Mini Crustless Quiches {Passover Recipe}

Crustless quiches sounded like a delicious addition to our Pesach repertoire!

With thanks to Mara over at Kosher on a Budget for the inspiration, here's what I came up with, after reading a whole lot of crustless quiche recipes:

Whisk together 6 eggs and about 1 cup of whole milk. Add about 1/2 a cup of Parmesan, some nice pepper and salt. Preheat oven to 350 and spray your mini-muffin tin (24 cups) with cooking spray.

Into each cup, put a little bit of vegetables* and a little bit of shredded cheese (I used cheddar) and then pour the egg mixture over them until they're all covered. You can pour all the way up to the top of the cups.

Bake for about 30 minutes until slightly brown on top and puffed up.

As soon as they come out of the oven, run a knife around the edge of each quiche and turn them out onto a wire rack to cool. We ate ours at room temperature but they're good hot, cold, or anywhere in between!

*I used frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed out, as well as some caramelized onions. I can see how almost anything would work here. Just don't overfill the cups.

A delicious addition to your Pesach food offerings!
What's your favorite Passover recipe?

Spinach-Banana Muffins {recipe}

So Sam needs a few extra leafy-greens.

They say that these are good for building up your blood production.
Which is exactly what Sam needs. I think.

Well, it never hurts to eat spinach, right?
Just ask Popeye.

Sam is a pretty good eater, he loves fruits and some vegetables. But he doesn't eat a lot of spinach or kale. So we're working on that. He'll eat spinach in a smoothie. But eventually that gets old...I hear kale chips are good. We'll try that next.

We had some great banana bread the other day, and I was about to make some more when I had the brain-flash to add spinach to it! Of course, I turned to Chef Google (sometimes confused with Rabbi Google or Dr. Google) and found this recipe, which I promptly adapted based on what I had in the house!

Spinach-Banana Build-Your-Blood-Count Muffins 
(adapted from Anja's Food4Thought)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup yogurt
a splash of lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon flax seed meal (ground flaxseed)
1 tablespoon almond butter
1/4 cup mashed banana (1 medium banana)
1 cup packed baby spinach leaves

Yields 6ish - I actually got 9

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line muffin tin.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a food processor, blend the spinach leaves until finely chopped. In another bowl, whisk together, sugar and egg until creamy. Stir in yogurt, lemon juice, cinnamon, flax, almond butter spinach and banana. Fill batter into prepared muffin tin. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Super-Green Muffins!

And they were a hit with the kid too!

Coca-Cola Cake {Recipe}

It sounds weird.
But then, intriguing.

It's one of those things.

I've never ever heard of anything like that but somehow it caught my fancy.

This is not one of those diet cakes.
Trust me.

But it is quite delicious. In a weird way.
It tastes like chocolate and Coke. Together.

Coca-Cola Cake
adapted from a hand-written recipe that reads almost exactly like this one

2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups small marshmallows
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup Coca-Cola (don't use diet, use regular)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons cocoa
6 tablespoons Coca-Cola
1 pound confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, whisk together sugar and flour. Add marshmallows. Set bowl aside.
In a saucepan, mix butter, oil, cocoa, and Coca-Cola. Bring to a boil and then pour over dry
ingredients. Blend well. Some of the marshmallows will melt and some will not. Add buttermilk, baking soda, eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into a well-greased 9x13 pan and bake 40 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and frost immediately (while hot) but let cool before eating.

Frosting: Combine butter, cocoa and Coca-Cola in a saucepan. Bring to aboil, remove from heat and then add the confectioners' sugar. Add vanilla extract and mix well! Spread over hot cake while the frosting is still warm.

Mmmm....very moist, good with vanilla ice cream.

Okay, it might not look like much.
But yum.

And in terms of ease...it was actually pretty simple. Because I didn't have to wait for the cake to cool in order to frost it, the whole project was accomplished in about an hour. To make it even easier, I didn't even have to wash out the saucepan in between the two different cooking steps. It worked out really well. I think it would make a good cake to prepare on Friday morning or afternoon for Shabbat dinner!

Matzah Meal Popovers {recipe}

1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 cup of oil
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cups matzah cake meal
7 eggs

Combine water and oil, bring to a boil. Remove from heat, stir in the dry ingredients until it pulls away from the sides of the pan. Allow to cool slightly. Beat in the eggs one at a time, until well blended. Allow to rest for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin pan, and fill the cups. Bake for 30-40 minutes until brown and puffy. Remove from oven and turn out onto a towel to cool. Serve warm with butter, or make sandwiches with tuna, or whatever you like!

