Tuesday, March 07, 2023

Gluten-Free Coconut Dough for Homentashn Hamentaschen Hamantaschen

 




Last year these rice flour homentashn were smashing.  At the time I said the same recipe would probably work with 20 ounces of any flour mix.  I was close. The coconut flour was a little thirstier, so I used a whole egg and a little more water.

The results were not as foldable as I might have liked, maybe more xanthan gum would help.  The picture above is from the last batch, handled and pinched very carefully.

I added some egg wash so they would not bake up too pale.

I filled these with date filling to keep them in the palm tree family.  Just cook and puree dates.  Remember to take out the pits.

Coconut Flour Dough 

11 1/2 ounces coconut flour 

7 1/2 ounces tapioca flour

3/4 - 1 cup (6 1/2 - 7 1/2 ounces) sugar 

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

9 1/2 ounces (1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons) butter 

one orange, peel, pulp, and pith, pulverized in a processor or blender

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 egg 

1 teaspoon vanilla

about 1/2 cup water, as needed

Crumble the dry ingredients and butter together.

Thursday, March 02, 2023

קאָרן המנטאַשן Rye Homentashn Hamentashen



 

אַלע יאָר זינגען מיר װעגן יאַכנע־דװאָשע מיט איר קאָרן מעל און אַלע יאָר מאַכן מיר המנטאַשן אָן קײן מינדסטן פּיצל קאָרן. זאָל שוין זײַן יושר אויף דער װעלט.   די־אָ המנטאַשן האָב איך גאַמכט לויט שװעדישע רעצעפּטן פֿאַר קאָרן־קיכעלעך.  איך האָב צוגעגעבן אַ ביסל קימל און אויך אַ ביסל קסאַנטאַנ גומע מע זאָל  זײַ קענען בײגן און קנײטשן.

איך האָב זײ אָנגעפֿילט מיט מאַראַנצן מאַרמאַלאַדע, אָבער אַלע געפֿילעכצן װעלן זײ פּאַסן.  זײ זענען געשמאַק װי די װעלט.

Yakhne-Dvoshe famously made her homentashn with rye flour, or at least bought rye flour for homentashn.  To make these I adapted several recipes for Swedish rye cookies that seemed homentashogenic.  I scaled them to use the exact amount of rye flour in the house (5.5 ounces) and added half a teaspoon crushed caraway seeds because how can I leave out the caraway seeds?  I was a little nervous about the foldability of the dough, so I added just a quarter teaspon of xanthan gum.  The dough was wonderfully rollable, foldable, pinchable, and otherwise compliant.  Whether the xanthin gum helped I cannot know, because I can't be doing a Kenji-type double-blind experiment.
Since Swedish rye bread is sometimes flavored with orange juice or zest, I used orange marmalade to fill these.  They are delicious and fragrant, with a little headiness from the caraway.
קאָרן טײג פֿאַר המנטאַשן
קאָרן מעל, 5.5 אָנצן
ראַזעװע געבעקס מעל , 5.5 אָנצן
קסאַנטאַן־גומע, 1/4 לעפֿעלע
קימל, 1/2 לעפֿעלע
שמירקז, 5 אָנצן
פּוטער, 5 אָנצן
צוקער, 5 אָנצן  
 כּשר־זאַלץ 3/4 לעפֿעלע

Rye Dough for Homentashn
5 1/2 ounces rye flour
5 1/2 ounces whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 teaspoon xanthin gum
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon lightly crushed caraway seeds
5 ounces cream cheese
5 ounces butter
5 ounces sugar

Stir together flours, caraway, salt and xanthin gum.  Cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar.  beat in the flour mix until just combined.  Dust the counter with flour and knead to form a dough.  Chill for a few hours or overnight.
Roll the dough 1/8 inch thick and cut circles.  Re-roll the scraps and cut out as many circles as possible.  form the scraps of the scraps into walnut-sized balls and roll each ball individually into a circle.  Fill the circles with a orange marmalade or the filling of your choice and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.


 rye flour קאָרן מעל
  xanthan gum קסאַנטאַן־גומע





Round-up of previous Homentash recipes:




(gluten-free)

Coconut Tapioca Flour Dough

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Friday, February 10, 2023

װעגאַניש גלאַזור פֿאַר חלות און בולקעלעך Vegan Glaze for Challah and Buns

 


Right: flax broth glaze, left: bean broth glaze

A while back I posted a couple of recipes for vegan challah and vegan burger buns.  The vegan challah, enriched with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and squash, has just about taken over as my favorite challah recipe of all time.  In the original post, I made a glaze with agar, which was fine as a medium for attaching poppy seeds, but did not provide the high-gloss finish that sends our endorphins into overdrive when we lift the challah cover.

