What Jewish cookie is a rolled pastry filled with jam or nuts?

The Jewish cookie that is a rolled pastry filled with jam or nuts is rugelach. It originated in Ashkenazi Jewish communities in Poland and became popular throughout the Jewish diaspora, especially in Israel and North America.

Traditional rugelach are made by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling so the finished pastry resembles a crescent. Fillings can include fruit preserves, walnuts, raisins, cinnamon, chocolate, poppy seeds, or marzipan. The dough may be made with sour cream or cream cheese, although older yeast-leavened and sour-cream versions also exist.

Another style is rolled more like a strudel or nut roll, then sliced into individual pieces before baking. This helps explain why rugelach can look either crescent-shaped or spiral-like depending on the bakery or recipe.

Rugelach is sometimes confused with hamantaschen, another Jewish pastry. Hamantaschen are usually triangular pastries with a central filling, while rugelach are rolled around their filling. The word rugelach is generally connected with Yiddish and Polish terms associated with twists, corners, or horns.