Rugelach: Definitely Not Croissants! 

🥐 What's the best Rugelach filling? 🥐 Thank you Surfshark for sponsoring this video! Go to surfshark.deals/ANDONG and enter promo code ANDONG for 85% off and 3 months free.

Andong, I'm sorry to have to tell you this but we're going to need you to make a second channel for your grandma's food reviews now.

the way your grandmother described the taste of the rugelach is by far the most beautiful thing I have heard all week. such a passionate and elaborate description!

Dont let alex see this video or else he will search every town in Eastern Europe to engineer the best recipe in a 10 part series

Your grandparents talking about food is some of the purest content one can find on RU-vid

Ah yes, the return of the perfectly accurate and not at all exaggerated subtitles for Andong's grandparents.

The first ones you got are labeled PARVE which means non dairy/ non meat. basically vegan pastaries. the artisnal ones were likely dairy, made with butter and real chocolate as opposed to date paste and margerine they use in parve ones

absolutely every video with your grandmother about traditional dishes is just great! 😃👍

Andong, the best rugelach in israel is a place called marzipan, it right outside the shuk in Jerusalem, I highly recommend you try it!! I also love when you do the Jewish dishes, especially as a Jew with background in multiple cultures from Europe and Africa food has always been the best way for me to connect especially with my Moroccan Jewish grandmother!!

You always know it's going to be a good video when it starts with Andong visiting his grandmother

Fun fact, the Italian world for croissant is “cornetto”, which also mean “little horn”

In Lebanon 🇱🇧 we have crossiant stuffed with cheese, pizza, and chocolate, kinder/Nutella and Za'atar. Those are the classic types. Ruglash looks very tasty. The smaller the more flavor. Your a food hero, you makes food better and can't wait to get my hands on your book. Love you soooo much! The good news is that the world is better than the past centuries, embracing new cultures and those stigmas and racism is not as it was before specially on us semetic descendants. Can you do more videos about middle Eastern/Levant or Jewish anything that features semetic origin. ❤️❤️❤️

When your Grandma said “it’s better than crack” I shot my drink out of my nose.😂

The way your grandmother described everything was genuinely incredible. The purest pleasure, in the simplest things. Genuinely hope I’m like that one day.

Loved this! My favorites in Israel are from Lechamim and Arcaffe. As mentioned before, make sure they are dairy and not parve ;)

I'm not a huge fan of Rugalach. But the one everyone usually raves about is in Jerusalem at a bakery called 'Marzipan Bakery'. They even ship them to the US now. The recipe is apparently a secret but I honestly think they introduced mahlab (cherry pits - it's Mediterranean ingredients) into their recipe. Love your stuff man.

Hi Andong, I tried following this recipe and the end result turned out amazing! But I did have some trouble with the filling. Do you think there might be a typo in your recipe? I had to almost double the amount of butter to even be able to fully incorporate that much (75g) cocoa powder and brown sugar. In the end I actually ended up with more filling than I needed, even though I used a fair bit more than in your video. So I'm just wondering if the amount of cocoa powder or brown sugar you have specified in the description might be off 🤔 Otherwise, amazing recipe. Will definitely be making this again 😀

Many bakeries in Singapore sell this, but a softer moister version, as mini chocolate croissant or something similar. Big brands like Four Leaves Breadtalk and Swee Heng all have them. Couldn't find online recipes for this pastry until now due to the false naming.

My grandmother spoke Yiddish and no bakery! She always made ruggelach from scratch. No chocolate, she made them with cream cheese, cinnamon, and raisins. My favorite pastries!

Cheskie’s in Montréal makes excellent ones: chocolate, cinnamon, jam. I used to take them for mini-babka but they’re not.