I think I am much closer with these.  On the left broth from cooking beans (inspired by all the hubbub about "aquafaba" in the veganosphere), but even shinier is the flax broth on the right.  I think it is indistinguishable from 


Flax Glaze for Challah and Everything

1 tablespoon flax seeds

3/4 cup water

Cook the flax seeds in the water for about ten minutes.  The liquid will become gloopy.  Strain out the seeds.  You can mix the seeds into the dough, sprinkle them on top, add them to granola, or whatever.  Allow the glaze to cool and brush onto shaped loaves before baking.


Saturday, October 01, 2022

אַמעריקאַנער מאַלװע Mallow Soup Caldo de Alaches

 

 


I had lots of greens already, but could I walk past these beauties from Grandpa Farm?  They are called alaches. They have beautiful purple flowers, arrow-shaped leaves and woody stems.  The farmer suggested cooking and blending them to make a green soup.

 

Alaches are Malva Alcea (Moose Mallow, hollyhock, cut-leaf mallow) or אַמעריקאַנער מאַלװע

The name "mallow" rang a bell. They are from the same family as Jew's mallow and the original marshmallow.  They do not have the familiar round leaves of those mallows, but arrow-shaped leaves.



I found some recipes in Spanish and tried as best as I could to follow this one. The recipe calls for Alaches leaves, green squash, corn, and an herb with long skinny leaves called pipicha.

I went tearing back to the market for corn and squash.  I did not imagine I would find pipicha, but thought I could make do with a bunch of cilantro.  I went to the farmstand and caught sight of these:

 

"Is this pichipa?" I asked breathlessly.

"Pipicha" she answered, with kindness and patience I hope to deserve. 

The leaves are very fragrant with flavors of cilantro, caraway, pine cone, parsley, and freshly mown grass.

Pipicha is Porophyllum linaria. It is not listed in Plant Names in Yiddish, so for now I will call it פּיפּיטשע

The flavor of the soup is a little herbal and a little mineral, but for me, the strongest taste and the greatest surprise was  a very big potato kind of energy.  For folks who can't or won't eat potatoes for various reasons, this soup could be a deeply satisfying and comforting dish. In fact, it will be deeply satisfying and comforting even to folks who eat potatoes all the time, like me.


Alaches Soup


1 bunch Alaches (mallow), about 1 pound

2 medium zucchini, about 1 pound

1 small onion, peeled

1 clove garlic, peeled

2 ears sweet corn, cut into 1-inch disks

1 small bunch pipicha or cilantro

Remove the alaches leaves and flowers from the stems. It is nice to have some company to do this.  I got about 9 ounces of leaves from a 14-ounce bunch. cover the leaves with water and soak and wash until they are clean. Keep the flowers cool and dry.

Add about two quarts of water to a soup pot or large saucepan. drop in  the zucchini, onion,  garlic, and corn disks, and bring to a simmer.  Add the leaves and two teaspoons salt.  Pull the leaves off the pipicha, and add leaves and stems to the pot. Cook for about another twenty minutes or until everything is quite tender.  The cook to whom I linked above cooke thw soup in a tall clay pot and purees the greens with a long wooden pestle.  This is beautiful, but I felt just removed the corn and stems and blended everything in a blender.  Taste for salt and add more water as needed. Serve with corn and flowers.

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Thursday, September 22, 2022

The Boss of All Honey Cake פֿאַניאַ לעװאַנדאָס האָניק־לעקעך מיט קאָרענע מעל

 

 



If you have a shuf at the recipe below, and if you are familiar with some of the honey cakes I have made over the last 18 years, you might be able to imagine how difficult it was for me to follow this recipe. No fresh or dried fruit? No citrus zest or juice? No coffee or tea or liquor? No spices save a bit of cloves (cloves of all things?)?  Hardly any fat? All that baking soda? Won't this cake be plain, dry, and unremarkable? No, no, and no.  This is honey cake to which all others aspire.  At first you think it is not sweet or moist, but then, just as you finish your first bite, the dark flavors of the rye and buckwheat sneak up you and you need another bite, and then another. I should have known any recipe from The Vegetarish-Dietishe Kokh Bukh would conquer all.

