A delicious recipe of Walnut and Rose Hip Jam Bars from Transylvania. The rose hip is the star of the recipe but plum, lingonberry or apricot jam works too.
I am very happy to finally be able to share with you a recipe that is the closest to my heart, the Walnut and Rose Hip Jam Bars. The recipe comes from my grandmother, Herta, who used to make it very often.
She made these bars using walnuts from the walnut tree that was growing in the back yard, and rose hip jam she was making from scratch.
My grandma is not around anymore, but the walnut tree that is over 100 years old is still alive…and the walnuts are delicious!
One of my favorite pictures of all times is this one, with the walnuts on the grass.
I know it doesn’t mean anything to you, but for me, that image is the same as my memories I have about the summers spent in that part of the world while growing up.
Anyway, this is a very German recipe, a very traditional one coming from the Saxons living in Transylvania, like my grandmother.
It took me a while to figure out the right recipe for these bars, as my grandmother did not write it down.
Another member of the family gave me the recipe but she was very vague with her instructions.
I think a lot of recipes were like that in the past. The recipes were handed down as oral tradition from grandmother to mother to daughter.
It was a pinch of this and a tablespoon of that, a handful of flour to make a dough and other incomplete instructions that only an experimented baker would be able to figure out today how to make the recipe.
The bars have three layers: a delicious shortbread crust, a layer of jam and a layer of walnuts, all baked to perfection.
I really encourage you to make the recipe with rose hip jam, so you can taste it as it was supposed to taste originally. However, feel free to swap out the rose hip jam for your favorite flavor if you cannot find that jam in particular.
Try to avoid anything too sweet – tart jams like cherry, plums, blackberry, raspberry or lingonberry work best. The bars are sweet, so they need a tart jam, for balance.
Sweet, tart and gooey, these bars are perfect for a weekend or as a gift to your favorite person. Impress your coworkers with these bars when you make them for a potluck.
HOW To Make these Walnut and Rose Hip Jam Bars:
First of all, the shortbread crust starts with butter and sugar mixed together.
The recipe also has sour cream, eggs and flour. The sour cream is a popular ingredient in many German/Hungarian recipes from Transylvania.
The crust is baked for 15 minutes by itself, before the jam is spread over the crust and a creamy walnuts mixture is poured over the jam.
The pan goes back to the oven for another 30 minutes. Let the pan cool on a rack, then cut the bars in squares and serve them.
These bars, if you keep them at room temperature, in an air tight container, can last for about 2 weeks. This is awesome, if you ask me, because you can bake them with some time in advance.
They are insanely decadent, rich and so good, that you will not be able to stop after only one piece. You can make the recipe for potlucks, picnics , holidays or any Sunday family meal.
Perfect with coffee. This is how my grandmother used to serve this dessert.
She used to bake something once or twice a week. Bars, cookies or tarts, it did not matter, it all depended on what ingredients she had available.
The baked goods were kept in the pantry and enjoyed during the week with a cup of coffee, in the afternoon, especially with friends or family who would stop for a short visit once in a while.
If you are curious about the recipe, I dare you to bake and tell me if you liked it. It is easy to make and very delicious. If you have a major sweet tooth, this dessert is for you.
Suggestions for more bars recipes:
Austrian Chocolate Cream Cheese Bars
Czech Bars With Jam and Walnuts
Walnut Cake With Egg Yolk Glaze
Enjoy!
Walnut and Rose Hip Jam Bars
Ingredients
- Crust:
- 1 2/3 cups/7.41oz/210g/ all-purpose flour
- 1/3cup/2.5oz/70g granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 10 tablespoons/5oz/140g unsalted cold butter cut in small cubes
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon sour cream
- Jam layer:
- 14oz/400g jam(You need a tart jam, not very sweet-rose hip, plum, lingonberry, apricot )
- Walnuts topping:
- 1 cup/7.4oz/210g granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- zest from one lemon
- 1 3/4 cups/8oz/210g ground walnuts
Instructions
Preheat oven at 350F.
