Strawberry Cheesecake Hamantaschen

Yep, you heard me. Strawberry, cheesecake, hamantaschen. Head in to the kitchen right now and make them. You won't regret it. A buttery crisp shell with a rich filling of strawberry jam, cheesecake and a sprinkle of graham cracker (or Lotus cookie) crumbs - these are just one perfect bite. So what are you waiting for?

Mexican Churros for Hanukkah!

If your arteries aren't completely clogged yet on this second day of Hanukkah, then come on into my kitchen for a journey to a different kind of fried treat - the churro! Since traditional holiday foods are all about one thing - the oil - there's no need to stick to the classic sufganiya (jelly doughnut). (Latkes should stay latkes though, don't even get me started). So this year I tried this classic Mexican street food - with delicious results.

Cream Cheese Danishes

If you're looking to make a cheesecake this Shavuot (or, you know, Wednesday), then boy do I have you covered. But if you're looking for maybe something a little different this year, then step on into my kitchen, to discover the wonder that is soft, fresh, homemade cheese danishes.

Chocolate Gelt Cookies

Sure, Chanuka/Hanukkah is all about the frying, but that doesn't mean the only desserts you can serve all week are dripping with oil. Chocolate gelt - another traditional symbol of the holiday -
are just as cute when part of some cute sugar cookies. And they're less likely to melt in your hands!

Hamantaschen, Hamantaschen, Hamantaschen

Hamantaschen - the traditional three-cornered cookie eaten on the Jewish holiday of Purim - have a terrible reputation. And there's a reason for that. I would say 90% of the hamantaschen I've eaten from bakeries and stores and even other people's homes have been terrible. Dry, tasteless, crumbling and with unappetizing filling, they seem a difficult thing to master. But they shouldn't be. After all, what distinguishes hamantaschen is their shape, not any particular dough or filling. So why not enjoy some seriously tasty varieties this year? 

Chocolate, Raspberry and Coconut Hamantaschen

It's that time of year again...Purim! For my gentile friends, this Jewish holiday, coming up on March 20, is a day of festivities filled with costumes, gifting of food and a big, festive meal. It is also traditionally marked by eating triangle shaped cookies, commonly known as hamataschen. 

Doughnuts - Baked and Fried

Happy Chanukah everyone! For those of you not celebrating - today is the first day of Chanukah...but there are seven more to come. Which is seven more days for you to make your own doughnuts at home. Yes, doughnuts! 

Rosh HaShanah Desserts

A week from today, at sundown, is the Jewish holiday of Rosh HaShanah. Marking the new year, Rosh HaShanah is one of the most important days in the Jewish calendar. And, like all Jewish holidays, it's marked with a celebration of food! There are some weird food customs, such as eating/having on the table the head of a fish/sheep (we prefer to dissect jelly fish). Pomegranates are popular, as their seeds are said to correspond to the number of commandments. There are also several foods that are good omens for the new year based on their names, like carrots, gourds, leeks, beets, dates and - fenugreek. What? Yeah I don't know either. And there is the seminal classic - apples and honey - to guarantee a sweet new year.

Well, only a few of those ingredients interest me. So, here are some suggestions for the upcoming holidays:

1 - Apple Pie

2 - Carrot Muffins
3 - Honey Cake

4 - Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Meringue

5 - Alsatian Apple Tart

6 - Apple Cinnamon Bundt Cake
And I'm not done yet! Check in later this week for a sweet apple galette, and a delicious chocolate babke. I know I'm going to be eating for three days straight - are you? PLUS - I have a birthday coming up soon, and some interesting childhood photos to share. Stick around - it's going to be a fun week!

Rugelach

You would think that after my miserable failure at a traditional Jewish dessert, I would be too afraid to soldier on. You would think wrong. Somehow I still took on these little crescent shaped rolls that are of Ashkenazic Jewish origin. Their name - "rugelach" means little twists or little corners in Yiddish.
The dough for these is incredibly simple - just four ingredients, one of which is salt - and comes together really quickly if you have a food processor. And then - the fillings. You can go wild. Mix, match, mismatch, mismix (is that a word?) and put whatever you want in these things.

I made two variations - one that was raspberry jam with mini chocolate chips...
...and the other cocoa, cinnamon and more chocolate chips - you could also use chopped chocolate. (If using cocoa brush the dough with a little melted butter or oil).
After the dough is rolled into a circle and sprinkled/spread/coated with the filling of your choice, the rest is pretty simple. A pizza cutter comes in handy for slicing the circle into sixteen (sort-of) equal pieces. Then comes the fun part - rolling! Try not to lose any filling.
The rolled up cookies get brushed with egg, sprinkled with sugar (there is none in the dough) and baked.
If you can wait for them to cool before eating, then I applaud you. If not, then wait at least a few minutes so you don't burn your mouth.
I'd definitely love to try these again with more variations - different jams, maybe a chocolate ganache, raisins or other dried fruits, and if I'm baking for others even some chopped nuts.

