.
Hi Natasha!
How much All-purpose GF flour would I substitute the 4 cups AP with?
I hope you can help me out as I am new to GF baking.
Thank you!
Hi Marie, as far as I know, it’s usually straight across but without testing it myself in this recipe, I can’t really guess. Maybe someone else has tried this with gluten free flour? Thanks in advance!! 🙂
All you made is always phantastic and now so wonderful things for Mother’s Day. Thanks a lot for sharing, I loved it.
I wish you a Very Happy Mother’s Day, as I’ve seen you have so cute and gorgeous Kids and a very beautiful Family.
May God bless you and your nice Famíly!
With Love,
Lizette
Thank you so much Liz! God Bless 😀
Beautiful! In the world full of cream cheese rugelach, it’s great to see one with yeast. My mom’s famous rugelach are also yeast leavened (must be a russian thing), they’re so soft and delicious! My college friends always raved about them. I also shared my mom’s recipe, but with nutella. I’m tried yours soon. I didn’t know what yo make with jar of apricot jam left on hand.
OOH my goodness you’re the third person to mention nutella and I will definitely have to try that!! Thank you for the awesome tip! 🙂
Hi Natasha. I made these not too long ago and they turned out exactly like yours. Only I used peach preserves instead of apricot preserves. They tasted amazing! The powdered sugar definitely adds the taste up. Thank you.
Olga, you are very welcome and thank you for the wonderful review 😬
Made them yesterday, came out delicious. I used pecans. For some cookies I used Nutella instead of fruit jam – also very nice option. Personally, I don’t see any need for sugar powder, the filling is sweet enough. Question – what else can be made out of this great dough? Preferably with less work than rolling 72 pieces? 🙂 I’m not lazy, just don’t have too much time with 3 kids around…
Maria, Hmmm… I’ve never really thought about that, but I think this is the easiest way to use it, especially with the pizza cutter. Nuttela will add more sweetness to the recipe than jam. Jam is more tart so I add more sugar. Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
Can these be frozen?
Hi Barb, I haven’t tried freezing these so I’m not sure. I think it’s worth a test, just do not add powdered sugar until they are fully thawed at room temperature so they don’t get gummy.
Hi Natasha! Could you please tell me how long these would stay soft and fresh tasting for? (presuming they don’t get eaten first) Also, do you think they’d fare okay being mailed? Thank you for sharing this recipe and thanks to Fisher for sponsoring.
Hi Amber, they stay great and soft up to 3 days if stored in an airtight container. I think they would do fine mailed as long as they are kept dry – I probably would not ship this to a very humid area because of the powdered sugar. I hope you love the cookies!
I’ve never tried rugelach cookies before. These look so good!
They’re so easy AND delicious! Please let me know what you think!
Great recipe, as always! I like your serving platter, where did you get it?
Thank you Rita 😬! I got the serving platter from Fiesta dinnerware. You can get it right here.
Hello, this seems too delicious. What is the substitute for Fisher brand walnuts..?
Hi there, if you wanted to make it not-free, you can omit the nuts.
yeah thanks!
My pleasure!
If I don’t have a dough hook can I just mix the dough with my hands or it turns out better with the dough hook ?
Hi Ruslana, it’s only easier with the mixer but you can absolutely mix by hand I would start mixing with a spatula or wooden spoon and then knead by hand for 5 minutes 🙂
These look so yummy. I just love your videos.
Thank you Laura 😀
These look so delicious, I want to make them but I was wondering if I can omit the cinnamon? Is it going to ruin the taste of them?
Cuz my family are not a big fan of cinnamon flavor.
Thank u in advance!
Tatyana, rugelach still taste great without cinnamon. Let me know how they turn out 😬
Oh, my mouth is watering!! I’m so going to have to make these very soon! Thanks for the recipe! 😀
You’re welcome! Please let me know what you think of the recipe Maria!
Natasha, these are absolutely amazing! I made these today and just had my first test try, and I absolutely love them! I’m taking the whole batch to work tomorrow in celebration of nurses week! I’m excited to see what everyone thinks! I will say though that I prefer the Rugelach cookie to be a little smaller than they turned out. I think next time, I’ll divide the dough into 6 or 7 sections. Thanks again for a great recipe!
You are very welcome Maria and than you again for such a nice review 😃
These are delicious. My mom or grandma make them all the time. But I think they are a little bit different. I think your next recipe should have to do with meat. Thanks for the recipes!
You’re very welcome! Is there a specific meat recipe you’re looking for?
I don’t have any specific recipe, but maybe I want a meat recipe because I really liked that homemade sausage video so maybe you should something like that
Duly noted! Thank you for the suggestion and I’m so glad you enjoyed the homemade sausage video! I feel so good about putting that out there. I know it’s not for everyone but It’s been on my list of things to make for a long time 🙂
Also, these turned out so good. They turned out a bit different than yours but they tasted great. Thanks for the recipes!
You’re welcome Elena! Thanks for sharing your great review!
I made these today and they were amazing!! I used demarara sugar in the filling, I assume the recipe meant to use white sugar but the demarara sugar worked nicely. Also, I mixed the ingredients for the filling by pulsing them in a Vitamix dry grains container, rather than using a food processor. Turned out really well. Thanks for the great recipe!
So nice, thank you for sharing that with us, Sarah!
Wow these look sooo good!! love it! I must make these this weekend!😊
They are delicious! Please let me know what you think Nina!
Natasha – this looks great, definitely on my list for this weekend! Question on the flour though: your previous rugelach recipe (Russian Rugelach i.e. Mom’s famous Rogaliki) specifically lists Canadian flour as the best option. How are these different that you recommend AP?
Oh great question and I’m glad you asked! I’ve done several tests with the all-purpose flour, modifying the measurements and sharing precisely how I measured the flour because the amount is important so you don’t end up with a dense cookie. Also, I changed the temperature and bake times to work better for all-purpose flour and the results were excellent! Mom approved! 🙂 I hope you love these 🙂