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.