As an Israeli who's interested in middle Eastern culinary traditions, thank you from my heart for giving the legitimate value to Jewish cuisine in social media♥️ unfortunately I've been suffering from antisemitism and anti-israeli bullying for quite a while... You warm my heart♥️

The only 'correct' Rugallah is the one your own Grandmother made or still makes for you! Mine used walnuts and jelly as filling for a sort of miniature turnover, with an extra layer wrapping it, and she would send me a shoebox full of them each February for my birthday- I miss her dearly... Thank you, Grandma.😊💕

omg...blast from my past! I grew up in NY and this was my favorite treat to pick up from the local Jewish bakery or market. My favorite filling is chocolate, naturally, but apricot is very close second. I made them once and while still delicious, I had a really hard time with the filling leaking out and burning around the edges :/

Your grandma seems utterly lovely:)

When a grandma says "not too sweet!" you know it's good... and sweet! 😂😂😂

Chubby chews of delightful dough and filling! I used to buy these as snacks in college. I love Andong’s telling of the history behind it and the sweet visit to his grandma in Israel. Incredible!

privet from tel aviv. israeli style rugaelach are usually made with yeasted dough (the same one of the slightly more famous IL style yeast cake, or as american jews call it- babka), another peculiarity that distinguishes them from the polish rogaliki and similar pastries from eastern europe is that they are always covered with hot sugar syrup (an influence of middle eastern sweets like baklava, hence their stickiness). the spread usually used is the israeli version of nutella, called shahar. for tourists wandering in israel spotting rugalach across the street, just make sure you eat them warm- makes no sense to eat them cold. have a great 2023 bro

If you like Rogelach, wait till you taste Babka(/Kokosh) cake!! Difference is ratio dough to chocolate. Babka is more dough. Sane way you made Rogelach but cutting across length and twisting. Kokosh is more chocolate, thinner dough. Fire!

The second type of rugelach (the ones from Gal's) seem to be exactly the same as the cocoa buns called "kakaóscsiga" in Hungarian cuisine. I had no idea that these, too, might have been of Eastern European Jewish origin.

Never heard of Rugelach, but it looks delicious! What I also find very interesting: In my native Swabian a Rugel is a roll or rugla= to roll. I really enjoy finding these small etymological similarities. I also wonder if other German dialects also have these similarities with Yiddish.

The recipe mentions cocoa but Andong's definitely looks like dutch processed. It has a beautiful colour, would love to know the brand (though I probably can't even buy it in Australia anyway )

Wow, in Russian it is Rogalik which is very similar not only by meaning but also by sound. Rog - horn, lik - little.

There's a great bakery near my hometown owned by an Israeli family that makes rugelach just like these! Every American-Jewish bakery or deli I've been to, though, usually has the more rectangular, flaky (pie dough-like) ones filled with fruit (Helen Rennie has a video with a great example of these). Definitely a divergence of styles over time/geography, which is awesome to see!

I find this interesting to compare to what I've seen labeled as "rugelach" in the states, both from mass market stores and a few of my local Jewish bakeries. It's often still chocolate filled, but MANY other popular flavors exist (ex. Raspberry and cream cheese), and it tends to be more of a long skinny roll than a croissant or cinnamon roll (it looks kinda like a small jelly roll). Instead of being covered in a sugar syrup, it usually has big chunky pieces of sugar crystals or simple syrup and sugar crystals (though in this case the crystals are usually just for decoration). It's often confused with small strudel here because the dough is reminiscent of strudel or baklava. This is in the US North East and I live in an area with a very large Jewish community, but considering the seemingly pretty big differences between this and what you showed, I wonder how much of this is cultural drift. I also live in an area not too far from the Amish, so I'm wondering if maybe our rugelach had a bit more inspiration from something like German strudel (or at least the Amish version of it).

Your show is just absolutely phenomenal. You’re a cook and a food journalist.

I love your grandmother! Her description of what she was eating was marvelous!

For soup season, can you please make a video on Chanko Nabe (sumo stew)? I’ve always wanted to try it, but the only restaurant in Denver that served it went out of business. I know you’d make an amazing recipe for it because I could eat that Nikujaga with curry for every meal.

Welcome back! I definitely want to try this one. BTW, your grandmother is lovely. Tell her she has fans too.

Funny story, I knew rogaliks from early childhood, but got introduced to croissant in adolescence. And as I had it, thought "that's not how you make it, tf is this papier-mache?!"

I made them at home before (using a recipe for bread dough and filled with butter, sugar and cocoa powder) and they're AMAZING AF.