Yum!

What's your favorite Passover recipe?

Using up the Chametz {recipe}

So it's that time of year when I'm using up the chametz.
And I am trying so hard not to buy any more.

So when Sam asked for French Toast, I was so excited to remember that I had a challah in the freezer just begging to be sliced up.

I love French Toast, but I just don't always have time to stand at the stove and flip the bread. (Um...4 kids!?) And many years ago, I discovered the overnight baked French Toast deliciousness. But sometimes, I don't plan ahead...and then I figured out how to make baked French Toast without the overnight part and...voila...French Toast is a basic, easy to make meal!

I adapted the recipe from here....

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons honey (I don't measure. I just squeeze it in the pan.)
2/3 cup orange juice (or milk if you don't have any)
4 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (who measures?)
1/4 teaspoon salt
glug of vanilla
6 (1/2- to 3/4-inch) thick slices of Challah

Heat oven to 375.
Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray and then put butter and honey into then pan. Heat in oven until butter melts and honey is bubbling, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and stir well.
While it's heating, in a large wide pan, whisk together juice, eggs, spices, and salt. Dip bread in, turning it once to coat it well, let it soak about 2 minutes per side, then carefully set each piece of bread into the honey-buttered pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until well-browned. Before serving, flip over each piece so the honey-butter side is up.

It smells and tastes amazing.

What do you do to use up the chametz in your house?

Looking for #BlogExodus? Check it out over here.

Birthday Menu

Someone had a birthday today.
That same someone has been talking about her upcoming birthday for....well....months.
And planning.
We've regularly read Henry and Mudge and the Best Day of All - and each time, Yael has reminded me that she wants a birthday breakfast "just like that."

So this morning, she reminded me again.

As we prepared to make the pancakes, she said, "wait! I have to go get the MENU!"

She ran to get the book....
I checked to make sure that, although not in the picture, coffee was an acceptable part of the breakfast menu (phew, it was) and then I set out to make the pancakes.

I used this recipe, since it is quick and easy. Thanks to my pal FrumeSarah for introducing it to me!

One Cup Pancakes (adapted from Jamie Oliver)
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
glug of vanilla

Mix it all together, let it rest for a little bit, and then cook like pancakes.

Serve, according to The Best Day of All, with butter, syrup, and strawberries.
It causes happy sticky faces.

 

Happy birthday to my girl!
Other birthday posts coming soon...

#TuBishvat Green Smoothie & Date-Fig Bars

In honor of Tu BiShvat we had green smoothies...

Simple recipe - bananas, milk, a little chocolate syrup (mostly because they were watching and insisted) and a little whipped cream on top (because, of course, it's a holiday!)

I can't believe that my oldest, who won't ever eat a vegetable, drank this smoothie.

And an easy way to celebrate the greenest of green holiday!

(We had these smoothies on Erev Tu Bishvat and we're going to make them again for the big day...okay, it might become a regular thing.)

We also had delicious date-fig bars.

Adapted from King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion's Bakery Date Squares

Date-Fig Bars:

Filling:
3 cups of chopped dates and figs *the original called for only dates, and had a variant filling recipe using figs and orange juice, but I just mixed up dates and figs for that Tu Bishvat flavor!
1 cup of water
1/4 tsp salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla

In a saucepan, combine the stuff, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 5 minutes. The mixture will thicken after a few minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. I ran the immersion blender through it to give it a nice smooth texture and let it sit for a while.

Crust:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Whisk together the dry ingredients (except the nuts) and then add the melted butter. Stir until well combined.

Lightly grease a 9x9 inch pan and press 2 1/2 cups of the crust mixture into the pan, smoothing it out to fill the bottom with no gaps. Spread the filling on the crust. Add the nuts to the remaining crust mixture and sprinkle it over the filling.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, until golden brown. Let cool before cutting.


What treats will you have (or did you have) for Tu BiShvat?

Kiwi Bread?

