1,000 Jewish Recipes (139 page)
Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
2
â
3
cup dark raisins
1 tablespoon rum or water
1 package active dry yeast
1
â
4
cup warm water (110°F)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, cut into 14 pieces, at room temperature
Syrup and topping
1
1
â
4
cups sugar
2 cups water
7 to 9 tablespoons rum or other spirits
1.
Put raisins in a small jar and add rum or water. Cover tightly and shake to combine. Let stand while making the dough.
2.
Sprinkle yeast over
1
â
4
cup warm water in a small bowl and add 1 teaspoon sugar. Let stand 10 minutes or until foamy. Sift the flour into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, then add 2 eggs, salt, and 1 tablespoon sugar. Mix at low speed until a few tablespoons of flour are drawn into egg mixture. Add yeast mixture and remaining 2 eggs. Mix at low speed, occasionally scraping down dough, about 10 minutes or until dough is soft and smooth. Beat at medium speed about 12 minutes or until dough is very smooth and most of it comes away from side of bowl. Dough will be soft and very sticky.
3.
Lightly oil a medium bowl and place dough in it. Put butter pieces in one layer on dough. Cover bowl with a slightly damp towel or plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a warm, draft-free place about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Transfer to clean mixer bowl. Beat in butter with dough hook at low speed, scraping down often, about 3 minutes or until blended. Drain raisins, reserving rum if using, and stir into dough, with a cutting and folding motion of wooden spoon.
4.
Generously butter 16 muffin cups. Add about 2 tablespoons dough to each cup. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm, draft-free place 20 minutes. Remove covering; let rise to top of molds, about 15 more minutes.
5.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Put a little water in any empty muffin cups. Bake babas about 12 minutes or until dough comes away from sides of pan, top is browned, and cake tester inserted into a cake comes out clean; test 2 or 3 to be sure. Unmold onto a rack and let cool completely.
6.
To make syrup: Heat sugar and water in a medium, heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring gently until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat.
7.
Set a cake rack above a rimmed tray. Lift one baba on a slotted skimmer or slotted spoon, dip it in hot syrup and leave a few seconds. Ladle syrup over baba several times until it is moist but not soggy. Roll baba quickly around in syrup to encourage it to absorb more syrup. Cake should absorb plenty of syrup so that no part of it remains dry. Lift cake using slotted spoon. Touch it to check that it is well moistened and softened; if there are any firm parts, ladle syrup over cake a few more times. Remove carefully with slotted spoon and set on prepared rack. Continue dipping babas. Reheat syrup occasionally. If any syrup remains, slowly spoon it over cakes. Drain cakes 30 minutes on rack.
8.
Prepare glaze. Then, put babas on plates or on tray with their tops facing down. A short time before serving, spoon 7 to 9 tablespoons rum very slowly over each baba, rolling cake so it absorbs rum evenly.
9.
Turn babas over and set on rack with their tops facing up. Heat glaze in a small saucepan until just beginning to bubble. Stir in reserved rum. Brush on all sides of cakes. Let stand about 10 minutes before serving.
Note:
If you don't have a dough hook, make the dough in a food processor: Put yeast mixture, 1 tablespoon sugar, and eggs in food processor; process about 5 seconds or until blended. Sift in flour and salt; process 30 seconds without stopping machine. If dough is not smooth, transfer to a medium bowl, lift dough up, and slap it down in bowl a few times to knead it. Let dough rise with butter pieces on top, as above. With a wooden spoon, stir butter into dough with a cutting and folding motion. Gently slap dough a few times in bowl to blend in butter completely. Continue with recipe.
The quintessential coffeecake,
kugelhopf
is a favorite among Alsatian Jews for Purim and is great for Shabbat morning too. It's a popular treat throughout Alsace. Made of an easy, yeast-leavened batter,
kugelhopf
is baked in a traditional fluted tube pan (also known as a
kugelhopf
pan) and has a lovely golden crust with an almond studded in each ridge. If you like, dust the whole cake with powdered sugar before serving it.
1
â
2
cup dark raisins
1
â
2
cup light raisins
3 tablespoons kirsch or cherry brandy
1 cup lukewarm milk (110°F)
2 (
1
â
4
-ounce) packages active dry yeast (about 2 tablespoons)
2
â
3
cup sugar
3
1
â
2
cups all-purpose flour
1
1
â
2
teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces, at room temperature
16 to 18 whole blanched almonds
Powdered sugar (optional)
1.
Put raisins in a small jar or bowl and add kirsch. Cover tightly; shake to mix. Let soak at least 4 hours or overnight in refrigerator.
2.
Pour
1
â
2
cup warm milk into a small bowl; sprinkle with yeast and
1
â
4
teaspoon sugar. Let stand 10 minutes or until foamy. Put
1
â
2
cup flour in a medium bowl. Add yeast mixture and
1
â
4
cup milk; stir to combine. A few lumps may remain. Cover with slightly damp towel or plastic wrap; let stand about 15 minutes.
3.
