A Sweet Memory

My Bubbie Raye died this week.

She was my mother's mother. (My father's mother, bless her, is doing well at 95.)
Bubbie was 93 years old, and had 11 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

A few weeks ago, my mom was visiting her and brought to me all of her recipes. Some were not much to write home about, but I found what I wanted.

Bubbie Raye did not live in town, so she would come to visit and we would visit her. For all of her traveling years, those visits began with mohn (poppyseed) cookies. She would pull them out of her suitcase at our house or we would find the container in hers. Not-too-sweet, very simple and plain, full of those little black seeds. It never occurred to me that I could make them myself, they were hers.

So when I heard the news that she had died, I went to the store and got some poppyseeds.

And I made cookies...

Her recipe for Poppyseed Cookies (in case you can't read her handwriting)

Beat:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 (cup) crisco

1/4 cup oil

Combine and add to egg mixture

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

Then add 1/4 cup poppyseeds

Refrigerate overnight - roll out and cut into shape with a glass.

Bake at 350.

Now, she didn't say how long - I'm sure she made them so often that was second nature. But I'll tell you, 8 minutes is just perfect. Oh, and I put them on parchment paper, but I'm sure she didn't do that either. 

I have many memories of her, but biting into those cookies?

Very sweet.

Me and my Bubbie, in 2008

May her memory be for a blessing - zichrona livracha.

When I'm a Bubbie...

This week's Haveil Havalim is over here.

My Bubbie is almost 95 years old. She doesn't bake any more, but when she did, she had some great recipes, like carrot cake and mandelbrot. The other great thing that she made, possibly the greatest of them all, was her coffee cake. She made a yeast dough cake that was similar to "monkey bread" - each piece was rolled in cinnamon-sugar and (sometimes, when I was lucky) nuts, and then squished together to make a pull-apart cake. Truly spectacular. So good that my parents shlepped some to me in Israel, so good that I'm pretty sure they shlepped some to Cincinnati when my first child was born, so good that I remember digging into one on a plane ride with my aunt when I was 8 years old.

So good that I've never ever ever tried to make it.

Plus, the recipe calls for scalded milk, which scares me.

So I had a bit of a yen for coffee cake. Something cinnamony and cakey and delicious.
And I did NOT have a yen to deal with yeast dough.

So I went to my trusty King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion, which always comes through for me with the best recipes and I picked out the Classic Cinnamon-Nut Coffee Ring to make on Sunday morning.

I was NOT disappointed.

Recipe, slightly modified by me:

Cake
5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces) butter
1/3 cup (2 3/8 ounces) vegetable oil
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups (9 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream (I used vanilla yogurt, because that’s what I had)

Filling
1/2 cup (2 ounces) chopped walnuts or pecans (didn’t feel like dealing with children who say silly things like “I don’t like nuts” when they’re just crazy.)
1/2 cup (3 ounces) chocolate chips (I really didn’t want the chocolate to mess with my cinnamony goodness)
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
For the cake
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter, oil, and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the salt and flavorings and beat until evenly incorporated.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. (If you let your kids do this part, note that they should keep their little fingers out of the mixture, ok?) Add the flour mixture to the butter-egg mixture alternately with the yogurt, mixing on slow speed just until blended. 

For the filling
In a small mixing bowl, combine the nuts, chocolate chips, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter.

Spoon half of the cake batter into a lightly greased 9- or 10-inch tube or bundt-style pan. Smooth the batter to level it and sprinkle on two thirds of the all of the filling. Top with the remaining batter and sprinkle with the remaining filling.

Bake the cake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. The smaller (9-inch) pan will take the longer time to bake. (By the way, my 10-inch pan took almost 55 minutes too.) Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack. Cool it completely, then sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar before serving, if desired.

Why should you put all the filling in the middle? Read the directions very carefully. It says to put the rest on the top, and then you flip it OUT of the pan. Guess where most of that cinnamony-goodness ended up? Yep, on my counter top. Under the wire rack conveniently placed there. Nonsense. I am not going to waste all that deliciousness again. See how in this picture (above) it appears that there's some sprinkly stuff on top? That was me trying to save some of that fallen-off cinnamony-goodness. {{{Sigh}}} Live and learn.


Huge hit.

I think that when I'm a Bubbie (God willing), this is the cake that I'm going to make for my grandchildren. It's that good.

Hamantaschen Test Kitchen #6: Yeast Dough Hamantaschen

I'll admit, I had never even heard of Yeast Dough Hamantaschen until a congregant of mine mentioned them to me. Somehow, the idea of yeast dough for hamantaschen piqued my curiosity (and, um, my tastebuds!). Marcy Goldman, in her cookbook Jewish Holiday Baking, has a recipe, but it calls for scalded milk. Too complicated! Hey Marcy, why do you have to scald the milk? What's the benefit?

So instead, I turned to the trusty Internet and found this recipe from the wise Gil Marks.
No scalded milk required.

It worked great. I did the overnight rise, and then baked them in the morning. I'm a little bit hooked on the slightly sour yeasty flavor of the dough coupled with the sweetness of the date filling that I used.