Tip of the Day: If you don't have a food processor, at least invest in a pastry cutter (I have this one) - to cut your butter (or cream cheese) into dry ingredients evenly and quickly.

Recipe: (adapted from from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)
Note: I used Tofutti's soy cream cheese and thought they were still great.
Dough:
4 ounces cold cream cheese
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold butter or margarine
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

Filling:
2/3 cup jam of your choice
chopped chocolate
sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling
anything else you want to add

1 egg
1 tsp cold water
2 tbsp sugar

Put flour and salt in the bowl of a a food processor, and scatter the cream cheese and butter in chunks on top. Pulse the machine six to ten times, scraping down the sides as necessary, until dough comes together.
Turn the dough out, gather it into a ball, divide it in two, and refrigerate each half in plastic wrap for at least two hours.
Working with one packet of dough at a time, on a lightly floured surface, roll out into an 11 to 12 inch circle.
Spread jam on top and sprinkle with cinnamon, sugar and any additional toppings - nuts, chocolate, raisins, etc. Use a piece of parchment or wax paper to press the filling gently into the dough.
Slice the dough into quarters, then eights, then sixteenths, taking care so the wedges are as even as possible.
Starting at the outside rim of each triangle (the base), roll each triangle up so that it becomes a little crescent. Make sure points are tucked under the cookie, and arrange on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Repeat with the second packet of dough.
Refrigerate the rugelach for at least 30 minutes before baking.
Stir the egg and water together, and brush over the cookies. Sprinkle with sugar - coarse is preferable.
Bake on 350 F for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from from the trays and place on a cooling rack to cool.

Carrot Muffins: Passover and Not

A few weeks ago I made some carrot muffins for a meal I hosted in my apartment. They were a hit. Today I thought I could try them out for Passover - substituting a combination of matzah meal and potato starch for the flour. They were...interesting.

The ones with flour were cute and delicious - moist without being too heavy, and just enough carrots that you felt they may have some redeeming nutritional value aside from being cake.
They were smaller than I thought - the recipe called for 18, but I could certainly make 12 or 14 slightly larger ones, and adjust the baking time.
The ones without were not so cute, and definitely not as delicious. But they weren't bad. They were not so cute because they didn't spread at all, or even out, so they had funny, lumpy shapes.
They weren't as delicious, because, well, let's face it - they weren't made with flour. I definitely wouldn't say they were bad. - quite decent for Passover muffins - maybe could do with an upping of the sugar or cinnamon content, but overall pretty OK. I know, a resounding compliment.
In addition to having to substitute the flour, my baking powder was a special Passover mix made with potato starch instead of corn starch. I also had a problem with the milk. Normally I use soy milk to keep my baked goods dairy free. Soy is one of those things that Ashkenazi (of Eastern European descent) Jews cannot have on Passover, and I couldn't find any coconut milk. So I used orange juice. And I used about an extra 1/4 cup to add some moistness.
Anyway - if I have to pick which one was better, obviously the flour-based version wins by a landslide. But the Passover ones are pretty good for what I have to work with.

Tip of the Day: In this recipe - and in all - I measured the oil out first in the 1/2 cup, then the honey, which enabled the honey to slide right out.

Recipe: (adapted from RecipeZaar)
1 1/2 cups flour (OR 1 cup cake meal plus 1/2 cup potato starch)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup milk (OR soy milk or coconut milk or orange juice)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups grated carrots

Mix together the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
Make a well in the center and add in the wet ingredients - oil, egg, honey, milk, vanilla and carrots.
Stir together until all ingredients are moistened.
Divide among 14 to 18 muffin cups and bake on 400 F for approximately 15 minutes.

Hamantaschen

As many of you know, and some of you certainly don't, this Sunday is the Jewish holiday of Purim. (In Jerusalem, it's Monday, but that is a topic certainly too complicated for a baking blog.) And, like practically every Jewish holiday, it is associated with an iconic food. The Hamantaschen.
The three-cornered cookie is said to be the hat or the ears (depending on who you ask) of Haman - the villian of the Purim story. Why we celebrate our success by eating his hat/ears is beyond the scope of this blog.

