Chocolate rugelach are one of my favorite pastries, and making it is so fun and creative. This is a different version for the classical chocolate rugelach – the dough is chocolatey and is filled with halva spread. If you like chocolate and halve – you’ll LOVE them!

Photo: Natalie Levin
Chocolate Rugelach with Halva Filling
For chocolate dough:
- 210 grams (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 40 grams (4 tbsp.) cocoa powder
- 5 grams (1 tsp.) active dry yeast
- 50 ml. (3 tbsp.) vegetable oil
- 50 grams (1/4 cup) sugar
- 1 large egg
- 90 ml. (1/3 cup) water or milk
- Pinch of salt
For the filling:
- 400 grams halva spread
For the syrup:
- 100 grams (1/2 cup) sugar
- 125 ml. (1/2 cup) water
- Chocolate dough: in a bowl of a mixer with a dough-hook put flour, cocoa, yeast, oil, sugar, eggs, water and salt and knead for about 10-13 minutes, until the dough is uniform and slightly sticky.
- Cover the bowl and let rise for about an hour or until it doubles in volume.
- Divide the dough into 2 parts
- On a floured work surface roll each part of the dough to a rectangle about 3-4 mm thick.
- Spread about 1/2 of halva spread in an even thin layer.
- For the rectangle (covering the spread) and rotate it.
- Gently roll the rectangle to make it a little thinner and cut into triangles.
- Roll each triangle into a crescent shape and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Repeat with the second part of the dough and the remaining filling.
- Cover and let rise for about 30-45 minutes or until almost double the volume.
- Preheat oven to 170c degrees.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until rugelach are set and fully baked.
- Cool completely at room temperature.
- Syrup: in a small saucepan put water and sugar and heat to a boil. Cook for 1-2 minutes after boiling.
- Brush the rugelach generously with syrup and serve.
- You can prepare the dough one day in advanced and allow rising in the refrigerator, tightly wrapped.
- You can fill the rugelach with any kind of filling you like.
- The rugelach are at its best on the day of baking.
- You can freeze the rugelach in a sealed bag for up to a month.