Years ago, Rugelach was pretty much a treat that Jewish people prepared and ate. It originated in the Eastern European Jewish community. There are many ways to make them and many recipes that are called "Rugelach". Rugelach also is made in many shapes and flavors but typically they are all formed to be the size of a cookie. A classic variety is the traditional crescent shape.
Cooking with sour cream is a Central European tradition with its roots in the Middle East. Cakes, pastries and cookies combining sour cream with fruits, jams, nuts and spices are specialties of this part of the world. According to food historians, contemporary Jewish-American Rugelach (frequently made with cream cheese) descends from this tradition.
These cookies are known by different names in different countries: Kipfel from Germany, Kifli from Yugolsavia and cream cheese cookies from the United States. Presumably, the first recipes for Rugelach-type pastries were introduced to America by immigrants from Hungary, Russia, Poland, Yugoslavia and other neighboring countries. Most of these immigrants were Jewish.
Basically crescent-shaped cookies that comes from the Yiddish word "rugel" (royal), they are also called Kipfel, cheese Bagelach, and cream-cheese horns of plenty in this country. Traditional Rugelach dough is usually rolled out into circles, cut into pie shapes, covered with nuts, raisins, sugar, and cinnamon and then rolled up like crescents. It can also be rolled out into a rectangle, covered with filling, rolled up, and cut into circles. The American addition to Rugelach was cream cheese and a variety fillings used today.
