Tag Archives: Jewish pastries

Strawberry Rhubarb Rugelach

There are no shortage of Rugelach recipes recipes on this blog. Rugelach dough, rich with butter and cream cheese, is a great blank canvas. Then it’s time to have fun and create different flavour combos.

In 2016 I went wild with Cookie Butter Rugelach. The following year I baked Mindy Segal’s Cinnamon Brickle Rugelach. And last year fruit and nuts were featured in my Rhubarb-Raspberry Pistachio Rugelach.

This one starts with making your own strawberry rhubarb jam. Store-bought is fine, but if you have an extra 20 minutes, this jam is stellar. I discovered this recipe from Jake Cohen over at thefeedfeed. Sweet and tart with a little pop of acidity from rice wine vinegar, you will find yourself putting this s##t on everything.

This dough rolls out like a dream. No cracking or splitting. It’s like velvet.

Each little wedge gets rolled, starting at the fat end and ending at the point.

Brush with egg and bake.

While they are baking, crush some freeze dried strawberries into a fine powder and mix with granulated sugar. As soon as the rugelach are baked, spoon some strawberry sugar over the rugelach. Once they are cool, give them a second dusting. If you have never tried freeze dried berries, you must seek them out. Many natural/health food stores carry them, as do Trader Joes and Whole Foods. They are a concentrated punch of colour and flavour that will elevate any baked good.

Rhubarb Raspberry Pistachio Rugelach

When the adorable Molly wrote about Rugelach filled with rhubarb jam, she kind of blew my mind. First of all, I adore rhubarb. What a brilliant idea to stuff it into buttery flaky rugelach dough. Secondly, you can make jam out of rhubarb? How did I not know that?

As I read through Molly’s recipe, I was surprised by her addition of 2 eggs to the dough. Traditional rugelach dough does not contain eggs. I was curious to see what the addition of eggs would do to the dough.

Battle rugelach was on. I made two batches. The first used Molly’s dough, with eggs, and the second was my favourite rugelach dough from Mindy Segal, without eggs. I had a statistically significant sample group of 5 taste testers, (my family), and the decision was unanimous. While eggs play a vital role in many baking projects, they have no business cracking their way into rugelach dough. We all found that the texture of the dough with the eggs was far too tender and puffy. Plus, the eggy taste overwhelmed the tanginess of the cream cheese in the dough.

The second change I made was to add a few tablespoons of raspberry jam to the rhubarb jam. I liked the colour and taste of the combined filling better. I thought that rhubarb jam would be hard to find but several stores here in Ottawa carried the Bonne Maman brand.

I have used the slice and roll method for forming my rugelach. The delicate crescent shape is very pretty. Although the crescent shape is a bit more work, I prefer it to the roll and slice method, where the dough is rolled up jellyroll style and cut.

Check out my video to see how it all comes together.

Rich and nutty pistachios provide a great contrast to the tart raspberry-rhubarb filling. It’s a great flavour combo. These little cookies pack a big flavour punch.

Finished with a flurry of icing sugar, these rugelach are sure to become a favourite at your house.