Cream Cheese Spirals aka Rugelach

These little buggers are trouble. I don’t think you can eat just one- I know we couldn’t. Luckily, we brought these over to a friend’s house when we were watching the Giants vs Colts game on Sunday to share the wealth. (Seriously, what they hell happened guys? Giants have to step it up!)

You might be thinking ‘these look like rugelach’. Well you’re right! These basically are. I’m just calling them Cream Cheese Spirals since I don’t want someone looking at this saying ‘Rugelach has apricot jam in the filling’ or ‘this does not have enough sugar’ etc. Either way, both these and rugelach are amazing. I’m really glad that I made these because it opened my eyes to why I love rugelach… cream cheese and butter. I won’t be eating rugelach for a LONG time now.

I loved rolling these guys up into a cresent (roll) shape. But to be honest… next time (a long time from now) I will just divide the dough into 3-4 sections and roll them out into rectangles and make them into the logs to slice them. So you can skip the rolling out into a circle, trimming, and then reworking into trim parts into rectangles if you want. I totally give you permission. Do whatever it easy and enjoyable.

Cream Cheese Spirals

Using an electric mixer, cream together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla extract until soft. Add in the flour in batches and mix until a dough forms. Divide the dough in half and flatten into disks, wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Make the filling by combining the nuts, sugars, and cinnamon. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 375. Grease 2 cookie sheets.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Roll out each half into a thin circle and trim to 11 inches (about the size of a dinner plate). Reserve the remnants. Sprinkle some of the filling mixture onto the circle, press into the dough. Cut the circle into 4 sections, then 4 more, totaling 16 sections.  Roll the spirals from the widest point to the smallest.

Gently kneed the trimmed pieces to incorporate together. Roll out into a rectangle. Press the remaining filling mixture  into the dough. Roll the dough into a log and then slice.

Evenly place all spirals on a baking sheet. Bake until golden, 15-20 minutes.