Based on Grandma's reaction, I have to make these. Every year I bake for Christmas and give stuff out to friends, neighbors, and sometimes family. These will probably be this years primary desserts.

From north east us, i love this stuff. At least how it's prepared back home.

Man, this is just the best pastry ever. You can change the density of the dough and have a more cookie like texture or have it this way,and it can be filled with anything.

For a moment, when I saw the ones bought at Gal´s I thought about my beloved Franzbrötchen... dang I miss'em...

There is a bakery called Marzipan in Jerusalem which is pretty famous for its rugelach. It is my favorite.

One thing about Pale of Settlement... The territory that would become the Pale of Settlement first began to enter Russian hands in 1772, with the First Partition of Poland. so Before the Pale of Settlement, these were the Kresy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with centuries of Jewish settlement.

Whelp. Made these today with my daughter (6 years old). They were a massive success.

Your Grandmother (with the subtitles courtesy of you) need a television show. Legitmately made me smile to see her enjoying this much!

Damn, I didn't know Jewish Poland created their own Croissant-like pastries! They look good, too.

I love the way your grandma describes the experience! She should be a food critic!

I'm from Moldova and my mom always made these, but with home made cheese and jams.

What set apart the ones purchased from Gal’s? I mean, other than laminated dough and caramel undertone? Can you expand? More chocolate? Better quality chocolate? Syrup, no syrup? Did the shape have an advantage? Was it fresher tasting? Spices?

I know a bakery in Jerusalem that makes incredibly wonderful rogalach. The next time you come to the city, I can take you on a gastronomic tour of Juwish cuisine, including dishes from Iraq, Yemen, and Poland/Ukraine.

Granny Andong (Grandong?) steals the show. Oh, and Rugelach seems very intriguing!

At least in the US, traditional rugelach dough is made with cream cheese.

Man, I’ve studied many years in Haifa and I was so excited to see you visit these familiar streets! Next time time you should travel even further to Marzipan bakery in Jerusalem who by bake the best Rugalach that I EVER tasted in my life

Beim nächsten Mal in Österreich, fahr Frühmorgens nach Mödling zur Bäckerei Kolm. Die haben zwar keine Rugelach aber einige der besten Backwaren weltweit ink. Zimtschnecken und Nohnkronen. Aber auch ihre normalen mütben Kipferl sind genisl.

One of the great regrets of my life is that I was not able to winkle out my great-aunt's recipe for rugalach. All I know is that she used full-fat cream cheese in the dough and her filling was sugar, cinnamon and finely chopped walnuts.

In my area of the world (Atlanta, GA: actually has a large population of Jews, and I have Yiddish ties as well), fruit still reigns supreme for rugelach. There's a grocery that I go to and always get their blueberry rugelach (apricot is good too) as well as Thai peppers and Thai basil for stir fry.

i was in Haifa a couple of years ago...i'm upset that i missed Gal's Bakery. however, at the bottom of Mt.Carmel there was a very nice rugelach at a bakery with a steel door. i miss the taste!

Man, the expressions of your thumbnails are priceless, you are gifted with that

WHERE THE HELL IS THE GUMMIES ANDONG?!!! It’s been weeks since you started that series and the anticipation is killing me 😫

Great to see you back in Israel. You need to note that most Rugelach are made without any milk products, for religious reasons. So no milk or butter. But I'm sure that for the homemade version they add a lot.

I just love how you always strive to make a better version of something when you see it has much more potential😋

I've just been watching a few of your videos. Enjoying enormously. But I couldn't figure out where you were from (obviously not of German extraction...). I fell upon this one and was amazed!!! I would never have guessed you were Jewish. And certainly NOT an ashki!! And seeing your Grandma made me understand how you so passionately enjoying your food - and describing it!!! Your trick on de-watering Mozzarella (elsewhere) will be serving me well this evening when I make my family pizza too. Well done!! I'm subscribing.. How about a quality Shawarma recipe?

That remarkingly similar to the Ost-Schweizer Hefenussgipfel with Citrus-Sugar glaze

I've been searching for these for a while. They are literally called "Chocolate croissants" in Spain, however, it is vastly overshadowed by actual croissants with chocolate so it was really hard to find how they are done without knowing their original name.