Last year, I made hamantaschen that were quite good - but this year I got to thinking. The thing that distinguishes this cookie is the shape, not the dough itself. So I set out to try my favorite sugar cookie recipe out here. Traditionally, these treats were known to have a poppy-seed filling, but you can load up just about anything you want in here - jam, frosting, peanut butter, etc. I decided to make these my favorite combo - chocolate raspberry. My friends and I set to work.
As Sarah, Laura, Alana, Rachel, Abby and I set out to form our creations, we of course had to distinguish whose was whose. You can't tell in this picture that I'm the hamataschen forming champion....
...but you can tell in this one! Those that didn't really seal their ends together, ended up...leaking. Poor Laura. Which quickly led to one of the staples here at Baking and Mistaking...the reject pile. The hallmark of the reject pile? They get eaten first!
After I threw everyone out of the kitchen and got to work, the rest went well. I sprinkled some mini chocolate chips in the center of each circle, then topped with less than a teaspoon of jam. When you fold up the sides, make sure to press them together so they don't pop open in the oven.
The one thing about these is they're not going to brown much in the oven - the dough is meant to stay fairly pale, but it's still delicious!
Rachel got a little creative...if only I had the patience to do this to every one!

For some reason I found this dough quite sticky to work with when I took it out of the freezer, and ended up kneading more flour in before I started. Also use plenty of flour on your surface and rolling pin.

Tip of the Day: The recipe I used is below - but feel free to swap out any sugar cookie recipe. As I said - the secret is in the shape!

Sidenote: For those of you in the Manhattan area - or one of my 1.5 stalkers - I was the featured profile on Midtown Lunch this week: Lunch'er Profile

Recipe:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

jam of your choice
mini chocolate chips

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing until well combined. Add in the vanilla.
Add the flour, baking powder and salt, stirring until combined.
Gather in to a ball and refrigerate or freeze for several hours.

Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a well-floured surface and with a floured rolling pin. Using a round cookie cutter, cut as many rounds as possible from the dough. Fill the center of each with your filling of choice, making sure to leave a large circle on the outside clear. Fold up two of the sides and pinch to close, then fold up the third, forming the triangle.

Bake on a parchment paper lined baking sheet at 350 F for 10 to 15 minutes until just starting to brown around the edges.

Baked Jelly Doughnut Muffins

While I'm all for having a deep-fried jelly doughnut every night of Chanukah (unfortunately I missed Sunday and today), I understand that it's probably not the healthiest option.

Instead, I present you with baked doughnut muffins! Of course, you may think without the deep frying, these lose their significance for Chanukah, but there is oil in the batter - and Chanukah is about oil, not frying!
Now, I'm not going to pretend that if you close your eyes, that this tastes like a jelly doughnut, but they are sweet, delicious, and slightly healthier. My jelly sank a little, probably because I didn't have quite enough flour in the batter. Measuring isn't my strong point. Eating is.
Whatever resemblance these do have to doughnuts, comes from the quick bath they take in granulated sugar while still warm. I gave them about a minute after I pulled them out of the oven to cool down, but they're still pretty hot when you do it, so you'll need strong fingers.
If you're not a jelly fan (which I am, and obviously used raspberry), you could always leave that out. Tip of the Day: After 24 hours, the sugar coating on this begins to crust a little, so you'd better eat them all up quickly!

Recipe:
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup jelly
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

Beat together the sugar and egg until pale yellow.
Add in the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and stir to combine.
Pour in the oil, milk and vanilla, and mix until combined
Fill 12 muffin cups halfway full (don't use paper liners!), and place a teaspoon of jelly on top.
Top with remaining batter.
Bake on 350F for 15 to 18 minutes, until done.
After removing from oven, roll each muffin in sugar and place on wire rack to cool.

Things That Are Hotter Than Fries

I've never deep-fried anything before. But in the spirit of the third day of Chanukah, let me share with you my first attempt. I made doughnuts!
One of the most important things you need when deep frying is the right pot. (You can also get a deep fryer for relatively cheap if you think you'll be doing this a lot). It needs to be both wide and deep - wide because you can only fry one layer at a time, and deep because you need enough room for a few inches of oil and a couple inches headspace at the top to allow for splashing.

You also need a deep-fry/candy thermometer - I got a new one after the demise of my first.
The one I got had conveniently labeled temperatures for stages of candy and deep frying.
My recipe said 365 F for the drop doughnut, which made them slightly hotter than the 350F that was labeled fries. Doughnuts are way hotter than fries. I knew it.

This recipe is really simple. No yeast, no waiting around to rise, no kneading. So with laziness, also comes some sacrifice. This isn't a traditional doughnut, it's more of a cake doughnut. But rolled in glaze, it's just as delicious!