Don't they look yummy? I ate mine fresh out of the oven, it was

soft and fabulous.

Some things that I found perplexing about working with this recipe, though:
1. These definitely opened up way in the oven way more than any other hamantaschen I've made. Even with an egg wash to bind them. I wonder how to keep them together more. I also used egg wash on top before baking.

2. When rolling out, I couldn't get the scraps to "re-roll." Thus, I ended up with a lot of waste. I couldn't figure out what to do with the scraps, I'm sure I could have made little rolls or something, but I couldn't get the dough to reconnect with itself. Any bread makers out there have advice for me in this department?

3. The extra rising made the whole thing take a lot longer. Not only the dough (I'm used to the chilling thing) but also the second rise. I wonder if that had something to do with the opening up in the oven thing also.

And thus ends the Great Hamantaschen Test Kitchen of 5770.

Whew. I think that a whole year until I see another hamantaschen will be just about right.

I think that next year I'll just make chocolate and cream cheese. Those were my two favorites. Hmm. Maybe a batch of the yeast dough ones again to see if I can get them right? And the gingerbread ones were pretty yummy....ack!

Previous Hamantaschen Test Kitchen posts here:
Cream Cheese Dough
Gingerbread?
Gluten Free Hamantaschen
Chocolate!
Aunt Dora's Recipe

Mandelbrot Follow-up

I made the mandelbrot again this week. I wanted to see if I could perfect the recipe.

My parents were both visiting for the day, and I used their expertise to make sure I was doing it right:

My mom, helping me to "get it right". 

I wanted to see what she thought they were supposed to look like at this stage, since I'd never seen it before!

I didn't toast the walnuts, this time. Tasted more authentic.

My parents brought some to my bubbie (the Spry version, not the oil version) and she called me in rapture: "Better than mine ever were!"

I think she's biased.

My Inner Bubbie: Mandelbrot

One of the things that my Bubbie made all the time was mandelbrot. If you're not familiar with this cookie, it's basically a Jewish biscotti.

Confession: I'm not a huge fan.

I mean, I like them and all. But they're not my favorite. Too crunchy, too crumbly. Good, but not life-changing.

Confession #2: Not only have I never made them before, I have never seen anyone make them before.

Yep, never followed Bubbie around the kitchen for these puppies. I have perfected her carrot cake, so you can see where my priorities lie.

So when a request was made for mandelbrot, I had to go back to the source. I called my mom, who has both of my Bubbies' recipes (both are, thank God, still living, but neither one bakes any more...in their mid-90s, both of them!)...and she scanned them in for me.

Bubbie Rose:

Bubbie Raye:

Both clearly well-worn and well-used recipe cards. What the heck is Spry? Turns out, it's like Crisco.

So, without any Spry, I knew that oil would be my fat of choice. Then I opened every single Jewish cookbook I own (I think there are about 10), enlisted my mom and my mother-in-law in their recollection of mandelbrot baking, and even made a phone call to Bubbie Rose while baking. I knew she'd kvell that I was making mandelbrot, and I figured it didn't hurt to question an expert...

So here's the recipe I adapted from a conglomeration of sources:

Traditional (?) Mandelbrot

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup canola oil
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts lightly toasted
3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together eggs, sugar, oil, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Add 3 cups of flour and stir with a wooden spoon. (Okay, Bubbie said "use a wooden spoon, or whatever you want to mix it.) Add more flour if you think it's too sticky. If you never made it before, don't add any extra flour because it's probably fine.

Add the chopped nuts, and stir them in.

On a cookie sheet lined with parchment (or greased, but I'm a parchment gal), shape into logs. I think mine were a little too wide.

Bake for about 22 minutes. (The logs above are actually cooked, it's hard to tell.)
Remove from oven, and while hot, slice the logs, like so:
(According to my dad AND my mom, this is the time to "snitch" one off the cookie sheet. I agree. They're really good soft and hot.)

Turn the slices on their sides. Some people sprinkle here with cinnamon and sugar. Bubbie said "I never did that but I know that other people like to." When I questioned her about chocolate chips, she said: "Well, I don't like all that extra stuff in there. But some people like to." She's very open to alternative ideas, my bubbie. Bake for another 15-20 minutes or until they're crunchy and brown.

And there you have your mandelbrot. Mine didn't last long, I brought them in for the Hebrew School teachers. They were well-received. They did not taste like Bubbie's as I recall them...maybe I'll have to try out some Spry.

I plan to make them again this week with my mom, so she can lend a more practiced eye. I think I would chop the nuts more finely, but others said that they liked that there was a bite to the nuts. This experience opened me up to a lot of things I've never made, let alone watched anyone else make. For example, I've never made rugelach, or teigelach, or even keneidlach. I've seen kreplach made, but never done it myself. What other great old Jewish foods are out there that I don't know how to make? I'm a hamantashen maven. So...now I'm going to learn. Rugelach are next in the new series here at Ima on and off the Bima... "My Inner Bubbie." Stay tuned!

By the way, I heard that Creative Jewish Mom was hosting a link-up party for Jewish crafts and recipes today (tomorrow?) so I might update with a link over to that.