Lithuanian Challah

This week's challah recipe is Maggie Glezer's Lithuanian Challah. A simple bread that is more on the side of water challah than egg. That is to say there are no eggs, save for the glaze, and very little sugar. The lack of both are responsible for the lack of color and browning and the rather matte finish on the end product. The process for making it is the same as usual. I made a double batch and prepared the dough the night before, including the braiding step, as I knew I wouldn't be able to do it because of my surgery and what is Shabbat without homemade challah? That thought was what was making me nervous about having the operation. I left explicit instructions for my younger as to what to do including the most important: TAKE PICTURES! And take pictures she did. She was nervous that she didn't bake them long enough but she did a great job. They turned out very flat, deflated looking and somewhat amorphous, but that was my oversight as I think I allowed them to rise too long in the refrigerator. The resulting challah was holey and bubbly and the crumb was nice and creamy. I liked the flavor as did everyone else all of whom likened the flavor to a croissant. I did not quite get where they were coming from but took it as a compliment and ran. This would make a good regular sandwich loaf. I'm starting to realize that it's important to use a good vegetable oil, as the flavor tends to come through, especially in the less sweet, less eggy breads. I hope to try the sourdough variation sometime soon.

Favorite Lemon Squares

I told you I'd be up and posting soon after surgery! Thank G-d the surgery was successful and I'm slooowly, but surely, recovering. The doctor said it (my good ole gall bladder) reallly needed to come out, even though I had been feeling normal, so I'm glad that it's over and done with. I will say that I'm anxious to get back into the kitchen, though! Sorry for ruining all y'all's appetites with all the medical speak. Knowing that I would be out of commission Friday, I baked lemon squares the night before and prepared the challot as well (coming up). The lemon squares I baked for my sister who has been literally been begging me to make them since I've been here. As she's been going through some drama lately, I decided that this would be a good time to make them. I used the Favorite Lemon Square Recipe in Carole Walter's Great Cookies. Although I didn't make them overly lemony at all, they still hit the spot. They were more sweet than lemony, although next time I would add more zest and use fresh juice. I know I should have used fresh, but honestly, it was the day before surgery, I wasn't eating and I couldn't be bothered. The crust came together easily. I didn't use the mixer to mix the filling, but I don't think it took away from the end result. They turned out smooth, creamy, with a nice, soft bite from the crust. Let me be the first to say that these are addictive. Evening out corners adds up, let me tell you. Common in the cookie files, lemon squares are no less special and I think I've hit my go- to recipe. I look forward to trying this with different citruses.

Favorite Lemon Squares
from Carole Walter's Great Cookies

Crust:
1 cup margarine or butter
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Filling:
4 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar- (the recipe calls for superfine, but granulated works just as well)
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (or bottled for a very subtle lemon flavor)
1 tbsp fresh lemon zest
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 9x13 inch pan with aluminum foil for easy release and cutting. Lightly grease the foil with non-stick spray.

Place the margarine in a microwave safe bowl,

and heat until melted. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

Add the flour and powdered sugar

and stir until it comes together.

Press the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for twenty minutes or until lightly golden around the edges.

This is how you want your crust to look. About seven minutes before the crust is due to come out of the oven (depending if you're making the filling by hand or by mixer),

place the four eggs in a bowl and mix well for a couple of minutes.

Add the sugar to the bowl and mix vigorously until light and thickened. It might take awhile by hand, but your mixer should make short work of this.

Add the juice, zest, baking powder and salt,

mix well to combine.

Pour the filling over the hot crust,

and bake for 25-28 minutes until firm and nicely browned. Let cool 3-4 hours before cutting. When ready to serve, dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!

The Big Honey Cake

...or should I say the ubiquitous honey cake? It had to be done. But, I promise, this is the last Rosh HaShana (New Year) related post as well as the last recipe (for now) from Marcy Goldman's Passion for Baking. (I'm also scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning, but don't worry, I'll be up and posting after the weekend!) But what would the high holidays be without a honey cake?! I thought so. And so, I bring to you The Big Honey Cake. And big, more like ginormous, it is. This cake can easily feed an army and send it into sugar shock as well, from all the sweetener (5 cups!). Thankfully though, the cake isn't as sweet as the ingredients would have you believe. It turns out dark and dense but still moist and delicious, worth it for the baking honey scent, although I was careful to have it in small doses... That's the danger in knowing what you put in things! For all the ingredients called for here, the cake comes together pretty quickly. Made in a 9x13 size pan, the cake rose high above to make an impressive looking bakery-style cake. This honey cake would be good with a nice cup of tea or coffee. Freeze leftovers. My family could barely finish half.

