Greenstein's Bakery

Ghraybeh cookies - deceptively simple, not so easy to master.

2012-01-22T23:04:00.001-05:00

ב''ה

These naughty little sephardic tidbits are deceptively simple. With 4 ingredients, (sugar, flour, butter, pistachios - and I added lemon oil) they are one of THE most difficult doughs to work with

First, crack, blanch and de-skin pistachios.

'Omi Girl' was with me for moral support.

'Geula' parchment paper has some pretty unique features. I am not sure what "No scrab cleanup" is, nor why that cleanup would move from the freezer to oven and then to the microwave. However, it sounds pretty nifty and I am sure it will come in handy one of these days. However, this particular parchment paper can not be used for baking steaks. Oh well, can't have everything...

Clarified, um, margarine. (Sorry, this had to be parve.)

La-di-da, when I finish with this it will be a nice, smooth easy to work with dough, right?

Wrong! This is about as together as it got, even after I added an extra half of a cup of margarine ghee.

Here are some pointers, (since I learned this the hard way.)

Roll only with your fingertips!

Use the bench scraper to periodically scrap off the excess dough from the board so it will roll smoothly. Don't use your hands to transfer it to the cookie sheet, use the bench scraper or a spatula.

From right to left, this is how you roll it. Crumble into a ball. Roll it out. When long enough. start gently picking up the roll and folding it little by little inwards, being careful to bend it as evenly as possible. If it is not evenly rounded enough or if you handle it just a tad to hard, it will break. Over lap the fat end over the thin end.

This dough is so fragile. CHILL IT! Even this does not help completely. Sometimes, when you are just about finished rolling it out it will completely fall apart on you and you will have to start again. Um, and again and sometime again.

To get the pistachio in without breaking it, make the incision with the bench scraper or a knife. I also remove a smidgen of the dough to make room for it. Be careful not to put the pistachio in too loosely as they tend to fall out after the cookie is baked.

You can see I got better as I made them from the bottom right to the top left.

I used a modified version of the recipe in Arromas of Allepo who in turn seems to have taken in directly from the original Deal Delights (red) cookbook.

Sephardic/Middle-eastern Chanukah Fried Doughs From Pizmonim Project

2011-12-25T14:22:00.000-05:00

ב''ה

Here is a nice list I found. I looked up and links to each recipe and posted it under each one.

In Egypt it was called Zalabya or Loqmat El Qadi.

http://www.golden-recipes.com/free-cooking-food-zalabya-breakfast-recipe.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loukoumades

http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/1471478-Luqmat-al-qadi-Zalabia-or-Lokomadis-in-Greek-

In Iraq and Syria it was called Zingol.

http://www.arifgumus.com/fatih/not1/zingoltatlisi/photo6.htm

In Turkey it was called Bilmuelos.

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Hanukkah/At_Home/Foods/Bimuelos.shtml

In Greece it was called Lokomades.

http://greekfood.about.com/od/friedconfections/r/Loukoumades-Loukoumathes-Greek-Honey-Puffs.htm

In Morocco it was a donut called Sfinz, topped with powdered sugar or glazed with honey.

http://libyanfood.blogspot.com/2010/12/libyan-dougnut-sfinz.html

In Tangier it was called bunuelos.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/9985629

http://rollybrook.com/bunuelos.htm

This was the only traditional Sephardic item shared by almost all communities for Hanoukah.

26) I mentioned the custom of eating a special type of Fried dough that was sweetened with syrup or Powdered sugar.

I have just found out that the Lebanese Jews do the same thing and they call them Awamat.

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/dessertssweetspastries/r/awamat.htm

The Syrians and particularly those from Damascus have a special pastry called 'Atayif for Hanoukah. It is thin round dough which is stuffed with nuts and sugar and folded in half and deep fried. It is then drizzled with a sugary syrup while hot and served up fresh.

http://egyptopia.com/Atayif+with+Mixed+Nuts_43_218_30_777_en.html

Heavenly Cake - Blue Velvet Cake (Chanukah Cake)

2011-12-24T19:44:00.000-05:00

ב''ה

Try blue, it's the new red...

I doubled the recipe, so if I wanted navy blue I should have used 2 bottles of coloring instead of 1.

Flour and stuff...

The Mrs. was with me for moral support.

Toaster shot.

Again, I doubled the recipe and it did not have enough batter for two pans.

Double the frosting recipe. It really does not make a lot. I used a mixer instead of a food processor.

Heavenly Cake - Spice Cake with Peanut-butter Cream

2011-12-12T22:00:00.000-05:00

ב''ה

This was a pretty good cake and the flavors played off of each other nicely. I think the peanut flavor could have been slightly toned down.

I thought this was a faily unique buttercream since it has powdered sugar and you use the food processor.

I made it a two layer cake. Again, doubling the recipe did seem not fill the two pans properly. It seems as if the recipe was made for 1 1/2 inch pans.

Heavenly Cake - Southern Coconut Cake

2011-12-05T21:43:00.000-05:00

ב''ה

This was a fantastic cake. Both the cake and the frosting were fantastic! Several people who do not usually like coconut said that they liked this cake.

The Italian meringue. I doubled this and cut the butter in half. Maybe next time i'll double the creme anglais as well.

My wife got me a real coconut. :) So I got to use 7.9 oz of fresh coconut milk. The freshly grated coconut has a wonderful soft texture but it is very hard to grate properly without wasting any of it.

Coconut creme anglais. Yum!

O.K. I did not cut it properly, but that is not why I am showing this picture. Since I baked this in the toaster I did not want to bake it in two pans. the batter was about 3.5 lb but 1.5 lb of it did not seem to fill half the 2 inch cake pan like the recipe says it should. I find this often happens with Rose's two cake pan recipes. I end of pouring it all in one pan but it is a bit too much for it. At any rate, usually I get a lot of tunneling because of this. However, this time the tunneling was minimal. I did use a cake strip, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

The cake was a bit warm still so the frosting in the middle melted a bit. It was a really yummy cake warm though.

11 cakes to go. Since my wife did the grooms cake maybe I can count that as the wedding cake. Na. Where is the fun in that? ;) Perhaps one of our single family members will get engaged for us...

Out of commission this week. Here are some other goodies.

2011-11-29T22:34:00.003-05:00

ב''ה

12 cakes to go! :)

I sprained my thumb on the pumpkin pie. No baking for me this week. Luckily, I baked a few things before it happened. Don't know if I'll make it to the wedding cake next week. It may have to wait until I get up to it...

Double decker apple upside down cake. Served with maple-syrup/bourbon whip cream. I finally got to try the macoun apples with this!

Pate Ferment Baguettes.

Blood orange curd.

My new method of transferring/flipping over cakes is simply to use another pan. It works really nicely. Also, I now use my hand to place the second layer on top of the curd/cream on the first layer. It is a delicate operation and it seems to give some good control over it. Also, none of the curd gets wasted that way. You can simply lick it off. ;)

Aren't they purrrty?

De Cake!

Ez man found the 72%!

Heavenly Cake - Golden (Mango) Genoise a mistake I found and a $135 sponge cake :)

2011-11-13T20:21:00.000-05:00

ב''ה

This was a fabulous cake that took a bit of work. I had to work myself up to make this. I had bakers block, if there is such a thing. Look down to the buttercream pic to find out the mistake I found. I could not find passion fruit and don't have to much time anymore to go looking for it. I would have definitely enjoyed this with passion fruit. When I find some I think I'll make this cake again (or at least just the curd!) I love passionfruit! :)

Mis en place:

'Omi Girl' was with me for moral support.