 


 

Rye and Buckwheat Honey Cake

2 eggs

250g (9 ounces, 1 cup) buckwheat honey

250g (9 ounces, 1 1/4 cup) sugar

1/2 teaspoon cloves 

1/2 teaspoon salt

75g  (3 1/2 ounces) oil (I used sunflower oil)

1 1/2 tablespoons (20g, 3/4 ounce) baking soda

 200g (1 3/4 cups, 7 ounces) rye flour

200g (1 3/4 cups, 7 ounces) all-purpose flour
 

Prepare a quarter-sheet pan, a nine-inch cake pan,  or an eight-inch tube pan, and heat the oven to 350f (mark 4). Beat the eggs and add the sugar and honey.  Continue beating, adding the cloves and oil. Sift together the flours and baking soda, and mix into the batter.  If the mixture is too dry add just a little water.

Scrape into prepared pan and bake 25 minutes for the quarter-sheet or 35 for the cake pan, or until a tester comes out clean.  for best results, allow to rest one day.

Monday, August 01, 2022

Cantaloupe Seed Milk

 


Well, how did I never think of this before? I fear I will have to account for every melon seed I ever discarded.  Cantaloupe seed milk is very silky and creamy.  It is a bit on the bitter side, but you can always add a drop more sugar.

Cantaloupe Seed Milk

3 ounces (3/4 cup) cantaloupe seeds (seeds of 2 cantaloupes)

1 1/4 cups water

1fat pinch each sugar and salt

Blend seeds with water.  Strain through a few layers of cheesecloth or a nut-milk bag.

Use in any recipe calling for milk or vegan milk.

 

 

 

Friday, July 29, 2022

Cantaloupe Seeds דינקע קערן

 

 

 

 

The good news is I made these delicious roasted, salted cantaloupe seeds.   The other news is, from this day forward,  whenever I eat cantaloupe and don't cook the seeds I will feel like a disorganized criminal.

 

Roasted Cantaloupe Seeds

Remove seeds from the melon and remove as much cantaloupe fiber as can be easily done.  Don't worry if you don't get it all at first.  

Put the seeds in a saucepan and cover with liberally salted water.  Bring to the boil and cook for five to ten minutes.  Skim off the remaining melon bits.  

Drain the seeds (save the salty seed stock for soups, beans, grains, or pasta).  Roast the seeds on a sheet pan at 350F (177C, Mark 4) for about ten or fifteen minutes to your desired shade of golden-brown.

Re-salinate your poor, parched cells.







Friday, April 15, 2022

Cassavekoek A Passover Cake from Suriname

 


I am very excited to be trying this recipe, for which I am grateful to my brilliant colleague Eli Rosenblatt.

 

The word "cocosnoot" will never cease to delight me


 The recipe comes from “Teroenga” April 1942, the Jewish journal of Paramaribo Suriname.  While I have been arguing for years that cassava (yuca, manioc) is perfect for peysekh, I have not come up with any recipes other than yucas fritas.  This year I am making at least two yuca-centric preparations, this cake, and a vegan sancocho for a  Seder Caribeño or Caribische Seder .


If you have time, Prepare the cassava a day ahead so you can freeze the grated cassava overnight and thaw it out before baking.  Remember to thaw the cassava.  I almost skipped this step.

Cassavekoek (Cassava Bojo)

1 Cassava (about 1 pound to yield about 2 1/2 cups pulp)

1 ripe coconut

1 cup milk

8 ounces ( 1 cup) dark brown sugar (or any sugar, more or less, to your taste)

2 ounces (4 tablespoons, 1/4 cup) butter

5 eggs

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (I had no cinnamon this time, but 1/8 teaspoon would be good)

6 ounces (1 cup) raisins, soaked in 1/4 cup slivovitz, if desired

butter for the pan 

Heat the oven to 350F /180C, and butter a nine-inch cake or pie pan, and six muffin cups or a nine by thirteen pan.

Peel the cassava. You will need a sharp knife because the skin is tough and probably coated with wax. Cut the cassava lengthwise and remove the woody core. 

Grate the pulp or grind it up in a processor. If you have time, freeze the pulp (remmeber to thaw before baking).


 


Pierce the coconut and drain the water.  Bake for about 20 minutes. Smash open, and pry out the pulp.  You need not peel off the brown membrane for this cake. Grate the coconut pulp or grind it in a processor.  While the processor is running add the milk (water would probably be fine).