Me: So, guys, I got a new oven. What should we bake to test it out?
Sam: Kiwi bread! 
Me: Um...what's kiwi bread?
Sam: You know, kiwi bread! It's so yummy. Make kiwi bread.
Me: Yeah, that doesn't help much...do you know what kiwi is?
Sam: Yes, it's green.
Me: {totally puzzled}
Sam, after a few minutes of thought: OH! I mean ZUCCHINI bread! 

Right.

I couldn't find the recipe that I know I've used in the distant past (um, at least a year ago...how does he remember these things?) so I turned to Smitten Kitchen. Her recipes are always winners. This one was no different. Definitely a keeper.

(I left out the nuts and raisins. My kids are purists.)

The only edit I made was to coat the inside of the pan, after greasing, with cinnamon sugar. Which just makes it even better.

Delicious.

Now, does anyone have a recipe for Kiwi Bread?

The BEST Kind of Leftovers

I have blogged before many times on my feelings about Halloween. I'm just not that into it.

But I do like candy. And I consider the candy "leftovers" to be quite a treat.

So this year we immediately (um, on Monday night) used up a good chunk of candy in these cookies which are totally misnamed.

Compost Cookies...which should be called Manna from Heaven.

They're a recipe from some famous place in New York City. Seriously, they are amazing. Every cookie should have potato chips and candy in it.

Plus, my oldest child (who got a haircut, by the way) has become a big fan of the baking experience.
Look how nicely he used that knife to cut up all the candy we used! This is a great recipe to make with kids because of the candy selection, unwrapping, and also the crushing of potato chips....

In case you're wondering about the other aspects of Halloween, yes, we did those too. You can't go wrong with this cute face:

If you like recipes and talking about food (which apparently, I do lately), check out this month's Kosher Cooking Carnival, a monthly round up of food posts in the Jewish world.

I'm participating in NaBloPoMo...are you?

Bubbling Over

Do your kids like to blow bubbles? Mine do.

They love to chase the bubbles around, try to catch them and pop them.

There's something a little bit meditative about blowing bubbles, watching them grow and change and float away.

And sometimes they don't work out quite right...they might pop in your face.

But when you're blowing bubbles, you've got to remember to breathe.
And that's important.

I made a big batch of bubble juice (as my kids call it), from a recipe I found at Real Moms Guide:

10 Cups water
1 Cup eco-friendly dish soap (I used the Mrs. Meyer’s soap)
4 Tablespoons light corn syrup
Directions:
Stir well and let set over night.


We refilled old bubble containers so we had the wands all ready.

Making Bourekas

I somehow got it in my mind that I wanted to make Bourekas for Shavuot. One of my favorite Israeli treats, a boureka is a flaky pastry stuffed with...cheese, potatoes, tuna...etc. I found a recipe online and it went something like this:

You need:
1 egg, lightly beaten
8 ounces (1 3/4 cups or 225 grams) cups shredded mozzarella cheese
salt, pepper, your favorite seasonings
(chopped leeks - which I added into half the bourekas, because I had one leek from my vegetable delivery)
1  package frozen puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, mix the egg, cheese and spices (and leeks)

3. Divide puff pastry into 5 inch squares. Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling in each square. Dampen the edges of the squares with water, and fold in half diagonally to form triangular pastries. Pinch the edges together to seal the filling inside.*

*Working with the puff pastry was super easy. I defrosted it overnight, and then when I was ready to use it, I spread it out onto a lightly floured surface, cut each piece into quarters (so I ended up making 8 bourekas), and made the pastries. So easy I did it with one hand - held the baby with the other hand!)
4. Brush tops of borekas with beaten egg.

5. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden.

Serve with salad - super duper yummy. I have one more package of puff pastry left in my freezer, can't wait to make them again. Next time I'm trying a potato filling...or a potato and cheese filling...or mushroom and spinach...or....yum.

Puffy Pancake {How To}

I have a friend who doesn't cook. She claims that she can mess anything up. Her son spent the night at my house and I fed him this delicious Ima family favorite. I promised her that she could do it and she laughed at me. So, for my dear friend, here is a picture tutorial of how to make this recipe.

Easy-peasy, I promise.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees:

 While the oven is preheating, put about 2 tablespoons of butter into a 9x13 glass pan, and put that into the oven.

 Assemble your ingredients - 6 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour, and 1/2 tsp of salt.

 Make a pot of coffee to drink while you're making this. Oh wait, that's just me. My friend doesn't drink coffee :-)

Put all those ingredients into the blender. Crack the eggs before you put them in. No shells. Make sure the lid is on the blender before you start it up. Trust me on this one.