I already have numerous genoise posts already on this site so I only took a picture of the batter.

Requisite toaster pic. I baked two genoise cakes so the cake would be nice and high and use up all of the buttercream. Rose's buttercream recipes in this book are always enough for two layers.

Mango Puree. I put dole frozen mango chunks in the blender after it defrosted a bit.

The mango curd (pretty fab!)

The white chocolate custard. I guess the white chocolate I had was not the highest quality. It seemed to curdle and would not mix well with the melted butter. I did finally melt in to the egg though...

The buttercream. O.K. Here is the mistake I found. The recipe calls for 6 oz of cream cheese which should be 170g. However, 6 ounces was only 123g and the 170g was for the full 8oz package! I know it is not a big mistake but I feel pretty good for having spotted it! :) I get the feeling though that Rose has not been following our posts and will probably miss this. Oh well.

Components.

Composing.

Ready for the swirl!

I enlisted my wife's help to do the final swirl as my attempts were not very good...

Ta da! Or as my little girl says, "da la!"

I have been making Bert Green's Special Sponge cake from the Cake Bible every Friday recently for the holy sabbath. After the Sukot Holiday I had my Etrog (citron) left over. This year I payed $125 for it. It is used in the holiday prayer service. Everyone wants a nice one without booboos so the prices are quite high. Mine was from Calabria Italy.

This is what it looks like on the inside: As you can see it ain't no lemon! At any rate I used the juice (it only gives very little and zest for the sponge cake.

We love Burt Green's sponge cake! :)

Here are some challahs I made.

Heavenly Cake - Marble Velvet Cake

2011-10-24T21:55:00.001-04:00

ב''ה

Link to my peanut ingots post.

A fairly classic marble cake with a terrific soft texture.

The batter.

The cake.

Some braided round (and raisin) challot I made for the sukkot holiday.

Heavenly Cake - Karmel Cake

2011-10-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

ב''ה

Link to my lava cakes.

The idea behind this cake is pretty simple really. Caramel with cake batter. It was very good although the flavor was a bit subtle. Goes down right with a cup of coffee. It definitely would have been much better with muscavado brown sugar. I wonder how this would taste with regular white sugar caramel?

This was the first time I used a sugar thermometer. It has always been difficult for me to tell how caramelized brown sugar is. I doubled the recipe so it took a good half hour or so to really get to the right temperature.

Some of the candies that formed in the bottom of the caramel.

The caramel. I actually made this parve, so I used soy milk and margarine.

The batter.

I got some tunneling so I am thinking it might have to do with doubling the baking powder. I should have used a little less. Since I doubled the recipe and baked it all in a 2" pan I probably should have followed the rule of decreasing the baking powder the larger the cake is.

Heavenly Cake - Ginger Cheesecake

2011-10-09T13:51:00.000-04:00

ב''ה

Delicious Ginger Cheesecake!

Homemade gingerbread crumbled up.

Ginger Juice. Now that I know how to get this stuff out of the root I think I'll make some lemon-zest ginger ice cream...

Batter.

I have found that I prefer cup cakes when making cheesecake. It makes the whole thing easier for a number of reasons.

I gave these about 20 minutes in the toaster.

Cake Bible - Chocolate Lover's Angel Food Cake

2011-09-26T21:28:00.000-04:00

ב''ה

My Pineapple Cakes can be found here.

My wife requested a sponge cake from the cake bible, so I took a break from Heavenly Cakes for a week to make something for her. I had 14 egg whites in the freezer. Now, according to Jewish custom, you can not store eggs (or onions) that are already open without putting a little bit of oil on them. I was worried that this would stop the egg whites from whipping properly. However, the amount that I used was only a little, which is all you need to fulfill this, and they still whipped up nicely. I will say however, that the 40 minutes given in the recipe for the cake was not quite enough to bake the cake completely and it would have benefited from another few minutes baking.

Folding...

Not the toaster...

Since the Jewish New Year is coming up this Wednesday night (Thursday and Friday) and the custom is to bake round challas I though I would post another videoI found on braiding them. This time with three variations 6, 4 and ball-type.

May it be a good and sweet new beginning.

Heavenly Cake - Deep Chocolate Rosebuds

2011-09-18T20:06:00.001-04:00

ב''ה

I am deeply passionate about these 'rose buds.' Maybe it was because I was out of baking for so long, maybe it was because I had not had a really good chocolate cake in a while, maybe it was Paris... Whatever the reason, these cupcakes were absolutely moist, delicious and gooey.

Ganache.

The batter had a marvelously delicate color and wonderful texture.

Ready to toast.

Toast em' up!

Lovely quasi-volcano cakes. Every one loved them!

Someone is holding me back from baking...

2011-08-28T19:41:00.001-04:00

ב''ה

and her name is Naomi Qamar:

You can read my chiffonlet post here.

Heavenly Cake - No Bake Cheesecake as well as the 'retardation' of retardation.'

2011-08-09T23:29:00.002-04:00

ב''ה

This fabulous cheesecake really is light as feather. Well done Rose, you really captured something nice here. This recipe seems rather unique what with the custard, italian merringue and whipped cream cheese. I did end up making some modifications because of our pantries limitations. First I used regular cream cheese instead of cream fraiche. Then, I only used 1/3 the amount of whipped cream cheese. At the end I decided to add an extra egg white to the merringue. I learned my lesson before when Rose includes random lemon juice ingredients. Unless you are expecting the dessert to have a lemon flavor, leave it out! There are already two other lemon cheesecakes in Rose's heavenly cakes and another was not what we were looking for.

I wondered if the butter really got incorperated nicely since it still seemed very crumbly but the crust turned out great! This, even though I mixed in the melted butter by hand to the already processed graham crackers.

Custard.

Old enough to actualy be of real help! :)

Merringue.

This time we had real Kolatin and the cakes set nicely.

And now for another little rant. Namely, with all the fancy baking books preaching on how much better bread tastes if you retard your dough what they fail to mention is that if you don't your bread (in this case pizza) will still be better than any thing you can get in a store. What is more, even if you don't let your dough rise, your homemade pizza dough can still taste better than store bought. I found this out the other night when my wife was out and, pressed for time, I made what we now call 'Silly Pizza' for dinner. I used 1 part corn meal to 3 parts AP flour a dash of salt and a dash of yeast. However, I was pressed for time and did not really let the yeast rise before throwing it in the oven. It was fabulous! Delicious! Better than anything you can by in the store.

Just a little something I made to break our fast on today.

Heavenly Cake - Zach's La Bomba

2011-07-18T19:06:00.000-04:00

ב''ה

Link to my mystery cake post

This was a fantastic, unique dessert that is really above average pallet. I do have a bone to pick however. It was too damn small!! For all that work it really should have been at least twice as large.

Tea for the Sabayon. Perhaps, best served in such a tea pot.

Sabayon. I am not sure I got the full height as I also used the mixer for the chocolate.

Straining the preserves.

My "double boiler."

אין מילים

Test. With a smile. :)

Glossy? Yesh.

The kosher gelatin I found was actually non-flavored jello. I am still not sure if it worked properly, however, carageenan was amongst the ingredients.

After the freezer. The cake got slightly burnt in the toaster but it was a real star. What a fantastic chocolate cake all on its own!

I did not have time to wait 8 hours, as it was already 11pm. My wife has placed penne ala' vodka on the menu regularly now since we have been buying so much heavy cream for Rose's cakes.

