"This Tastes Like Cake" Fresh Yeast Challah

Another week, another batch of challot. Last weekend, I tried out this recipe from Marcy Goldman's A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. (Let me just say- if you're interested in recipes of the sort, buy this book. Everything I've tried has been a winner!) The recipe caught my eye because she says it tastes like cake and it uses fresh yeast. How does it fare? Well, it doesnt quite taste like cake (a really good thing!) but it is delicious. Crumb and texture is fantastic and the color is quite beautiful. I baked them in loaf pans to get more color all around. I've also discovered that I love sticking them on the hot plate on Shabbat so that their bottoms get nice and crunchy/toasty. I didn't notice that the fresh yeast gave this any unique flavor, but it is fun to switch things up a bit, especially since fresh yeast is so easily available here. Try this egg challah recipe- it's giving Joan a run for her money! This made two large loaves and a roll but I'm sure that you could three smaller loaves.

Brownies with Chocolate-Cheesecake Topping

I know these pictures look like an oddly swirled lump of chocolate and something white but really these are brownies with a cheesecake and chocolate topping. I will admit, these look nothing like the beautiful picture in Carine Goren's Sweet Secrets, but they were pretty darn good. I made these also for my commander's surprise post-sheva brachot sheva bracha and by the next day, all the brownies were gone. I was a bit nervous about how the brownies would come out but they turned out to be dense and fudgy. The cream cheese layer is a bit thin (my pan was American size, I guess a bit larger than Israeli pans) and because I didn't let it chill sufficiently, the chocolate kind of muddled with the cheese. Instead of trashing the whole thing (which I totally would have done!) I just decided to swirl the whole thing and really no one was the wiser. Kind of messy to eat but worth getting chocolate on your chin for... and I'm not even a cheese person. It's really critical that your cheese and margarine for the filling is at room temperature or else they wont blend well enough. I made that mistake and had to strain the filling. Be smart though, give each layer enough to time to chill so that theyll come out picture-perfect.

Biscuit Cake

My commander recently got married, and to celebrate we threw her a little surprise party at the beginning of last week. I was told to make a cheesecake and planned to make a white chocolate cheesecake and some brownies with a cheese topping (for another post!). Well, the cheesecake flopped, so I was back to the drawing board. I flipped through ALL my cookbooks and finally decided to make this biscuit cake. The original recipe comes from Carine Goren's Sweet Secrets but is heavily adapted and doesnt resemble the original in anyway. I basically made the cream and layered it with vanilla and chocolate biscuits and topped with some mocha sauce I had laying around. The result was so delicious and for some reason, nostalgic. It reminded one of my friends of a cake her mother made growing up and it brought me back to one of my first baking experiences ever- making a no-bake biscuit cake in my sixth grade baking group. This cake is not only super easy to make but is lick-the-bowl-clean delicious. Make sure to freeze this cake so it's firm and sliceable. It's kind of messy to eat no matter what, but that makes it even better, I think. Putting this one in the drawer for Shavuot!

Black Bottom Pie

Alright- time to catch up on my pies! I made this one a while ago for dessert for Shabbat lunch and it's another from Haedrich's Pie! This pie is messy to eat but I can assure you it's worth all of the napkins it'll take to clean the cream from your chin! We start with a biscuit or graham cracker crust and then pile in a ganache, which is your black bottom. On top of that goes a whipped cream lightened pastry cream with a flavor that brings me back to my childhood Swiss Miss days. (I must say I love making these pudding/custard/cream pies, especially since the work can so easily be divided over a couple of days!) A nice fudge sauce would be nice but I opted out. To make the ganache parve, I used coconut milk instead of cream. My cream turned out sort of soft, (hence the mess!) so I would add a bit of gelatin next time to stabilize it. All in all, another successful pie. Pi(e) day, here I come!

Peanut Butter Pie

Things have getting busy in my army life (in the best way!) and that's why posting has not been happening. I have somewhat of a day off and one of my goals is to get this post posted! A couple of weeks ago, more like a month ago, I was invited out for Friday night dinner and was asked to bring dessert. Her criteria were gooey, cinnamoney and fruity. Well, I took gooey and ran with it! I did some research and came across this recipe for Peanut Butter Pie in Patty Pinner's Sweety Pies. After confirming that no one was allergic to peanuts and that peanut butter was an acceptable choice, I made my shopping list. This pie comes together really easily, you just stir a bunch of things together. I decided to add some chocolate to the bottom to cut the sweetness. Next time, I need to use chocolate chips or chop the chocolate because the blocks didnt melt. I must say, this pie is GOOEY. And decadent and delicious. Cut small wedges to prevent from sugar-shock. Whipped cream is also necessary to cut the sweetness a bit. I didn't flavor it at all. As far as the gooey factor, I guess I must not have baked it long enough. Be sure to bake for the full length of time- covering with foil as necessary to prevent over browning.