Make the crust:
If you make the dough by hand:
In a bowl place flour, salt and sugar together. Add cubed cold butter and work it into the flour mixture with your fingers or a pastry tool until you obtain a sandy mixture.
Add egg and sour cream and knead them together until you obtain a dough. Continue with the recipe.
If you use a food processor:
In a food processor, place flour and sugar together.
Add butter and pulse 3-4 times or until you obtain a dough that has a sandy texture.
Add egg and sour cream and pulse few more times until you obtain a dough.
Shape the dough into a thick disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Lightly flour the dough and the table surface and roll the dough to the size of a 9x13 inch(23/33cm) baking pan.
Place the dough in the baking pan and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the walnuts topping:
Beat the eggs until frothy, then add the sugar and the zest of the lemon. Beat again until creamy.
Incorporate the ground walnuts.
Remove the dough from the oven and spread a layer of jam over it.
Then spread the walnut mixture over the jam.
Return the baking pan to the oven and continue baking for another 30 minutes.
When cool, cut in squares and serve. This bars should be kept room temperature in a dry, cool place(closed container). They last about 14 days.
Recommended Products
-
KitchenAid KHM512ER 5-Speed Ultra Power Hand Mixer, Empire Red -
Pyrex Basics 3 Quart Glass Oblong Baking Dish with Red Plastic Lid -13.2 INCH x 8.9inch x 2 inch
-
D'arbo All Natural Fruit Spread, Seedless Rosehip, 16 Ounce
-
FISHER Chef's Naturals Chopped Walnuts, No Preservatives, Non-GMO, 10 oz
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
24Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving:Calories: 231 Total Fat: 13g Trans Fat: 0g Cholesterol: 24mg Sodium: 59mg Carbohydrates: 27g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 16g Protein: 3g
Tamara says
Hi Gabriela,
Thank you for your blog which I just found the other day upon looking for cookies other than the Yugoslavian ones – vanilice – for rosehip jam, which I love (my Father is Bulgarian so I know it, but cannot seem to find the kind from Bulgaria only the one from Bosnia/Herzogovina which is much runnier than I remember its Bulgarian counterpart to be. This leads me to my question about the bars. I followed your measurements for the lemon juice, sugar, walnuts, and milk….however, I ended up in the end with a runnier mixture than I think I was supposed to have..also, I remembered that milk curdles with lemon so I wanted to ask you about that too….but the main thing I wanted to be sure of was whether my consistency was ok and if not, whether you had some tips for me…. once cooled down, the bars were pretty easy to cut and DELICIOUS! The first bars, though were cut when warm because I brought them to a friend and in the car the box slipped and well….the bars slid into one another and were not as nice-looking as when I cut them…so tonight before going to sleep, I wrapped the pan with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge in hopes of the topping “hardening” because I could still see the top move when I tilted the pan gently…Should I have put less than the 1/4 cup milk to make mixture less runny? What does the milk do anyways to the mixture? Is it more for flavour?
Nonetheless, the bars still cut well, so I can see the bar, jam, and walnut topping and when cooled, the toppings don’t topple off the bar, but I am thinking that the bars should be more solid?
Thank you , again, Gabriela!
Tamara from British Columbia, Canada 🙂
The Bossy Kitchen says
Hi Tamara, I put this recipe on the blog years ago when I did not know a lot of things. I have to revisit the recipe and correct it because you are right. Milk and lemon juice don’t belong together unless you want to make Farmer Cheese.:-)
Meanwhile, if you make the recipe again, do this: instead of milk, lemon juice and walnuts, mix together 210g granulated sugar, 210 g nuts, 4 eggs and zest from 1 lemon.Then, proceed with the recipe as I wrote it. My bars were soft too, but they set after few hours. However, I think the version with eggs is a better one. I hope this helps and thank you for writing to me.