I am not sure if this worked properly as this mouse was polished off within an hour.

Not very pretty, but it was fantastic! The flavors were sophisticated and delicious.

Now that we have been away from Brooklyn for a while I can start to reminisce about we miss, er no, not exactly, um find interesting? Um, no. How about a couple things that were... unique...

Only in Brooklyn.

and... only in Brooklyn...

I figured I would also take this opportunity to blog about the Jansci Torta I made on Passover, since I finally have proof that I whipped the egg whites by hand.

I can not remember exactly when I started. Say about 1pm.

Pretty stiff!! :)

Fold it in.

One of the ubiquitous taste tester.

The chocolate coating did suffer since I did not have any cream or such for the ganache. It still came out pretty good.

Heavenly cake - She Loves Me Daisy Cake

2011-07-11T21:15:00.000-04:00

ב''ה

This was a fabulous cake! The kind of cake that must have made Rose famous. Very classic.

lobotomize.

Yummy Lemon Curd. Mmm. I should make lemon curd more often. It is so good!

The blueberries went along really well.

Heavenly cake - Miettes Tomboy

2011-07-04T22:45:00.002-04:00

ב''ה

My lemon canadian crown post

This week I made Miettes Tomboy. It was A fantastic chocolate cake!

Mis en place:

My helper

The 'Ez Man' was with us for moral support and beater licking.

The super market near us, that has not enough baking supplies I now call 'half - baked'. They did not have any plain dutch process cocoa. They did, however, have Hershey's Special dark cocoa which is partially dutch process. We were quite pleased with the result actually. It had a terrific texture and a nice dark chocolate taste.

Ready for baking. It only filled up 1/4 of my 9 by 2 inch pan.

Nonetheless, after some time in the toaster, it looked like this. :) I did use a cake strip, which, I am sure helped a bit.

In better light.

Making moussline is always fun. As usual, I cut the butter in half for a more intense flavor. I forgot to add the vanilla again. Drat! It still tasted fab.

We could not find a candy rose lying about so I put a lollipop a-top.

Happy 4th!

Heavenly cake - Puddin' Cake

2011-06-27T21:31:00.002-04:00

ב''ה

This cake was O.K. but something of a disappointment. The cake had tuff, chewy pieces in it and the flavor was just so so. The toffee was too lemony and, at any rate, I didn't have any more muscavodo.

The dates and beer.

I did process the dates for a good while. I am surprised they still gave tuff texture. I am not sure it was really the dates. Perhaps it was nutmeg pieces from the nutmeg mill I used.

The batter and the dates.

Ready for the toast...

The worst part is that we also found a bug in the cake. Not Kosher!! Needless to say we threw out the cake. Oh, well I must be loosing my touch being so out of practice baking, having moved and all.

My bookshelves are set up. Now for some lighting...

I don't know if it seems worth it to me to make the red fruit cake. The genoise is from another recipe and the fruit, is well, just fruit and does not seem to challenge enough.

Brioche 2011 and mis en place for a Heavenly Cake

2011-06-21T22:28:00.002-04:00

ב''ה

Well, the cake is not done yet. Here is some brioche I made recently though, for the Shavuout holiday. I have come to the conclusion that Rose's Brioche Recipe is the best! I have made several versions of brioche from 'The Bread Baker's Apprentice' and Rose's is just all that much better.

This is about as far as I got tonight. Mis en place! I'll have to try and finish tomorrow.

And here are some random flowers from our new neighborhood. I was disappointed to see that the fancy big suburban supermarket in our new dig has mostly cake mixes, whereas the overcrowded urban store in our old brooklyn neighborhood had what I can consider now a nice selection of baking supply goods.

Rose! If you are reading this, we still are only 1/2 hour drive from brooklyn in West Hempstead, LI! You are welcome to drop by anytime. :)

Old link

2011-06-21T00:22:00.000-04:00

I have been so overwhelmed. I hope to post something this week if I can. In the mean time here is the link to my attempt at the mud turtle cupcakes.

Mud turtle cupcakes

Heavenly cake - Chocolate Raspberry Trifle

2011-06-06T23:22:00.001-04:00

ב''ה

Here is the link to my Swedish Pear Almond Cake:

Better late than never.

A lovely trifle. Very good chocolate and raspberry flavors. Nothing, when compared in taste to the honore trifle though...

Slicing and spreading.

In case you were wondering, no our kitchen is not set up yet...

The chocolate. It would have been better with a higher percentage chocolate.

The creme englaise turned out a little weak for my taste.

The genoise seemed to get a good height but them seemed a little dense. Perhaps it was all the chocolate or perhaps it was because I did not use Wondra, as I usually do.

Checking the raspberries for (non-kosher) bugs by soaking them in cold water and dish soap (found two or three...)

Composing...

Dear old toasty is up and running again.

Tiramisu and Hand Whipping Egg Whites

2011-05-16T22:35:00.000-04:00

ב''ה

We have wanted to make the Tiramisu from Rose's Heavenly Cakes for a long time. This was just fabulous!

It has taken a long time to start and un-pack after then move. First the move, then Passover then a project with a deadline at work. All of the sudden, I check up with the Heavenly cake bakers and Marie is on the last cake! Ack! How did time go by so quickly? I had meant to try and jump back in. Oh well, very glad to continue along with the rest of you HCB who are still going to do it.

Really mad props to all of you Heavenly Cake Bakers who finished and a hefty Mazel Tov! to Marie for orchestrating the whole thing. Not sure how we will continue without your wry wit and encouragement. :)

I still can not find where I packed the camera cord, so you'll have to enjoy my cell-phone shots.

Mis en place:

Getting to this mis en place took a lot of effort. It went something like this.

"Honey, where is the vanilla?"

"I don't know. But I just found the vanilla sugar and vanilla beans."

After unpacking a couple boxes:

"Hey I found the Vanilla! Do you know where the instant espresso is?"

"I don't know"

After unpacking a couple boxes:

"Hey I found the espresso! Do you know where the Sunbeam is?

"I don't know"

After unpacking a whole bunch of boxes, tailing the place apart and only in the end realizing that the movers had put it in the attic for some reason:

"Hey I found the Sunbeam!"

My trusty dairy Oster toaster was, of course, moved by myself in our car, not wanting the movers to mess with it.

Finding Kosher Marsala was a miracle in its own right.

Eggs wine sugar...

The new kitchen window. :)

The "Ez Man" was with me for moral support..." This is at my mothers house. I promised I would make her a Jansci Torta for Passover. I buy the ingredients and ask her where her kosher for Passover hand mixer is. "Oh, I don't have one." Um, how about a whisk? No, sorry. Forks? "Yes, we have forks! You don't mean to say you plan on whipping it by hand do you?" That is exactly what I planned. If Joe Pastry says you can do it, I knew it could be done. At any rate, it was Passover and I was trying to celebrate the idea of the Jewish sage who said "Some people say, if you can't go through, go over. I say, jump over to begin with!" In under twenty minutes in fact! I took pictures with my other camera, but alas, I can't find the cord. :( At first I whipped with two forks back to back. Then i realized that it got very heavy and it was easier to just use one. My sister than came in and, when finding out my mother did not have a mixer, was about to get upset. "I'll whip it for you by hand!" I selflessly offer, saving the day. My arm ached for the whole next day but it was totally worth it! I got lots of praises on the cake, even if I did not get quite as high a rise out of the eggs (I was still able to get to stiff peak stage though.) Roses Passover cakes are the best! :)

Scrambled? Maybe. It came out O.K...