The Big Honey Cake
adapted from Marcy Goldman's A Passion for Baking

7 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground allspice

2 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup honey

3 cups white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

7 eggs

1 1/3 cups brewed coffee

1 cup rice milk

1/2 cup orange juice

Preheat your oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 inch pan and line it with a parchment sheet large enough to extend up all four sides of the pan. There's alot of batter, and it will bake around the parchment otherwise. Gently spray the parchment with non stick cooking spray.

In a very large bowl, place all of the dry ingredients;

whisk thoroughly to combine.

Pile on top of that all the remaining ingredients,

and stir realllly well to combine. It's alot, but you can do it!

Pour the batter into the prepared pan,

and bake 1 hour. Turn the oven down to 325 and bake another 45 minutes until magnificent. Or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean. If still not done, turn the oven down again to 300 and bake until the tester comes out clean. An extra 10-15 minutes should just about do it. Be sure to share this cake with someone you love! Happy holidays!

Irish Whiskey Apple Cake

No Rosh HaShana is complete without an apple cake. I was excited and nervous to try out this new recipe, one of two I made from Marcy's A Passion for Baking (more on that later). Funny enough, the recipe that easily could have gotten overlooked if not for my need for an apple cake ended up being the favorite this holiday. Slowly, slowly, slices kept disappearing until it was mostly gone. Unfortunately, nothing ever really gets finished in this house. But we got close this time! This unassuming cake features a bunch of different flavors making you wonder what is this cake made of?!, but none of them are assertive enough to steal the show; they kind of just meld together into one deliciously moist cake. The apples aren't too dominant thanks to Marcy's advice not to use Granny Smiths. If those float your boat, though, by all means use them. Owing to my tremendous impatience when it comes to depanning cake, alot of pieces stuck to the inside of my lovingly greased pan. That's ok, because it just contributed to the rustic look that is synonymous with apple cake, anyway.

Irish Whiskey Apple Cake
from Marcy Goldman's A Passion for Baking

For the apples:
5 cups Cortland or MacIntosh apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the cake:
2 cups sugar
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
4 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup Irish whiskey
3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Finishing Touch:
2 tbsp sugar mixed with 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350. Liberally spray or grease a bundt pan.

Slice your apples and place them in a bowl.

Add the cinnamon, lemon juice, and salt,

stir to combine and set aside while you prepare the cake batter.

Place the margarine, sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of your mixer.

Cream thorougly.

All at once add the eggs, vanilla, juices, and whiskey.

Combine well. The mixture may look curdled, but will smooth out once the dry ingredients are added.
Gently mix in the flour, baking powder and salt.

This is what you should end up with.

Pour the apple mixture atop the cake batter,

and fold super gently just to combine.

Spoon the cake into the pan and sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Don't omit this! It results in the most delicious crust.

Bake until golden brown and until a cake tester inserted comes out clean, anywhere from 75 minutes to an hour and a half.

Depan at your own risk!!! Have enough patience to wait until completely cool. Otherwise you'll end up with a homely and rustic, but still delicious cake.

Honey Whole Wheat Challah

I can't believe Rosh HaShana is over! I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to post before the holidays to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year but I was just too busy preparing! The holiday was lovely and loud as usual, as all my siblings who live in America joined us. I was so excited! I love having family time and I love holidays, so the two together was great. Exhausting but great. For Rosh HaShana, it is customary to have apples and honey, as I'm sure you've heard by now. (Sound of the old familiar, dip the apple in the honey grating on yours ears yet?) So it was a no brainer that the Challah that would accompany our four meals would involve honey. I've long used this Honey Whole Wheat Challah recipe. In fact, it is the recipe that I first learned to make challah with. It is remarkable to mark that journey; my first loaves were hard and dry, which only encouraged my father to start swinging them like baseball bats at the table. Now, my challot are light and airy and easily sliceable. Those were good times. This recipe makes alot of dough- it's about a five pound batch. I used 1 kilo of whole wheat flour and the rest regular all purpose flour, which makes dense, but still moist loaves. Play around with the proportions to suit your liking. I made the dough and allowed it to rise once at room temperature. I deflated it and let it rise overnight until I was ready to bake. I was nervous throughout that the resulting would be heavy and dry, but it was surprisingly moist and delicious. Also adding to the fun and pleasure of this baking was my five year old niece helping me roll out the "snakes" that we were going to coil into the customary rounds. Baking in itself is sweet, but baking with those you love makes it more so. Check out Susan's weekly Yeastspotting roundup and best wishes to you and your families!