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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! 😉
I made a half-recipe these yesterday and they turned out great. The dough weighed in at 500 grams and I divided it into 3 parts so my circles were not as big as the ones you made with a full batch divided into 5 parts. The dough was wonderful to work with but after rolling out my first circle, I did sprinkle a bit (less than a tablespoon) of flour on my rolling mat for the other two circles. The circles were cut into 8 slices instead of 12. This gave me 24 cookies. To avoid potential pitfalls, I make a point of reading through the comments on your recipes before I start mine. To avoid the over-baking, I put my oven timer on for 10 minutes less than the recipe called for and monitored the baking until the cookies were just golden brown. It made a nice flaky crust. The texture was similar to what I used to make with my mother and left-over pie dough. We sprinkled cinnamon sugar on the scraps, rolled them up and baked them.
Thank you for sharing your insights and I love the idea of making cookies with leftover pie dough.
I did make them yesterday and they come up looking and tasting great. I did used marmalade from pitches it worked perfect.
That’s so great!
Hi Natasha! Quick question – my oven can’t pre-heat to lower than 175! How do you get it to 100 to let the dough rise??? I just put rogaliki in at the “keep food warm” option but I am not sure what temp it is … Ugh …
Hi Julia, the keep warm setting usually is 170 to 200 F depending on your oven. That will be far too warm for the dough and kill the yeast. My old oven didn’t go below 170, so I let it preheat to the lowest setting then propped the oven door open with a wooden spoon. If your oven has a temperature gauge, you can watch it go to 100 and then turn the oven off and put your stuff into the oven for proofing with the door completely shut. I hope this helps!
Hi Natasha,
I had a question. Do you think that I will be able to use dulce de leche with walnuts as the filling? And if so will the cookies come out soft as described?
Hello Emily that sounds delicious, however, I haven’t personally tried that yet to advise. If you do an experiment, please share with us how it goes.
Can you use different jam reserves for this recipe. Looks yummy. I just made strawberry and cranberry jam.
Hi Sandy, I haven’t tested that but one of our readers wrote: “I used orange marmalade and apricot jam for the filling. Thank you for the recipe.” I hope that helps!
Made the dough twice and both times did not turn out. Big disappointment. Going back to making with cream cheese.
Hi Donna, can you share any more details on what happened so I can help troubleshoot? The only thing I can recommend now is to make sure to measure ingredients correctly. Too much flour can cause baking to fail.
Very easy to make! Worked out perfectly. I like that they are not sweet and they make a lot.
Thanks for your good review, Karen!
I am a baker, but not so great with yeast. I only know how to make the Rugelach with cream cheese dough. I will try it. Thank you, Natasha, for all your delicious recipes. I am a big fan. Mannette Raines
I hope you love this recipe, Mannette!
DANKE, NATASHA! I made these tonight and I am over the moon! DELICIOUS!!
Glad you loved it, Christine! Thanks for your review.
Hi Natasha can you freeze these?
Hi Andrea, I haven’t tested freezing that but here is what one of our readers wrote “Made these awhile ago and my husband loved them – to save time wondering if I could devide dough and then roll out into rectangle place filling onto dough and roll them – like a cake roll and cut (instead of triangles) and they do freeze well.” I hope that helps.
My cookies never really puffed up during the rising time. After baking they turned out very dry and hard…not as fluffy as I thought they should be.
Any recommendations to improve my next batch???
Hi Natalie, If they ended up dry, it sounds like maybe they were over-baked? That is a common culprit.
I made these this morning. Out of this world. my friend always post your recipes. you make my day. In this recipe i mixed walnuts and pecans just had half the craisins and added raisins. this recipe is a keeper. thank you for sharing.
Hello Barb, so great to hear that. Thanks for sharing your good experience making this recipe!
Hi Natasha I love your recipes. I have a question instead of apricot jam can I substitute to marmalade.
Hi Rosemarie, I haven’t tested that but one of our readers wrote: “I used orange marmalade and apricot jam for the filling. Thank you for the recipe.” I hope that helps!
Hi Natasha,
Thanks again for another great recipe, I plan on making the apricot rugelach recipe this weekend for my guests. As I was reading through the recipe, I noticed you don’t use eggs, I wanna be sure because I will be making these for the first time and wanna get it right… let me know, thank you!
You’re most welcome, Lina. Yes, there are no eggs in this recipe. I hope you love it!
The combination of apricot with walnuts in the filling was delicious. However, the bottom of the pastry became hard due to the filling spilling out while baking. Next time, I will just use a little less filling and just coat the pastry. However, that is why I rated this recipe 4/5.
Thank you for sharing that feedback with me!
Helloo dear you are amazing you let us love cooking!! i will soon try some of your desserts for my baby’s 1st birthday party. just a question about this recipe. Can i use the same recipe to make chocolate or other ingredients croissant roll? Thank you lovely!
Hi Vana, I’m so glad you enjoyed that. I haven’t tested that with other flavors but I think it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
Could I brush some egg wash over this before baking? I don’t have any powdered sugar on hand and I want it to look nice
Hi Hanifa, I haven’t tested that but I think it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
I have loved, loved all your other recipes, but I think this one could use some adjustments. I personally prefer filling without the jam. I noticed that it really overpowered the dough. I would add sugar to the dough and also brush the tops with milk or egg wash before baking so they don’t get so dry.
Hi JP, If they ended up dry, it sounds like maybe they were over-baked? That is a common culprit. Also, you might enjoy are jam-filled rugelach better.
Natasha, I am wondering if you have developed a chocolate version of rugelach. I used to get chocolate ones at a bakery (they were heavenly!) and would love to make my own. I have had great results following your recipes and trust you!
Hi Teresa, I haven’t tested that but it may work. If you experiment please let me know how you like that.
Hi I was just wondering, my son is allergic to milk so I can not use butter, do you think I can substitute it for a cup of oil??
Hi Oksana, I really haven’t experimented with making this dairy free so I’m not sure. One of my readers reported using coconut oil but said hers didn’t rise as well, although there may have been other factors involved. It’s difficult to say for sure. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.
Thank you soo much for replying soo fast!!! I’m gonna try and hopefully it will work!!!
You’re welcome!
great gives me another perspective my MOM always made this ,filling was chunky peanut butter. an powdered sugar of course
That’s so great! Thank you for sharing that Joseph!