I ended up making a second batch of the espresso mixture since I ran out.

Finding 'Chalav Yisrael' type Kosher Mascarpone was, again, a miracle. Blend until creamy? Hmm, looks more like cottage cheese. Came out O.K...

The finished topping. It was Really good!!!

Easy to make and really delicious! Highly recommend.

The Moove...

2011-04-13T23:52:00.000-04:00

ב''ה

Some of the book boxes.

We are finally moving tomorrow! Our landlord gave us two months to move out. 2 1/2 months later (ahem) here we are. After Passover (18th - 26th April this year) maybe, just maybe I can get back into baking into time to la'bamba!

The new shtub in West Hempstead. No more Brooklyn for us! There is a Jewish saying, Don't do to others as you would not like done unto you. In Brooklyn the saying seems to be 'Trample unto others, or they shall trample onto you!' I'm still trying to figure out if that is implied somehow by the phrase 'fugedaboudit.'

Heavenly cake - Quail Egg Seduction (cup)Cake(s)

2011-02-13T18:07:00.006-05:00

ב''ה

This may be my last baking post for a little while as it looks like we are going to have to move. I'll post when I can.

In direct contrast to dear fellow Heavenly-Cake-Baker Raymond's scathing review, I thought this had an exceptional, indulgent flavor. Really something special. The 5 7/8 cup cake pan did seem a little esoteric though and I could not figure out how to adjust the recipe for a regular nine inch or loaf pan. I decided to just go for cup cakes. Kids love cupcakes and you can just keep baking them until you run out of batter. In the morning before work I almost never have time to actually take out a knife, cut a piece of cake and find appropriate packaging for it. A cupcake, on the other hand, is pre-proportioned, self contained and can be thrown into a lunch bag in the usual mad rush.

In addition, the last cup cake wrappers I found in the store are patent pending as they do not dull their colors as they bake and can be baked independent of a cupcake pan, on a baking sheet (if you wish.)

These little lovelies came 15 in a $9 package so I decided to triple the recipe. What would I do with 10 leftover eggs? Still not sure what to do with the whites...

Mis en Place: One bowl for the yolks, one for the whites and one for checking for blood spots. You can se how the yolks bled a bit into the whites. The whites stubbornly stuck to the yolks and it was only after much cajoling and pulling at the whites with my fingers that they came apart. Still some white got into the yolk and vis-versa. I put the eggs in warm water to take of the chill since I did not have time to wait for them to get to room temperature. A trick I learned on the Joe Pastry site. :)

I used India tree castor sugar which seems to have an almost molasses-y aroma. Very impressed. Perhaps it helped with the final outcome we got.

The eggs in their vanilla-cream bath. Luscious, rich, thick texture.

Close up of some fine work done on an Italian sculpture. Err, I mean the batter...

They took about 20 minutes to bake. They did not last long and got rave reviews.

Slightly crumbly but a tender and moist crumb. Amaretto whipped cream went along nicely.

To those of my readers that are interested in the Kosher side of things, here is a little reading on the Kosher status of quail eggs etc.

Heavenly cake - Mud Turtle Cup Cakes

2011-02-06T21:31:00.001-05:00

ב''ה

These cupcakes were delicious. The complex flavors played together nicely on the palette. Despite their flavor, the cupcakes were slightly on the dry and crumbly side. This caused them to labor under the weight of the the chocolate and the caramel and did not have a smooth entrance into the mouth. The cake and condiment could not be eaten properly together without it falling apart.

Cup Cake Batter. The sour cream really added something. Perhaps I should have added a tap more for extra moisture. Perhaps all purpose flour would have been better than cake flour in lending the necessary strength to the cupcakes.

Shayna, as always, was very eager to help.

The cup-cakes.

Ganache.

Caramel. It got a little hard, by mostly it was nice and chewy.

For the life of me, I could not see wasting that extra good caramel and just putting a circle in the center. Besides, the cup-cakes turned out humped.

I also took my first foray into the wonderful world of Maggie Glezer's formulas, starting with the Acme bakery style baguette.

She eschewes Peter Reinhart's idea in "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" of opening the oven door several times to spray water. Instead she either recommends a pressurized hose or spraying the loaves themselves with water right before putting them in. Since I am so used to spraying the walls, I actually sprayed the walls when I just put them in but then did not open the oven until it was time to turn them. I'll admit to over baking these a bit. However the crust was still terrifically crisp and her method seems to work nicely.

This recipe uses a poolish and a preferment and has a wonderful flavor, better, I thought, than the BBA pan a l'aciene. Her mixing method also produced this wonderful open crumb. I'm sold! :)

Heavenly Cake - Cradle Cake

2011-01-30T18:13:00.000-05:00

ב''ה

This fantastic cake was fun to eat and fun to make.

Mis en place: I tried to prepare for parts parts of the recipe ahead as much as possible.

Chocolate and pecans for the dacquoise. I put all the sugar in by accident since it was not so clear in the instructions and had to sift it out. When it says, "Combine ... and sugar" as the header it threw me off.

Eggs and sugar.

After folding in the chocolate and pecans mixture.

I spakeled it all the way up the sides so it would make a nice "cradle", then pushed the excess back down to even it out once I put in the buttermilk batter.

This is the first time I've noticed that when you simulate buttermilk by adding vinegar the milk actually does thicken and get gloppy like buttermilk.

Ready to toast!

It looks a bit funny, that's alright we are turning it upside down.

For the chocolate drizzle, I did not have heavy cream so I just used milk. I cut down on the liquid amount and added a bit more of the chocolate (maybe .10 oz of each) and it seemed to work fine!

In conclusion, we all loved this cake. It was easy to make and easy to eat. I wish I had made two!

Heavenly Cake - Genoise Tres Cafe

2011-01-23T18:13:00.013-05:00

ב''ה

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Medaglia D'oro, the recommended instant espresso, had an OU kosher certification.

As usual, I mix the genoise right in the pot with the hand beater.

Fold.

I made a double recipe as Rose's syrup and ganache recipes she includes are too much for one cake layer.

The "Ez Man" got to the very last cup of Wondra flour I had laid out for Mis en Place. I was not sure how cake flour would do for the genoise as I had never tried it without Wondra. It worked fine, tasted fine and only had some small flour pellets that were almost not noticeable. Aside from that it got a nice height and good texture. This cake got a nice brown color!

Chocolate and espresso powder.

This cake was nice but not as yummy as the coffee chiffonlets. The ganache got a bit grainy but I really think it had to do with the lower quality chocolate I used, rather than the amount I mixed it. I was pretty careful not to over-mix and I have had the graininess issue with this chocolate when I make ice cream with it. It had a great flavor though!

Challah With Pastry Flour

2011-01-19T00:14:00.001-05:00

ב''ה

The Greenstein's bakery standard recipe for Challah is:

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups bread flour

3 cups AP flour

1 teaspoon yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup oil

2 cups water

3 eggs

This week I decided to experiment and exchange the AP flour for pastry flour.

The texture was much more crumbly but the taste was nice. I still think I prefer the AP flour.

The reason I attempted this was because I read in Gisslen's Professional Baking that bake shops don't stock AP flour but use cake, pastry and bread flours more precisely. I am now temped to think that is a bunch of hooey and AP flour is just fine.