 Blend everything until it's nice and mixed up, a little frothy, and looks like this:

 Once the oven is preheated and the butter is melted and bubbly, take it out of the oven. Swirl the pan so the butter covers the bottom. Pour the blended mixture into the pan. Note my mad photographic skills that I poured and took a picture at the same time.

 Set the timer for 20 minutes. This is important if you don't have a personal internal timer.

 Take it out of the oven when it looks like this:

 Sprinkle with powdered sugar...also good with syrup, jam, or even nutella.

See? Easy-peasy. My kids love this for dinner and leftovers reheat well. If there are any leftovers, that is.
In fact, this is dinner tonight!

No Pain, No Gain

I'll bet you're guessing that this title has to do with exercising.

You'd be wrong.

In fact, it has to do with the fact that what appears to be a fiddly, overly-complicated recipe is actually worth the time and effort.

Today, this month's Family Fun magazine showed up at my door. A friend was visiting, and we paged through it. She noted that "Chocolate Surprise Cookies" sounded good, so I said...let's bake! This was before reading the recipe, which was too bad, since she didn't actually get to taste the final product (too many steps taking too much time before she had to leave.)

It was really too bad.

Because these were totally worth all the steps.

I can't find the Family Fun version of the recipe anywhere online, but I see that Nosh With Me has a similar one posted on her website. Here's the one that I made, adapted from the Family Fun magazine:

Chocolate Surprise Cookies
Makes 20 - which is actually accurate

2 cups flour
1 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk (I used the 1% that we have in the house. The recipe called for whole milk. I can't imagine how it could matter.)
2 tsp vanilla extract
10 marshmallows, cut in half

Heat oven to 350. Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder. Set aside.

Using a mixer on medium high speed, cream the butter and sugar for about 3 minutes. Add egg and beat for another minute. Combine milk and vanilla. Turn the mixer to low and add half the milk. Then slowly add half the flour mixture, then the remaining milk mixture, and then the remaining flour. Mix until well-blended.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Scoop out 2-tablespoon size balls, drop them onto the sheet. I did about 6 per sheet, leaving about 3 inches between them. They don't spread much. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, top each one with half a marshmallow, cut side down, pressing it into the dough. Bake for an additional 4 minutes, then cool on a rack.

See what I mean? Not so much spreading. Could have fit more on the sheet, I guess.

Then make icing:
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup sour cream (I used reduced fat, because that's what I had)

Whisk together the sugar and cocoa powder, then stir in the sour cream until smooth. It seems like it won't work, but it does, trust me. Then top the cookies with the icing so the marshmallow is totally covered. Set for about 1 hour and then eat. With a huge glass of milk.

It makes a ton of icing but trust me, you'll want all the icing. The cookies are not really worth eating without the icing.

  

 Delicious!

 I'm now glad that we made them, but in the middle I was wishing I had read the recipe more carefully before deciding so quickly to make them! I have a feeling they're going to be requested again soon by my children.... What's your favorite fiddly-but-worth-it recipe?

When I'm a Bubbie...

This week's Haveil Havalim is over here.

My Bubbie is almost 95 years old. She doesn't bake any more, but when she did, she had some great recipes, like carrot cake and mandelbrot. The other great thing that she made, possibly the greatest of them all, was her coffee cake. She made a yeast dough cake that was similar to "monkey bread" - each piece was rolled in cinnamon-sugar and (sometimes, when I was lucky) nuts, and then squished together to make a pull-apart cake. Truly spectacular. So good that my parents shlepped some to me in Israel, so good that I'm pretty sure they shlepped some to Cincinnati when my first child was born, so good that I remember digging into one on a plane ride with my aunt when I was 8 years old.

So good that I've never ever ever tried to make it.

Plus, the recipe calls for scalded milk, which scares me.

So I had a bit of a yen for coffee cake. Something cinnamony and cakey and delicious.
And I did NOT have a yen to deal with yeast dough.

So I went to my trusty King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion, which always comes through for me with the best recipes and I picked out the Classic Cinnamon-Nut Coffee Ring to make on Sunday morning.

I was NOT disappointed.