 


Melt the butter over low heat, and continue cooking a few minutes until it becomes deep brown and smells like the best bakery.

Beat the eggs, beat in the sugar, and drizzle in the brown butter. Fold in the coconut and cassava and the raisins. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans.  Bake for forty minutes until the surface is golden and a knife emerges clean


 Some notes on the original recipe and my adaptations

1. I do not know any Dutch

2. The recipe calls for a sweet cassava.  Fortunately, all the cassava available in the United States is sweet cassava.

3. I browned the butter, because brown butter.

4. Yes, even without knowing Dutch, I can sort of see that the original recipe calls for only three spoons of sugar, but I just have a strong feeling that they are large English-style dessert spoons, about four teaspoons 1 1/3 tablespoon each. Maybe even larger.

5. Traditionally you might soak the raisins in rum, rather than Slivovitz

6. This might be prettier in a cake pan, but one leniency I allow myself is to make all Peysekh cake in aluminum pie pans.

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Sunday, March 13, 2022

Rice Flour Dough for Homentashn (Gluten-Free Hamentaschen)

 


A number of years ago I made this wonderful vegan and wheat-free dough (װעגאַנער גלוטנלאָזער טײג) to approximate wheat-free homentashn.  It works for tartlets or thumbprint cookies, but did not have the rollability or non-crumple-ability for homentashn.  After many assays into gluten-free baking, I think I finally have a rollable, pinchable, sealable, homentashnogenic dough recipe to be getting on with.  You may use the flours I used, specified below, and I think it will probably be just fine with 20 ounces of any gluten-free flour blend.  Just add the one teaspoon of xanthan gum.  This is just enough to give the dough that desired malleability wit adding any gumminess to the taste or texture.

You can probably tell that this recipe owes a great deal to my beautiful friend Helen Gottesman Adelson of blessed memory.  I think of her whenever I make her homentashn, or any homentashn at all.  I substituted a whole orange for the orange juice to provide more of the full brown, sour, and bitter flavor we would otherwise get from wheat.  Maybe you are thinking brown, sour, and bitter does not sound so great, but we do miss them when they're gone.

 

 Rice-Flour (Gluten-Free) Dough for Homentashn

1 cup (7 1/2  ounces) sweet rice flour

1/2 (3 3/4 ounces) cup white rice flour

1/2 cup plus one tablespoon (4 1/2 ounces) potato starch (I happened to have this much.  1/2 cup will work fine).

1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces) chickpea flour (besan)

1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces) tapioca starch

1 teaspoon xanthan gum, if you have any

3/4 - 1 cup (6 1/2 - 7 1/2 ounces) sugar 

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces (1/2 cup) butter

one orange, peel, pulp, and pith, pulverized in a processor or blender

1 yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

about 1/4 cup water, as needed


Sift together the flours, sugar, salt, xanthan gum, and baking powder into a mixing bowl.  Cut in the butter and mix with the flat paddle or your fingers or a pastry blender to a fine meal. Add the yolk, orange pulp, and vanilla, and enough water to make a dough and chill until ready to roll. 

The dough looked a little resistant at first but rolled out beautifully. 


 The re-rolled scraps were even easier to handle.


Fill with one of these fillings

And bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until golden on the bottom.

Fill with:

Cream Cheese Filling for Hamentashn


Prune Filling (povidl) English

Prune Filling (povidl) Yiddish


Apricot Filling


 

Carrot Filling


 

Pumpkin Filling


 

Black Poppy Seed Filling


 

White Poppy Seed Filling


 

Hemp Seed Filling


 

Pumpkin Seed Filling


 Or 

Radish Filling


And bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until golden on the bottom. 

May there be a miracle every Purim

זאָל זײַן אַלע פּורים אַ נס




Thursday, March 10, 2022

Purim Video Round-Up

 Herewith are all our videos involving homentashn (hamentaschen), kreplekh, pirogn, and various things stuffed into other things.

Forgotten classics:  Yeast Dough and Radish Jam

Our Fabulous Potato Kreplekh

Drinks and Homentashn.  Rukhl is Queen Esther, and I am a pumpkin

Knishes--Potato and Sweet Potato (This was one of the best things we ever made)

Sour Cherry Varenikes (Pirogn) Our very first episode!