Heavenly Cake - Free Choice Cake - Chocolate Butter Cupcakes

2011-01-16T18:08:00.004-05:00

ב''ה

I somehow did not realize that I already made this. My excel file with all the cakes I baked had this marked as 'no.' At any rate it came out much better than the first time and we all enjoyed these immensely.

Here is a list of cakes I still need to bake to catch up with Marie:

She Loves Me Cake

Spice Cake With Peanut Buttercream

Marble Velvet Cake

Rose Red Velvet Cake

Black Chocolate Party Cake

German Chocolate Cake

White Gold Passion Genoise

Fruitcake

Chocolate Rasberry Trifle

Ginger Cheesecake with Gingerbread Crust

No-Bake Whipped Cream Cheesecake

Tiramisu

Yellow Butter Cupcakes

Plum Round Ingots

Deep Chocolate Rosebuds

15 cakes in all.

I actually wanted to do the Tiramisu and even was going to pipe my own lady fingers. However, the eggs that I placed on the counter every evening in hopes of inspiration languidly taunted me as I plotzed down in a stupor from a hard days work.

Hopefully next time. :)

Heavenly Cake - White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache

2011-01-09T18:15:00.000-05:00

ב''ה

This cake was very rich but we all enjoyed it, nonetheless. It got polished off within two days, even though I doubled the recipe.

Mis en place.

יב עֵינָיו, כְּיוֹנִים עַל-אֲפִיקֵי מָיִם; רֹחֲצוֹת, בֶּחָלָב... שיר השירים פרק ה

"Its looks were as doves sitting by flowing water; white as though they had been washed with milk..."

Song of Songs 5,12

Rose must be getting to me as I not only made a cake strip out of tin foil, I weighed each pan to make sure they were equal. (They took turns in the toaster. :)

I forgot to use parchment and a spray. This turned out to be good as the bottom of the cake got just a bit burnt, but all the burnt part stayed in the pan.

ה שְׁחוֹרָה אֲנִי וְנָאוָה... שיר השירים פרק ה

I am dark and beautiful... Song of Songs 1,5

אִכְלוּ רֵעִים... שיר השירים פרק ה

Come and eat, my friends... Song of Songs 1,5

Heavenly Cake - Chocolate Bull's Eye Cake

2011-01-02T19:10:00.002-05:00

ב''ה

Not as indulgent as the Bostini but still pretty fab!

If you get bored at any point during this post just play some Bach:

I know I did. :)

Mis en place:

I only got three cakes out of the first batch of genoise batter so I made a second batch. My little spring-forms must be bigger than maryanne pans. The first batch, shown below, came out pretty spongy. I actually forgot to add the sugar to the eggs until I was half way through the beating.

The second batch came out a bit denser for some reason and I only got two cakes out of it, even though I added the sugar at the right time and made sure the eggs were good and warm before I beat them. Perhaps it was affected by the mixing bowl that I neglected to clean in between genoise batters (since I'm being honest here, and would like to figure out what went wrong.)

After cutting the holes. I wonder if there is a more precise method for doing this?

After the syrup. I used cheap brandy since I was not about to blow $53 on a bottle of cognac. One of these days..

Bubbling apricot preserves...

After straining. I added apricot brandy.

De glaze.

Looking good. That chocolate stuff sure is yummy!

On closer inspection, I think I see Hello Kitty...

Maybe its just me, but I'm starting to see that face in everything since we got my daughter one of these toasters for Chanukah. :)

I poured the drizzle into only one side of the sandwich bag so it would not all squirt out when I cut the other end.

The "Ez Man" wants more chocolate...

The apricot syrup and glaze added a really nice flavor and chocolate center was really tasty and creamy.

We also made some Jewish ginger bread from our new favorite cookie book:

On the BBA bread baking front, some Vienna bread torpedos. These made the most incredible peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. :)

With this, I officially finish my way baking through The Bread Baker's Apprentice. There are just a couple variations of breads I have already baked I would like to try. Maybe I'll bake trough it again using the mixer with dough hook, since I have never really gotten used to using the mixer/dough hook. Or, Maybe I'll start going through Maggie Glezer's book.

Heavenly Cake - Cranberry Crown Cheesecake

2010-12-26T19:39:00.000-05:00

ב''ה

This was a nice, standard cheesecake. I must admit that I left out the third cup of sour cream as I realized it was just going to be too much batter for the small pans I was using. Perhaps it would have made the cheesecake have a lighter quality to it.

I used store bought, hard, lady fingers for the sides and bottom. It really softened nicely and was a very nice and tender crust. Someone decided to poke their finger into one of them a couple times...

The cranberry mush was easy to make.

I do think I would have enjoyed this cheesecake more with another fruit topping such as strawberry or raspberry.

Nothing exceptional, just nice classic cheesecake. All in all, very pleased with this dessert. It went pretty fast!

Heavenly Cake - Free Choice - Heavenly Coconut Seduction Cake

2010-12-19T22:55:00.002-05:00

ב''ה

This lovely cake gives a nice presentation. Several family members commented how fancy it looked. It tasted pretty good too. The whipped cream was not to heavy and the cake had a nice coconut flavor. Although it was a bit dense as Rose warns and perhaps a tad on the dry side. Although I did make a double recipe so perhaps I miscalculated somewhere.

Some kind of cake type potion...

Talcum powder...

Yeah, verily, the thick sludge of life we must all trudge through...

A pauper gazes at the cake in the window...

I hear Antarctica is nice this time of year...

Perhaps I went a bit heavy on those pina-coladas...

BBA - Tuscan Bread

2010-12-19T22:41:00.001-05:00

ב''ה

This bread uses a boiled flour paste that gives it a unique sweet flavor. We used these for burger buns and were quite pleased.

Heavenly Cake - Mini Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes

2010-12-12T19:05:00.001-05:00

ב''ה

These had a real nice vanilla flavor and fragrance.

Mrs. Mendy bought these KitchenAid mini silicone baking cups for me as a Chankah gift.

The batter actually did curdle a bit. But I really liked the consistency of this batter. Very easy to spoon.

The obligatory toaster shot.

Here you can see how nicely the bottom browned.

I am really not used to that extra crust the silicone cups give so I am not going to judge whether it was a good or bad feature. However, it was just a wee bit underdone at the 20 minute mark and could have used a couple more minutes. The taste, though, was very vanilla-y and fantastic. They were all finished within minutes.

Marionberry Sufganiyot - Jelly Doughnuts - Punchkees and BBA: Swedish Limpa Bread

2010-12-08T20:21:00.003-05:00

ב''ה

This is my first foray into the realm of frying. Eating foods made with oil is traditional on Chanukah since we are celebrating the Miracle of oil. Oil represents wisdom that is beyond us, the secrets of creation. Usually one studies these things sparingly since they are so hard to grasp. The Almighty creator's presence in the oil miracle of Chanukah tells us: No! You must imbibe these ideas as if it were a food in its own right, not just a condiment!

What a good mazel to find Marionberry preserves! They really give these doughnuts an extra yummy flavor!

I used Marcie Goldman's recipe in Jewish Holiday Baking.

Fry em up! I probably did not have to use quite so much oil.

The oil was too hot at first and had to be adjusted. The ones on the left were the testers.

Fill them up and powder em'.

The Limpa Bread:

Sauté cardamom, fennel, anise and orange oil.

Add flour...

Sourdough starter....

Rye flour paste prepared the day before...

O.K. they look a little funny...

But boy does it taste good! A slight soury taste and the the spices are not overpowering but are just nice undertones.

Sourdough Limpa does not really have anything to do with Chanukah but this bread seemed festive and its flavor definitely put a smile on my face.