Once I dropped them in by teaspoonful (they will expand), the frying began. At first I was worried I would splash hot oil on myself, and even went to change in to long sleeves before beginning, but my fears were unfounded. I just used a spoon to lower the doughnuts into the oil instead of dropping them in. I also had help from my trusty assistants Mom and Shira. [Hi!]
And I watched as they turned a beautiful golden brown. Some of them needed a little help staying below the surface, and I was happy to assist.
I probably did about ten at a time, plopping them in one by one and waiting for them to get just the right shade of golden brown. Then I pulled them out and let them cool on a paper towel. My assistants and I tried one. Just right.
Next, of course, I wanted a glaze. I could have just rolled them (still warm) in powdered or granulated sugar, but that just wasn't going to cut it for me. So I mixed up a glaze of confectioner's sugar and milk, adding more liquid or more sugar until I got the consistency I wanted. Then I rolled the cooled doughnuts around, and let them set.
Doughnuts! But, the deep-fried treats aren't exactly recommended for snacking eight days a week, so if you're looking for a (slightly) healthier alternative, come back on Wednesday for another Chanukah treat.

Tip of the Day: If you're buying a new thermometer, make sure you get one that clips on to the edge of the pot so you don't have to worry about holding it up. And invest in a good slotted spoon to remove the doughnuts from the pot when they're done!

Recipe:
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
3 tbsps oil

Optional:
powdered sugar
cinnamon sugar
glaze

Fill a large pot with oil, leaving about a two inch headspace at the top. Oils that are good for deep-frying include canola, sunflower, peanut and safflower. Heat over a medium flame.
Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center and add in the egg, milk and oil, mixing until smooth.
Before beginning frying, the oil should reach about 365 F. If it is too cold, the doughnuts will absorb a lot of the oil, and if it is too hot, they will burn on the outside while still being raw on the inside.
Carefully lower by teaspoonful the batter into the oil. You can do several at a time as long as they are not crowded. Leave them to brown on each side, turning if necessary. (They may bob around by themselves). When golden brown all around, remove from oil and place on paper towel to drain.
If rolling in powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar, do when hot.
If coating in a glaze, then wait til cool, and cover.

Honey Cake and a New Year

This weekend is the Jewish holiday of Rosh HaShanah - which means the new year - and one of the traditional foods eaten is Honey Cake. Honey is used as an ingredient to ensure a "sweet new year."
Now, I confess, I don't really like honey cake. It just isn't my thing. But my brother loves it, and when I saw smitten kitchen's recipe for "Majestic and Moist Honey Cake," I figured I would give it a shot. With some substitutions.
Here's the thing though. The original recipe makes 3 loaf pans, or a 9x13" pan, or 2 8 inch pans...you get my drift. I really wanted to make a loaf for some inexplicable reason, and not only do I only have one loaf pan, but I am also bringing this on public transportation, and one loaf seemed like the right size for somebody who doesn't like honey cake.

So I did something bad. I cut the recipe by 2/3. It probably wasn't the best idea. It resulted in some 1/3 of a teaspoon of that and 6 tablespoons of this. And of course some fudging. But I was hoping it would be forgiving.
Another thing - the cake sank in the middle. It sank for Ms. smitten kitchen (OK, her name is Deb), and for many of her readers, and it sank for me too. After reading this I meant to decrease the leavening I used, but somewhere in the third-ing it never happened. But I don't really mind.
Anyway back to those substitutions. The recipe called for a few things I didn't have on hand. Like orange juice. However I did find some peach flavored grape juice in the back of my fridge. And in it went. And somehow, among the spices I've accumulated over the years - which include five containers of cinnamon, four onion powders and two paprikas - I have no allspice or ground cloves. I looked, I promise. So I upped the cinnamon a little and threw some nutmeg in instead. The recipe also called for some rye or whiskey, which I definitely don't have, so I just added more of the tea.

You'd think after all the questionable math and the eyebrow-raising substitutions this would be awful. I kind of thought it would be. But it really wasn't. Even me, professed honey cake hater, was impressed by the moistness and flavor of the cake. If you really hate honey cake, you're not going to love this, but it's certainly an improvement over any others I have. That's not to say that if faced with a piece of honey cake and a chocolate chip cookie, I wouldn't pick the cookie.

Tip of the Day: Small amounts of liquid in recipes can often be substituted with little problem (be a little more cautious with milk) - so try switching things out for new flavor combinations - orange and lemon juice, whiskey, brandy, tea - you never know what you can create.