Spoon remaining 3 cups flour into a large bowl of an electric mixer; make a well in center of flour. Add salt, remaining sugar, and remaining
1
â
4
cup milk. With wooden spoon, mix ingredients in well briefly. Add eggs and 8 butter pieces to well. Using dough hook, mix at low speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until dough is smooth. Gradually beat in remaining butter, followed by yeast mixture. Beat on medium speed about 10 minutes or until dough is very smooth. Cover and set in a warm, draft-free place 30 minutes or until dough begins to rise but does not double in bulk.
4.
Generously butter a 9
1
â
2
à 4-inch kugelhopf mold, fluted tube pan, or bundt pan, taking care to butter tube and each ridge. Put 1 almond in base of each ridge. Stir raisins and kirsch into risen batter. Carefully transfer batter to pan, without moving almonds. Smooth top. Cover and let rise in warm place 40 minutes.
5.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Uncover dough and let rise about 20 minutes or until it nearly reaches top of pan. Bake kugelhopf in center of oven for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake about 45 minutes longer or until a cake tester inserted in cake comes out clean. If kugelhopf browns enough on top before it is done, cover it with foil.
6.
Cool in pan on a rack about 10 minutes. Invert cake onto rack; cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar, if using, just before serving.
Flavored with cinnamon and cloves, the red wine syrup in which these apples poach recalls the mulled wine that's often prepared for New Year's. You can serve the apples in their aromatic syrup warm or cold, on their own or as an accompaniment for unfrosted cakes. I like them for Purim, as a fruit dessert to serve before the hamantaschen. On Hanukkah they make a good partner for potato or sweet potato latkes.
3
â
4
cup sugar
3 cups dry red wine
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves
1 vanilla bean (optional)
1
1
â
4
pounds Golden Delicious, Pippin, or Granny Smith apples (4 medium), peeled, halved, and cored
1.
Combine sugar, wine, cinnamon stick, cloves, and vanilla bean, if using, in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring gently to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat.
2.
Cut each apple half in two. Return syrup to a boil and add apple quarters. Reduce heat to low. Cover with a lid that is a bit too small for saucepan, to keep apples submerged. Cook 15 to 20 minutes or until apples are very tender when pierced with point of a knife.
3.
With a slotted spoon, carefully transfer apples to a bowl. Simmer syrup uncovered over medium heat for about 5 minutes to thicken slightly. Pour over apples. Let apples cool in their syrup. Remove cloves before serving, but leave vanilla bean, if using, for a pretty presentation. Serve apples warm or cold.
Shabbat
Shabbat, the Sabbath, is the weekly holiday, taking place from sundown on Friday to nightfall on Saturday. It is a day of rest and no cooking is permitted. Shabbat is a festive day, for relaxing, enjoying good food, and visiting friends.
Shabbat is the high point of the week on the Jewish calendar. People save the best foods and new clothes for Shabbat. Preparation begins on Wednesday or Thursday, when shopping is done for the holiday. Many people also do preliminary food preparation such as baking cakes.
Because no cooking or turning on the stove is permitted after sunset on Friday and during Saturday, Jewish cooks throughout the ages have created special dishes for Shabbat. Foremost among them is a category of dishes called
cholent
in Yiddish or
hamin
in Hebrew. It is basically a casserole of meat, usually combined with beans, potatoes, or both, that is put in the oven before sunset on Friday, cooks in low heat overnight, and is served for lunch on Saturday. Cooks from the different Jewish communities prepare their own versions of this dish and it is the standard Shabbat main course in many homes. It is so popular that it also appears on the tables of people who do not observe the Shabbat rules.
Other hot foods for Shabbat are either kept warm or refrigerated and reheated, depending on the family's custom. Even if the food is reheated, the stove is not turned on during Sabbath; the food is set on a hot plate or in a low oven that was turned on before the holiday.
Meals for Shabbat are more festive than during the rest of the week, calling for the best dishes and flatware. The table is covered with a decorative tablecloth and adorned with fresh flowers and the Shabbat candles. Challah is the bread for Shabbat and is covered with a special cloth called a challah cover.
The two main Shabbat meals take place on Friday evening and on Saturday at midday. Appetizers are usually foods that are best served cold, such as marinated vegetables, chopped liver, or a cold fish dish. Roast chicken is a favorite main course, especially for the Friday night dinner. It is served with rice pilaf in Sephardic homes, noodle kugel in Ashkenazic ones, or with roasted potatoes in either. When I was growing up, my mother always baked a cake for Shabbat dessert, and often more than one so we could have a choice. Many people also indulge in cakes or pastries for Shabbat breakfast.
Late in the morning on Shabbat, there is often a light meal in the synagogue after services called a
kiddush
. This Hebrew word means a blessing over wine but its meaning is expanded to include snacks or a light meal served at the same time. Often there is herring, small gefilte fish balls, crackers, and honey cake. When I was growing up, the spread was a bit more substantial if someone was having a bar mitzvahâthe celebration of a boy's passage into adulthoodâincluding bagels, lox, cream cheese, tuna salads, molded fruit salads, and sheet cakes.