Heavenly Cake - Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake

2010-12-05T18:18:00.002-05:00

ב''ה

This delicious cake has a lot of liquid, unusual for one of Rose's chocolate cakes. As usual, I added a few extra tablespoons of liquid to the cocoa at the beginning of the recipe so that the cake would not be too dry. I realized too late that the 4.2 oz of water you put in afterwards would more than account for any dryness. It ended up tasting like watered down chocolate. It still had a light crumb and nice crust but the chocolate flavor was a little weak.

Not very pleased with the way my candle looked but the flavor does contrast nicely with the cake. I used wilton red icing to color the top.

Now that is what candles are supposed to look like. ;)

Heavenly Cake - Lemon Chinese Crown

2010-11-29T00:09:00.007-05:00

ב''ה

As in, "The Great Wall" of lady fingers.

(Hat tip to Monica for the ribbon idea to hold it all in place.)

Mis en place: Lady fingers

The circle is O.K. but the lady fingers lost all semblance of shape. I did use a ziplock bag though. I guess I better brush up on making those real scratch piping things from baking sheets...

I present to you, "The Great Wall." It did make it easier to just wrap around the perimeter of the cake.

It does sort of look like a crown, or a baseball glove...

Mis en place: the filling.

The lemon curd took a good 25 minutes for me, not 15.

Fill with the custard. I wonder, is this considered a Charlotte?

I also wonder what the powdered sugar adds to the meringue? I used the blow-torch for the meringue as my broiler was not going to be able to accomodate the "Great Wall." I did not wait for all the freezing steps and waiting steps in the middle of the recipe. I just made the whole thing and stuck it in the freezer.

Here are some of the better looking ladyfingers. You can see the seepage from when I attempted to take off the spring-form before it was frozen.

It was really yummy. The ladyfingers and the billowy lemon really balance each other nicely.

Heavenly Cake - Chocolate Genoise with Chocolate Peanut-butter ganache

2010-11-21T18:13:00.001-05:00

ב''ה

This was a really terrific chocolate cake, one of the best genoise recipes we have had yet. We were a bit wary about adding the black raspberry syrup but it really adds an oomph and takes the cake beyond the ordinary.

Mis en place:

Sorry I did not take pictures of the genoise process. You can find a description of how I do it in a previous post. Since my first chocolate genoise attempt from the Cake Bible a while ago was less than extraordinary, I feel this is a big improvement.

I made two cakes since I have noticed that all of Roses ganache and syrup recipes are for a full two layer cake. Also, I figured that this cake would go really fast (and it did!) I used a bit more peanut butter in the ganache than the recipe called for and was not sorry.

I had a slice of this in the morning before work and found myself craving it the whole day. Now that's good cake!

Heavenly Cake - Free Choice Cake - Golden Lemon Almond

2010-11-14T16:38:00.002-05:00

ב''ה

After all the praise this simple cake has garnered I knew it would have to land on our free-choice plate at some point before all things come to an end.

Dry ingredients.

Batter less the eggs. I find that the beaters tend to overly attract lemon zest whenever it is called for. Make sure to scrape all of it off the beaters, it hides there under a blanket of the batter!

Ready to go.

I added some amaretto to the sugar syrup for some extra almond flavor.

It was golden and it was glorious!

It totally lives up to all the hype.

Heavenly Cake - Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake

2010-11-07T18:13:00.000-05:00

ב''ה

I was California Dreaming this morning with a slice of this lovely cake.

The delicious "almond gunk." I could not get almond past so I used marzipan. Thanks to Jennifer for the tip!

I used Anjou pears. I would have preferred had they been softer.

Batter, stage 1.

Making my "ring" depression.

Fill with said almond gunk.

Layer the pears. Did I do this right?

As you can see, the pears did not sink to the bottom as they were supposed to. Perhaps my almond gunk was to cold or perhaps the shape of the pan restricted them from sinking? At any rate, the almond gunk did not sink either.

Pop her in the toaster.

I made this for the community service kick-off at a local girls High School. The cake on the left

is a whipped cream cake. I also made a third cake, another Swedish Pear, so we could try it too! :)

Conclusions: Delicious! My wife felt that it was too much like a plain butter cake and the little almond pocket was to intense. Next time, she says, we should just add the almond gunk to the batter and mix it in. I dunno, I am perfectly satisfied with it.

Heavenly Cake - The Bostini

2010-10-31T19:13:00.003-04:00

ב''ה

Oh my, these are seriously sinful. Shamefully, I never heard of a boston cream pie before so I did not realize at first what we were deconstructing.

Mis en place:

Add orange and eggs to dry ingredients. This is before adding the meringue.

After the meringue.

Pop em' in the toaster.

Mis en place 2: the pastry cream.

The egg mixture.

Sugar, spice... everything nice.

Just about ready to pour into the eggs.

Pastry cream. Magnifique!

Prepare the cups. It only filled six of my cups. I would have had to make a double recipe of pastry cream. That's O.K. we ate about six of those addictive little orange sponges anyway.

I used the scale for nearly everything in this recipe. It is just easier.

Prepare the cups.

Don't use too many fingers to lick the chocolate...

To your health! קע''ה

My conclusions: The orange chiffon cakes are absolutely wonderful all by themselves and the pastry cream is truly delicious. The chocolate coating, on the other hand, was a bit too rich for my tastes (all that butter.) I think a regular ganache or the chocolate coating from the ice cream cake recipe would have suited me just fine. All together these make an absolutely magnificent dessert that really lend an air of festivity to whenever it is served.

I felt like Napoleon did...

Heavenly Cake - Angel Food Cake, the way it was wanted.

2010-10-24T18:59:00.004-04:00

ב''ה

Just a little plain angel food cake to temp you.

Ripples in a billowing egg white sea.

I learned a good lesson here. Do not attempt to eat angel food cake before it cools down. It tastes terrible! The texture has not settled completely and it tastes like a wet, soggy mush. I almost threw it out. The next morning it tasted just like regular angel food cake.

In Jewish tradition, the Manna (מן) that G-d sent down to the Israelites in the dessert was food of angels, a physical precursor the to the heavenly law that they would receive and were supposed to internalize. The Manna got completely digested to the point where there was no bodily refuse, just as G-d's law is completely pure and just. ה לְכוּ, לַחֲמוּ בְלַחֲמִי – משׁלי ט, ה "Come and partake of my bread" - Proverbs 9:5 This was actually a cause of some contention as some people felt that at some point they were simply going to explode! Thinking: "There is no such thing as a person that just takes in but does not give out!"

Heavenly Cake - Splendiferous Quick Bread

2010-10-17T19:07:00.002-04:00

ב''ה

This was parve and delicious. I would have preferred it a tad sweeter or more aromatic. Maybe next time I'll use dark brown sugar and/or perhaps vanilla sugar.

Mis en place:

I left the flour out of the mis en place since I have gone off the deep end and bought 75 pounds of flour in large open bags in the kitchen (with curious little kids around to boot.)

Dry ingredients.

Wet ingredients. I used light brown muscavado.

I used the food processor for this and made a double recipe as well (I was almost 100% sure I would like it and was not disappointed.)

Add flour, nuts etc.

The short fat pan took 30 minutes while the long thin one took 45-50 minutes to bake.

Hardy

Laurel

Unlike other HC Bakers, I felt like this was a bit of a hassle to make. All the vegetables type objects made this lean outside the realm of the "baking zone." Perhaps Pretzel-Rod Sterling dictates the world I bake in...