Recipe, slightly modified by me:

Cake
5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces) butter
1/3 cup (2 3/8 ounces) vegetable oil
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups (9 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream (I used vanilla yogurt, because that’s what I had)

Filling
1/2 cup (2 ounces) chopped walnuts or pecans (didn’t feel like dealing with children who say silly things like “I don’t like nuts” when they’re just crazy.)
1/2 cup (3 ounces) chocolate chips (I really didn’t want the chocolate to mess with my cinnamony goodness)
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
For the cake
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter, oil, and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the salt and flavorings and beat until evenly incorporated.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. (If you let your kids do this part, note that they should keep their little fingers out of the mixture, ok?) Add the flour mixture to the butter-egg mixture alternately with the yogurt, mixing on slow speed just until blended. 

For the filling
In a small mixing bowl, combine the nuts, chocolate chips, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter.

Spoon half of the cake batter into a lightly greased 9- or 10-inch tube or bundt-style pan. Smooth the batter to level it and sprinkle on two thirds of the all of the filling. Top with the remaining batter and sprinkle with the remaining filling.

Bake the cake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. The smaller (9-inch) pan will take the longer time to bake. (By the way, my 10-inch pan took almost 55 minutes too.) Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack. Cool it completely, then sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar before serving, if desired.

Why should you put all the filling in the middle? Read the directions very carefully. It says to put the rest on the top, and then you flip it OUT of the pan. Guess where most of that cinnamony-goodness ended up? Yep, on my counter top. Under the wire rack conveniently placed there. Nonsense. I am not going to waste all that deliciousness again. See how in this picture (above) it appears that there's some sprinkly stuff on top? That was me trying to save some of that fallen-off cinnamony-goodness. {{{Sigh}}} Live and learn.


Huge hit.

I think that when I'm a Bubbie (God willing), this is the cake that I'm going to make for my grandchildren. It's that good.

Chocolate Crunch Bars

I like to bake, and I've discovered that the Hebrew School teachers are a great audience for whatever I want to make. This is useful, because the baked goods don't sit around my house being eaten by, um, ME.

So I made a banana bread for the last day of Hebrew School, but that didn't seem decadent enough to celebrate the end. I wanted something else, something that looked gooey and delicious....I paged through my favorite cookbook and discovered this recipe. Notes and any changes mine.

Sinfully Rich Chocolate Crunch Bars (Adapted from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion)

Crust
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup light corn syrup (interestingly enough, this is an item that I keep on hand. Why? No clue.)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping
2 cups chocolate chips
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening (I used butter because I couldn't find any shortening in the house)
2/3 cup chopped nuts (I was in a hurry so I put the walnuts into a bag and beat on them with a rolling pin. This works!)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 10x15 inch jelly roll pan. (I don't have a 10x15 inch pan. I have a 10x14 inch pan. I actually took out my measuring tape and measured because I wasn't sure. I used the slightly smaller pan and it seemed okay but if you have the extra inch, it would be better.) Do not spend 15 minutes trying to decide if your pan is the right size. Just get over it. Trust me on this one.

In a medium-sized large mixing bowl (trust me), stir together the oats, sugar, butter, corn syrup, vanilla and salt. Press into the prepared pan. Possibly the coolest tip: use the greased bottom of a loaf pan (which fit perfectly in my 10 inch pan, by the way) to press it down evenly. That's a tip from the cookbook, which is partly why I love this cook book. Bake for 10-14 minutes. It will bubble up a little, that's okay. Err on the side of more baking, rather than less. Especially if your pan is one inch too small. Trust me on this one too. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Make the topping: melt the chocolate chips and shortening (or butter) in the microwave (or stove) and stir until smooth. Spread evenly over the crust, sprinkle on the nuts. Cover loosely (I used plastic wrap and it was fine, but a little messy.) and refrigerate until firm. I bet you could speed this up in the freezer but I did it overnight.

Cut into squares. It was very sticky. I cut long strips and then removed the strips to a cutting board to make small bite-sized pieces. 

I forgot to take a picture, so after the teachers had some, I remembered and used my blackberry to snap this shot. (Do you like my pink container? It has a handle - perfect for carrying baked goods...)

These were a big hit with the teachers and other friends - and they were pretty easy! Sticky and chewy and chocolatey....mmmm....

I know I'm too late for this month's edition of the Kosher Cooking Carnival, but you can check it out here...

When the Weather is Frightful - Bake Cookies!

The 50th Kosher Cooking Carnival is up over at Me-Ander - go see lots of great food posts!