Cabbage Strudl

Rice Dumplings Stuffed with Mushrooms

 Stuffed Cabbage

A Purim feast: Rukhl is Queen Esther, and I have fuzzy balls on my head:

Sunday, February 06, 2022

װעגאַנישע יויך Vegan Gold

 


 

װעגאַנישע יויך


פֿאַרשטײט זיך אַז װען מע מאַכט אַ יויך מעג מען מקיל־זײַן. דער־אָ רעצעפּט מעגט איר בײַטן לויט אײַער געשמאַק.  אַלע מאָסן אָדער מעסטונגען מעגט איר בײַטן.

 

װאַרעמט אָן 3 קװאַרט װאַסער אין אַ טאָפּ. גיט צו:

3 מערן

1 סעלעריע

1 ציבעלע

5 צײנדלעך קנאָבל

1 גרויסע (אָדער 3 קלײנע) פּעטרישקעס אָדער שטענגלעך פֿון גרינע פּעטרישקע

10 פֿעפֿערלעך

1 אָדער 2 קלײנע קאַבאַק אָדער קירבעס (אַנ ערך 2 פֿונט)

1 בינטל (1 פֿונט) ציגן־בערדל (סאַלסיפֿײַ אָדער אויסטער־פּלענט)

סטענגלעך פֿון אַ בינטל קאָפּער (קריפּ)

1 טעפּל קאַשו־ניס

1 פּאַסטערנאַק, אויב מע װיל

װאַלד־הון שװעמעלעך, אָדער סתּם שװעמעלעך, אויב מע װיל

 

אין אַ צװײטן טאָפּ, קאָכט אָפּ די קערעלעך פֿונעם קאַבאַק און אַ צװײ־דרײַ קאַטשענעס אין גוט געזאָלצנעם װאַסער

 

קאָכט אָפּ די גרינסן אַ 40 מינוט זײ זאָלן װערן װײך און די יויך זאָל גוט שמעקן

                                                                                                          

דערװײַל

 

װאַרעמט אָן מאַסלינע בוימל אין אַ דריטן טאָפּ.  גיט צו:

 

3 צעשניטענע ציבעלעס

אַ ביסל צעשניטענע גרינע סעלעריע

5 צײנדלעך צעשניטנעם קנאָבל

 

פּרעגלט אָפּ די גרנסן אַ 3־4 מינוט

 

גיסט די יויך דורך אַ דורכשלאַק אַרײַן אין די ציבעלעס.

גיסט אַרײַן אויך די יויך פֿון די באַניע קערן און קאַטשענעס.  בראָט אָפּ די געזאָלצענע באַניע קערנ אין אויװן אויף 350 אַ 20 מינוט.

 

אין אַ בלענד־מאַשין שלאָגט איבער 2 געל פֿעפֿערס מיט 2 צײנדלעך קנאָבל און די אָפּגעפּרעגלטע קאַשו־ניס, און גענוג יויך צו מאַכן אַ געמיש.  גיסט די פֿעפֿער־יויך צוריק אין דער יויך.

צעשנײַדט בלעטער פֿון אַ קלײן בינטעל קאָפּער און אַ ביסל פּעטרישקע און גיט צו די בלעטלעך צו דער יויך.

פֿאַרזוכט די יויך און גיט צו זאַלץ, פֿעפֿער, און פּאַפּריקע לויט אײַער געשמאַק.

 

מיטן אָפּגעקאָכטן ציגן־בערדל און גרינסן, מאַכט װעגעטאַרישע געפֿילטע פֿיש װעגעטאַרישע געפֿילטע פֿיש אָדער װעגאַנישע געפֿילטע פֿיש

 


 

 

מקיל־זײַן meykl zayn to interpret the rules leniently 

בײַטן to change

לויט אײַער געשמאַק according to your taste , לויט ענקער געשמאַק

קאַשו־ניס cashews

 מערן carrots

 סעלעריעceleriac

 ציבעלע onion

 צײנדלעך קנאָבל cloves of garlic

פּעטרישקע parsley root 

פֿעפֿערלעך peppercorns

קאַבאַק squash or pumpkin

באַניע קערןpumpkin seeds

ציגן־בערדל (סאַלסיפֿײַ אָדער אויסטער־פּלענט)salsify

סטענגלstem

קאָפּער (קריפּ)dill

פּאַסטערנאַקparsnip

װאַלד־הינדל שװעמעלעך chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms

סתּם שװעמעלעך any old mushrooms

 

איבערשלאָגן blend

אויסמישן mix

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