Heavenly Cake - Lava Cakes

2010-10-10T18:13:00.012-04:00

ב''ה

These cakes are all the rage in N.Y. We order them every time we go out (um, that would be our bi-annual date...) On a different note, aren't children wonderful? :)

I believe that says: "I love you because you bake with me." The blue bowl has challah dough in it.

Mis en place.

Preheat your toaster and use the top for your "double boiler."

Whisk in your eggs and such.

"Fold" in the meringue. I am still not sure how you are supposed to "fold" with a whisk. There was only enough batter for 5 ckes. By the second batch, the batter had deflated a bit.

Must... resist... finger... poke... of.. madness... ...

Now that I know how easy these are to make, we can stay home indefinitely. Or, maybe we can just order something else. ;)...

Verdict: Delish! I truly believe that you have to have this al a mode in order to get the full textural juxtaposition of the hot, molten chocolate, firm, chocolate cake and cold, smooth ice-cream.

Kaak - The perfect Middle-Eastern coffee compliment

2010-10-10T00:51:00.003-04:00

ב''ה

My grandmother ע''ה used to make these for us regularly. She would throw them in a bowl in the kitchen and leave them for every one to snack on. They never lasted long. I have been buying them from the stores here in Brooklyn and they will hit you for about $6 a bag. I figured it was time to go back to basics. I have been meaning to get into more of the sephardic baking (maybe batlaweh will be next...)

Roast yourself some turkish coffee (or starbucks as the case may be...) with hawaj and nibble on some of these babies. A truly satisfying, relaxing experience.

I used the recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and modified it a little.

Coriander, cumin, niggella (black seeds,) anise, sesame, mahleb (crushed sour cherry pits - I could not find that one...)

I added all the dry ingredients together. You soak and drain the anise.

It makes a lovely firm dough that is easy to work with. The recipe I used called for way too much salt.

You cut and roll it into logs.

Cut again and shape.

I like some long ones. You can make them into any shape you want and its fun for kids to help! :)

Egg wash...

Bake high and then a long, slow, low heat. They really are the perfect snack food.

Heavenly Cake - Caramelized Pineapple Pudding Cakes

2010-10-05T00:59:00.003-04:00

ב''ה

Brown and yellow spangled, slightly mangled, caramel-y chew, sweet puddin' cakes.

"First try my cake!" Chavi said. I thought the fly swatter added just the right touch...

In all honesty, my heart was not in it in this one. I was a bit overwhelmed by this recipe and just started work after vacation. I was puckered out. I took a bit of a short cut with this brioche. Since enriched bread is not helped as much by a long slow maturation of the yeast anyway and we are glomming on to this lots of other goo I decided to skip all of the refrigeration and shaping steps. I did do the soaker for an hour or two and then just mixed it all together to form a very battery type dough.

I gave it one good, long, rise for about 2 1/2 hours.

Pop em in the toaster. A dairy bread must have a known shape to comply with kosher laws. Brioche is the perfect example. Thus, I did not make it into a standard loaf. I covered the top with tinfoil 3/4 of the way through. Only the bottom got a little burnt.

Cut these up before I went to work. They were perfect when I got home.

creme anglais and brioche ready to cool.

I made the second caramel in a sauce pan, poured the pineapple in and then poured it all into this tinfoil to toast.

The bottom caramel, on the other hand, became these lovely little frisbees.

I did not even attempt to make a swirly pattern...

It looks like the caramel turned out pretty much rock hard like everyone elses. Some of it was more like taffy though. We had spaghetti and meat sauce tonight so we will have to wait until tomorrow to taste them. I'll try to update the post when we do.

-Update. These taste outrageous! Really delicious and worth the effort.

Heavenly Cake - Mystery Cake with Mystery Ganache

2010-09-26T18:13:00.002-04:00

ב''ה

I made this cake for my wife's birthday Farbrengen. Everyone had to try and guess the 'mystery' ingredient.

As far as I can tell Campells tomato soup is not currently under Kosher supervision. I used Rokeach Tomato soup.

The tomato soup, cocoa and egg mixture.

I used margarine with a bit of oil for extra moisture (thanks to Hanaâ for the suggestion) as substitute as all the ladies coming to the farbrengen were expected to have just have finished their Sabbath Meat meals.

The finished batter.

After baking I froze these cakes for three days and composed it the night of.

The happy birthday girl with her cake. People guess things from liqueur to pepper to ketchup. Everyone liked it! The flavor of the soup definitely shined through both the cake and the ganache. Frankly, while the cake tasted great, I was a little grossed out and would have enjoyed it more had I not known there was any secret ingredient. It was still Yummy. Happy Birthday, Mrs Mendy!

Heavenly Cake - Apple Caramel Charlotte

2010-09-19T22:59:00.001-04:00

ב''ה

Hope you all enjoyed meeting the Mrs last week. It feels like a while now since I've baked so I was able to get back into this with a bit of energy. Sure looks pretty, but I have not got to try it yet! I stuck it in the fridge and am eagerly waiting for the requisite 8 hours. Rose mentions in her video where she poaches some pears that it gets better as it it sits in the fridge. I wonder if the same holds true for this cake?

Mis en Place:

The camera battery died with the pictures of the apple poaching process. Please enjoy my grainy cell phone shots. :)

There was no way I was going to miss out on the full affect of the bavarian cream, even if the only dairy was a bit of heavy cream! So... got some cake pans for the biscuit that will fit in my toaster.

Mixing the batter.

I learned that if I prop up the Sunbeam just so against the edge of the dish drainer it stays put! ;)

Divide the batter evenly and take turns...

OK, so I got a little distracted on the last one there. No harm done, I was able to cut around it.

I had a good five inches in between.

Cut em up! I was able to get the measurements that Rose called for with a bit to spare. This turned out really helpful later.

Spread on the preserves.

A little under, not to bad. I probably could have beaten the yolks a tad longer, maybe warmed them up. I wonder why Rose says that if you use Wondra it would be thinner but more tender. I always get a higher cake with Wondra?

I used the bottom of this pan to cut out the bottom circle.

Why in the world were we supposed to cut these out? No instructions reference them later in the recipe and three layers is not enough to fill the rest of the cake. Only the 1/4 inch scraps are mentioned as being of use.

On to the custard!

Egg yolks. Small pot one.

Kosher gelatin with the poachy juice.

O.K. mrs. fancy pants, I do not have 3 small pans to put on the stove at the same time! I have just two. I brought the poachy juice to a boil then transfered it to the pyrex on top of the heated toaster.

For the caramel. Small pot two. ;)

Strainer.

You get a pretty color when you add the poachy juice to the caramel.

Mix in to the egg yolks.

Strain and Wallah!

I measured the first piece, then used it as a guide for the rest.

Starting out. Looks good. I used a regular 9x2 inch pan since I do not have any dairy bottomless, spring-form or flan ring etc. I really aught to get one. At any rate, I crisscrossed two plastic wraps underneath and I am hoping we can pull it out by their handles. I think I saw someone do that for a cheese cake once.

Aaak! I had the exact measurments, yet this is all it got up to. Perhaps if my cake had been just a wee bit taller. At any rate, baking in the 4 toaster pans saved me as there was plenty of extra cake to measure some more layers out. Was there something we were supposed to do with those extra three layers right about now? Well, I used em, and made more layers as well.

A gory cake-y mess!

Finally!

Italian meringue.

Whipped cream.