It's been really cold outside.

This is not a weather-rant post.

It's been really cold outside, and that gives me a yen to bake.

(Okay, some people would agree that perhaps I don't need an excuse.)

When my Vegetarian Times came last week, one recipe jumped out at me. I don't know why, but I had a desire to bake "Iced Oatmeal Cookies." Perhaps because the description said this: "To keep the icing for these chewy morsels from cracking, spread it on while the cookies are still hot."

Chewy Morsels?! Seriously!? I'm sold.

Iced Oatmeal Cookies
Slightly Adapted from Vegetarian Times

2 Tbs flaxseed meal
1 cup oat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs butter, softened (the original recipe called for vegan margarine)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries (I used cranberries. But I think I'll like them EVEN better with raisins)

for icing: 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, 2 Tbs lemon juice

Stir together flaxseed meal and 3 Tbs water in small bowl. Set aside. Whisk together oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

Beat butter, and sugars together with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add applesauce, vanilla, and flaxseed mixture. Beat until smooth. Stir in oat flour mixture. Add oats and raisins, stir to combine. Cover and chill 2 hours (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment. Roll the dough into golf-ball size rounds and put them 1 1/2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Flatten each cookie to 1/4 inch thickness with bottom of a drinking glass dipped in water. Bake 10-12 minutes or until cookies look dry on top and just begin to brown.

While they're baking, make the icing: whisk together the sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth - it will be thick but spreadable. Gently brush on hot cookies with pastry brush. Cool 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Eat 'em warm, they're amazing.
Actually, eat them cooled and they're amazing too.

You can't eat just one! So delicious.

P.S. If you can get gluten-free oats, you can make your own oat flour by whizzing them in the blender. Then you can make this recipe gluten-free. If you're so inclined...or if you have a gluten-free lurker on your blog....

My Inner Bubbie: Mandelbrot

One of the things that my Bubbie made all the time was mandelbrot. If you're not familiar with this cookie, it's basically a Jewish biscotti.

Confession: I'm not a huge fan.

I mean, I like them and all. But they're not my favorite. Too crunchy, too crumbly. Good, but not life-changing.

Confession #2: Not only have I never made them before, I have never seen anyone make them before.

Yep, never followed Bubbie around the kitchen for these puppies. I have perfected her carrot cake, so you can see where my priorities lie.

So when a request was made for mandelbrot, I had to go back to the source. I called my mom, who has both of my Bubbies' recipes (both are, thank God, still living, but neither one bakes any more...in their mid-90s, both of them!)...and she scanned them in for me.

Bubbie Rose:

Bubbie Raye:

Both clearly well-worn and well-used recipe cards. What the heck is Spry? Turns out, it's like Crisco.

So, without any Spry, I knew that oil would be my fat of choice. Then I opened every single Jewish cookbook I own (I think there are about 10), enlisted my mom and my mother-in-law in their recollection of mandelbrot baking, and even made a phone call to Bubbie Rose while baking. I knew she'd kvell that I was making mandelbrot, and I figured it didn't hurt to question an expert...

So here's the recipe I adapted from a conglomeration of sources:

Traditional (?) Mandelbrot

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup canola oil
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts lightly toasted
3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together eggs, sugar, oil, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Add 3 cups of flour and stir with a wooden spoon. (Okay, Bubbie said "use a wooden spoon, or whatever you want to mix it.) Add more flour if you think it's too sticky. If you never made it before, don't add any extra flour because it's probably fine.

Add the chopped nuts, and stir them in.

On a cookie sheet lined with parchment (or greased, but I'm a parchment gal), shape into logs. I think mine were a little too wide.

Bake for about 22 minutes. (The logs above are actually cooked, it's hard to tell.)
Remove from oven, and while hot, slice the logs, like so:
(According to my dad AND my mom, this is the time to "snitch" one off the cookie sheet. I agree. They're really good soft and hot.)

Turn the slices on their sides. Some people sprinkle here with cinnamon and sugar. Bubbie said "I never did that but I know that other people like to." When I questioned her about chocolate chips, she said: "Well, I don't like all that extra stuff in there. But some people like to." She's very open to alternative ideas, my bubbie. Bake for another 15-20 minutes or until they're crunchy and brown.

And there you have your mandelbrot. Mine didn't last long, I brought them in for the Hebrew School teachers. They were well-received. They did not taste like Bubbie's as I recall them...maybe I'll have to try out some Spry.