The video is amazing! I loved everything about regulach but I think you missed something shouldn’t be missed! Which is a dash of poppy seeds on top them on top of the egg wash before baking Everything else is perfect although I would go for a slightly different filling recipe

These are hugely popular in Polish bakeries in Australia!

Today on seniors say the darnedest things: ''This is better than crack'' LOL :P

Why does your description of Rugelach reminds me so much of Franzbrötchen but with chocolate?

The real challenge would be making the rugelach pareve and not use milk or butter. BTW, next time you're in the area, check out Marzipan's rugalach at the Machane Yehuda shuk. They are definitely divisive (some people LOOOOVE them, while others think they are only ok), but they also don't resemble any other rugelach I've ever had.

But wait, so what happens to the other half of the cocoa-spice-butter mixture? I want to know the rest of That story. lol Btw there's a bakery franchise in Hungary called "Princess" and they do sell pretty delicious rugelach but unfortunately under the name "chocolate croissant" if I remember correctly.

Please please please more chapters with this lovely grandma

I always avoid rugelach because I don't like the overloaded chocolaty taste. Cinnamon/dates rugelach sound great! I'll have to try making some at home, with your recipe.

What a sweet little lady. She's adorable.

Yess! "Rogaliki" as we call them in Poland

The filings recipe is not correct, i used 75each butter, cocoa powder and icing sugar, still it's not coming in liquid form, and the recipe here says only 50gm butter

Great videos! More Yiddish re-mixes please!!!

Ah, but does Grandma/Oma/Bushka approve of the new recipe? That is the real test, no?

Yes, I've heard of arugula. 🤓

Found your channel through Helen Rennie. You're fantastic. You make great videos and that's not easy. All your Ma and Grandma have to do is show up and be themselves. I'm a working man and when she said "You can taste the hands," I was moved and felt seen.

You can tell where andong got his love of food from 😂

Best ones in the UK are to be found at Kings Bakery in Temple Fortune. The other stuff they do isn’t too great, but blows all the other Rugelachs of Jewish North London out of the water.

man, I thought these would be poppy flower seed, I was so jacked up to finally run into recipe that makes that thing with poppy flour seeds... I guess I could look it up, but I really wanted to just run into it. I'm also annoyed you didn't at least tell us what they do in bakery that is too much for home made thing... oh, well. maybe this comment inspires you to do that poppy flower thing next. you know what I mean, it is ama-zing! it looks like some syrup with seeds, and is the only thing on pastry that is better than chocolate (I can't eat gluten, and there are no gluten free bakeries in my city, so unless I make these myself, I can't eat them, and I don't know how to make it, so, help me andong-one kenobi, you are my only hope!

Ich kaufe echt selten Kochbücher, aber Deins ist jetzt schon vorbestellt. Und die Sheng Jian Bao aus der Vorschau werden alsbald nachgemacht!

The problem with most pastries in Israel is that it's hard to get them freshly out of the oven cause', oh boy, when you get your hands on a fresh rugelach (let's say from Lehamim in Tel Aviv :D) it's real heaven!!

hmm, this reminds me of romanian cozonac... which is similar to a babka.

Love the pastry shopping and tasting! Made me remember the episode in St Petersburg with grandma and grandpa

Imma make this with black sesame paste, cinnamon, cloves, orange peel & honey

Cool video, from the chocolate swirls, it reminded me of the chocolate babka which I made from a recipe from Ottolenghi.

love seeing u visiting my city and telling me a story about another local food :)

You know a pastery is really good when a your grandma likes it

You can also buy them at Benedict's in Berlin. Much easier than baking them yourself!

So glad to see your grandma is not stuck in Russia now. Hugs, Andong.

Очень ламповая бабуля, здоровья и долгих лет!

The expensive one looks like the Hungarian, kakaós csiga aka "cocoa snail"

They sell them here in Berlin at Fine Bagels

NYC had the best ruggalach. And a Costco in the NY area (kosher bakeries) are a close 2nd. Chocolate, please.

Dude I live in Israel and I didnt know about Gal bakery!! I stayed in a hotel near it not long ago, wish I knew it then :) Great channel, love it!