Whisk em into the custard.

Pour it into the mold.

Cut the apples. I used the peel from a red delicious apple for the color while the poached apples where granny smith.

Layer them gently.

I really had a lot of fun with this. It was not quite as taxing as the Honore trifle was and it seems just about as fancy. The individual components tasted fabulous so I'm hoping the whole thing will as well. I may just save it for Sukkot holiday that is coming up this week (If we can control ourselves that long...)

O.K., so what do we do with all the arrowroot left over? ;)

Mrs. Mendy's Post - Free Choice Cake and Potato Kugel

2010-09-13T22:34:00.000-04:00

ב''ה

Double-Chocolate Whammy Groom's Cake

I baked two cakes last week, which is much more baking than I've done since Mendy started baking about 18 mos. ago. Actually two cakes plus brownies, since the Groom's cake is a cake within a cake type concept. Originally it was supposed to be for Mendy's birthday, but that didn't happen. Then it was going to be for the baby's first birthday...but that didn't happen. Then Mendy's brother got engaged (yay!) and I thought about sending it cross country with Mendy for the engagement party (I envisioned the xray scanner detecting the secret brownie nuggets being smuggled in the guise of a cake.) Anyway, that didn't happen. Finally, the Jewish new year was approaching, and I finally baked that cake the day before the holiday. When at long last we sat down to have the cake on Rosh Hashanah we realized that we weren't supposed to eat walnuts because the word "egoz" which means walnut has the same numerical value as "sin!" I suppose sin is an appropriate concept for a cake that is made up of brownies, chocolate cake, and a heavy douse of bourbon.

There are so many beautiful cakes in Rose's book, but honestly they are not really my style. As a busy mother I just cannot be bothered with all those fussy details. I like a cake that you can make in a couple of hours in no more than two bowls, that does not need a specialty pan to make it appealing. This cake almost fit that bill. Plus its called the Groom's cake, so I couldn't resist baking it for my baker husband.

This was the brownie just out of the oven. I love how it rose above the pan like that. I made two so we could have one pan right away, and freeze the second one to use in the cake. Unfortunately it looked better than it tasted. It was just too mushy-gooey and lacked substance. It did taste really good once incorporated into the cake, though.

Finally the baker-man had a chance to put his feet up while wifey did the baking! Honey, I hope you enjoyed your Groom's cake. Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Rosh Hashanah, etc. etc. I think I will leave the baking to you until next year!

XOXOXOXO

Yummy Fabulous Potato Kugel

In a previous blog Mendy showcased my potato kugel, which got rave reviews from all of you! (Maybe I could get used to this blogging business!) Since I married Mendy I have taken to Sephardic cooking almost exclusively, but potato kugel is one of those soul foods for me. My mother makes an amazing potato kugel with little flecks of grated carrot inside, a smooth puddingy inside, and a delicious brown crust. I had been trying to get my kugel right for a long time, but it wasn't consistent. Lately its been getting better. I've learned to play it by ear a little. For my latest attempts I've been basing the recipe on two different recipes from the world famous "purple cookbook." (See below.)

My recipe goes something like this:

1 medium onion

12 potatoes (a little less than a 5 lb. bag), peeled and cut into small pieces. soak the potatoes in cold water until ready to use.

1 carrot, peeled (optional)

6-7 eggs

1/2 cup flour (optional)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup canola oil

a generous sprinkling of kosher salt (1-2 teaspoons?)

several grindings of black pepper (I usually do 36, buy that's just my OCD thing)

Preheat oven to 350

Prepare all your ingredients first because speed is of the essence! (mise en place for all you HCB'ers)

Pour 2-3 Tbsp oil into a 9x13 pan and heat it while you're preparing the kugel.

Chop the onion in a food processor almost until pureed, but not quite. (*NOTE: If you choose to continue with the chopper blade, do NOT over-process the potatoes or you will get a yucky gluey texture.)

Put the grated onion into a large mixing bowl.

Process potatoes on the shredding disc, feeding them in through the tube.

Add potatoes to the onions. Add all the other ingredients & mix by hand. As soon as the mixture is ready take the pan out of the oven and pour it all in. Bake until the top turns golden brown.

I use the chopper blade for the onion so there are no large chunks of onion, then switch to the grater disc for the (optional carrots) and potatoes. I realized that the consistency is better when you first cut the potatoes into small enough pieces that they fit into the tube, so there aren't any really long strands.

Heating the pan with a couple of tablespoons of oil also helps to get a nice crust on the bottom.

You have to work fast,so it doesn't turn color!

Freshly ground pepper.

It should give a little sizzle when you pour it in.

Bake for at least an hour on 350 until the top is nice and golden. Nothing better than hot kugel fresh from the oven!

P.S.
I also baked a really good Honey Cake for Rosh Hashanah from Marcy Goldman's cookbook:

P.P.S.

Honey, please remember to put the dishtowel back in this spot:

I can't stand when its missing!

thanks!

Love you!

-Mrs. Mendy

Heavenly Cake - Golden Ingots

2010-09-05T18:13:00.035-04:00

ב''ה

These ingots were good but not fantastic. Using only liquid butter made them seem oily or gooey or something. I am not sure what we were really going for here. I also did not use the food processor on the ground almonds and think they really would have had a smoother texture if I had.

The "Ez Man," who can now have real dairy, did not seem to mind the funny texture. He had a GREAT time with these!

Mis en place: (no, I did not add the wine or the vodka to the cakes...)

Warming both the butters.

The batter. O.K. so the one direction I did not follow was to measure out the melted butter. I figured there was only one extra tablespoon in there anyway and most of it probably got soaked into the paper towel that was lining the sieve. It was not clear if we were supposed to get rid of the milk solids on top of the butter or not. I just left them there. Maybe all this caused the overly 'oily' texture, although, I'm not convinced.

Before the butter.

...and after the butter.

BBA - Sourdough Pumpernickel Bread

2010-09-02T21:43:00.000-04:00

ב''ה

If you are interested in a great tutorial on how to shape round braided Rosh Hashana Challah,
Check this out!

O.K., so they got a little flat. Nu, so kill me. That's what you get when you don't use a couch or contain it with a pan.

My husbandly stash of flours. Notice the arrow root for the upcoming HCB charrlote.

I made a rye starter a couple days before hand using my regular starter as base.

This recipe calls for cocoa and brown sugar. Surprisingly, no molasses.

For pumpernickel you add old rye bread crumbs.

The dough ready to rise.

After a full nights rise. The dough was a little wet, so it was hard to shape. Maybe that's why it did not retain its shape properly on the second rise.

The "Ez Man" loved the corn meal.

Ready to rise? Aak! I had a feeling There would not be enough room So I transfered two to another baking sheet.

Aaak! They are supposed to rise up, not out!

They were to wet to transfer again. I folded them over themselves, so as to retain the most rise possible, and hoped for the best.

Not bad for a lump of clay. ;) It tasted delicious! The rye starter really came through nicely.

Heavenly Cake - Chocolate Cake with Caramel Ganache

2010-08-29T06:13:00.000-04:00

ב''ה

The ganache really stole the show with this cake.

Mis en place:

Dry ingredients and cocoa.

Before the eggs.

Ready to go in.

I'm really not sure what I did wrong here but the cakes crumb turned out very dense. I even measured the ingredients and everything. Maybe I did not bake it long enough.

Heat the sugar for the caramel.

Pour the cream etc.

What a fantastic ganache! I bet this would go well with a lot of other cakes. Really classic.