I plan to make them again this week with my mom, so she can lend a more practiced eye. I think I would chop the nuts more finely, but others said that they liked that there was a bite to the nuts. This experience opened me up to a lot of things I've never made, let alone watched anyone else make. For example, I've never made rugelach, or teigelach, or even keneidlach. I've seen kreplach made, but never done it myself. What other great old Jewish foods are out there that I don't know how to make? I'm a hamantashen maven. So...now I'm going to learn. Rugelach are next in the new series here at Ima on and off the Bima... "My Inner Bubbie." Stay tuned!

By the way, I heard that Creative Jewish Mom was hosting a link-up party for Jewish crafts and recipes today (tomorrow?) so I might update with a link over to that.

Bread with Soup....Delicious AND green

I always think it's more "green" to make something yourself. Think you can't make bread? Here's the super-easiest-quickest bread to throw in the oven while soup is simmering on the stove. And delicious!

Beer Bread

(From an old issue of Women's Health magazine)

3 cups self-rising flour (I have read that you can substitute 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt to one cup all-purpose flour if you don't have self-rising flour. But it's an easy thing to keep on hand.)

2 Tbsp sugar

1 can (12 oz) light beer at room temperature (I usually have bottled beer, I usually don't have light beer, and I don't always remember to get it at room temperature. It works.)

1 egg + 1 Tbsp water, beaten (last time, I doubled the recipe but I didn't double this part and it worked fine)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a bread-loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar and beer. Pour into pan. Let sit until doubled in size, about 15 minutes.

Brush the top with egg mixture.

Bake for one hour or until you believe it's done.

Cool if you can wait.

If you make it with light beer, it's pretty low-cal.

Sounds good, doesn't it? Went great with vegetable soup!

Delicious Dinner for Me!!!

Early last year, I read The Six O'Clock Scramble, by Aviva Goldfarb. (I figure if I take the cookbook to read in bed, it counts as a book I read.) It's got a whole lot of great recipes, many of them vegetarian or adaptable to vegetarian. Truthfully, I didn't make any of the recipes. Truthfully, I took the book out of the library and marked a few recipes down that I wanted to try. And I never did.

As I was trying to think of what to make for dinner tonight, I found the pile of recipes that I've been jotting down, saving, etc. In there was this recipe for Chickpea Tomato Stew, which sounded just about right for dinner. Oh my goodness, it was wonderful....so here I share it with you, with my comments/modifications.




CHICKPEA TOMATO STEW
(adapted from Aviva Goldfarb)
Prep + Cook = 25 minutes
6 servings (okay, I'm not sure that it's really six. I think maybe 3-4 nice hearty servings.)

Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 onion and 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped I used almost a whole onion, not so finely chopped, and two big tablespoons of minced garlic from a jar that I keep handily in my fridge.
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin (which I almost lost while making the recipe and helping with homework. I set it down near the math-doing child. Then spent 10 minutes looking for it and trying to decide if I could make the recipe without it because how did I suddenly run out of cumin. Then I found it.)
• 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, drained
• 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes The can I used had chili peppers in it, I think.
• 1 cup prepared pasta sauce or tomato sauce I used Newman's Own Sockarooni which added quite a kick.
• sour cream for serving
• handful of fresh mint and/or fresh oregano for garnish (optional) I mean, you can, but I didn't bother.

In a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute them until they start to sizzle. Add the curry powder and cumin and cook the onions, stirring, for 1 more minute. Add the chickpeas, tomatoes, and pasta sauce or tomato sauce and simmer the stew for about 10 minutes. (During this time, run around looking for the cumin you misplaced.)

Serve it over couscous or rice, topped with a spoonful of sour cream. I used rice.

It was so darn good, I could have eaten the whole pan. Which would have, of course, defeated the purpose of the whole healthy-eating thing.

The kids ate pasta with the rest of the sockarooni sauce. No accounting for taste.

Here it is all set up in a re-usable container for tomorrow's lunch. Rice on the bottom. Sour cream in a little container to take with....yay!

 By the way, the Kosher Cooking Carnival is up over here at kosher.com and I'll be hosting KCC in the near future (yay me!)...

Oh, and if you're interested in food these days, check out FrumeSarah, she's giving installments on her experiences at the Hazon Food Conference!