Recipe: (from smitten kitchen)
Note: I am providing the original recipe, which fits in 3 loaf pans, 2 9-inch round pans, 2 8-inch square pans or 1 9x13" pan. In brackets are the quantities I used, for one loaf pan.

3 1/2 cups [1 cup plus 3 tbsp] flour
1 tbsp [1 tsp] baking powder
1 tsp [1/3 tsp] baking soda
1/2 tsp [dash] kosher salt
4 teaspoons [1 1/2 tsp] ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon [sprinkle] ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon [sprinkle] ground allspice
1 cup [1/3 cup] vegetable oil
1 cup [1/3 cup] honey
1 1/2 cups [1/2 cup] granulated sugar
1/2 cup [ 3 tbsp] brown sugar
3 [1] eggs
1 tsp [1/3 tsp] vanilla extract
1 cup [1/3 cup] warm coffee or strong tea
1/2 cup [3 tbsp] orange juice
1/4 cup [1 1/2 tbsp] rye or whiskey

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice (or nutmeg).
Make a well in the center and add in sugars, oil, honey, eggs, vanilla and liquids.
Whisk together until all ingredients are moistened.
Pour into well-greased pan(s) and bake on 350F following these directions:
Loaf pan: 50-55 minutes
9x13, 8 or 9-inch: 40 to 45 minutes
Tube or bundt pan: 60 to 75 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Meringues

Passover baking always results in cakes and cookies that taste like two things: matzah, and ground nuts. And there is only so much of that I can take. So instead, I'll always prefer to make recipes that are naturally flour free the entire year - like flourless chocolate cakes, coconut macaroons and, as we have here, Chocolate Chip Meringues!These simple cookies contain just egg whites, sugar, vanilla, and chocolate chips - so there is no substituting or leaving out ingredients for this week. And they're so easy too. Just whip them up, stick them in the oven, and forget about them.The batter, if you can even call it that, is beautiful and shiny and white, and they puff up to pretty white puffs with a crispy outside and a chewy, sweet inside.I used chocolate chips in these, but you can make them without any additions, or use chopped nuts - just keep it small so they don't weigh it down. I used mini chocolate chips, but if all you have is bigger, you can run your knife through them before you add them.
The recipe for these came from recipezaar, but I used a little less chocolate chips than called for (all I had) and I think that the full amount might be a little too much. I also estimated on the vanilla and the lemon juice, which I think you could even leave out if you don't have.
Either way, these are a delicious, simple, and passover-friendly treat!

Tip of the Day: If you are going to try and adapt your favorite recipe, try using 1/2 cup matzah cake meal and 1/4 to 1/3 cup of potato starch to every cup of flour.

Happy Purim!

Yesterday was the Jewish holiday of Purim, which is celebrated with traditional triangular shaped cookies called Hamantaschen.The name refers to the three cornered hat thought to be worn by the villain of the Purim story, Haman.
You can fill these with pretty much anything imaginable (I've seen some pretty inventive things) but if you couldn't tell by now, I love all things raspberry, so clearly thats where I went.
I actually made this dough a couple days in advance, since it needs to be refridgerated for at least a few hours, and I had the time to quickly put it together then.
The cookies are rolled out, then circles are cut out of the dough, the filling placed in the middle and the three sides folded up into adorable little shapes.I realized right before I rolled the dough out that I had no cookie cutters, being in my itty bitty dorm kitchen with the basic necessities. (I know, I have a rolling pin and an electric mixer - doesn't every college student?)
So, the recipe called for a 2.5 inch cookie cutter, and I was rummaging through my kitchen trying to find something. I also didn't have a ruler, so I looked up online the size of a dollar bill, and lo and behold, the width is 2.6 inches. Perfect! And, guess what was just slightly smaller than a dollar bill...the lid to my Pam container. Desperation is the mother of innovation I guess, but the lid worked perfectly and the cookies came out great, light and sweet and delicious.
Here the are right before going in the oven - don't worry, I immediately ate the ones that weren't shaped well!

Tip of the Day: If you're rolling out dough on a counter, cover the surface first with lots of wax paper or saran wrap (you can tape it down to keep it in place) for an easier clean up.

Recipe:
Hamataschen (via Good Housekeeping Baking Book)

Dough:
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla

Beat butter until creamy. Add in sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla and mix until well combined.
Beat in flour, baking powder and salt gradually until well combined.
Divide the dough in half and refridgerate for a few hours or overnight.
Roll out dough until 1/8 inch thick, cut out 2.5 inch rounds and reserve trimmings to reroll.
Place 1 tsp filling in the center of each round, and fold up two sides and pinch closed, then fold up the third.
Bake at 375 for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.
Cool for one minute on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.