L'Shanah Tovah and a Recipe for Challah

L'Shanah Tovah! Happy New Year!
Holidays are the toughest time to be away from family. Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. A holiday we typically celebrate with my husband's parents by dipping apples in honey and eating a big dinner. For the kids, as well as for us, the centerpiece of the meal is always Mimi's Challah bread, lovingly braided and baked in sufficient quantities for her grandkids to eat all weekend and have leftovers to take home.

This year, with all the craziness of adjusting to our new lives in Ohio, we just couldn't make it back to New Jersey for the holiday. Tonight we'll be bringing in the new year with the family of one of Steve's co-workers, a warm and welcoming home, but without Mimi's special touches.

When the mailman rang the doorbell, I had no idea what a special treat he was carrying. You should have seen the delight on Juliette's face when she pulled back the aluminum foil to find the golden hued bread she associates with her Mimi. I was already tearing up when she said, "Mommy, we have to wait for Mimi before we eat it."

Mimi's Challah Recipe (makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients:

2 packages of dry yeast

2 cups of water (just slightly warm to the touch)

1 TBSP of salt

1/4 cup of sugar

1/3 cup of oil

1/3 cup of honey

4 eggs

6 or more cups of unsifted bread flour (to start and then add more until the dough is smooth and not sticky)

1. Dissolve 2 packages of yeast in 2 cups of lukewarm water. Let stand 5 minutes.
2. While waiting, put salt, sugar, and first cup of flour in bowl of mix master and stir to blend with fork. Add water/yeast mixture. Start mixmaster going on medium speed with dough hook.
3. Add oil, honey, and eggs gradually with intermittent cups of flour, mixing constantly until smooth and elastic.
4. Turn onto dough onto board. Make a well in the middle and fill with some flour. Knead the dough incorporating the flour around the edge as needed until dough is smooth and not sticky.
5. Put into greased bowl. Cover bowl with thin dish towel and put in slightly warm oven with a small bowl of hot tap water. Let rise 1 hour.
6. Punch down dough and cut in half to form 2 loaves.
7. Cut each half into 2 pieces about 1/3 and 2/3. Then cut each piece into thirds. You should have a total of 12 pieces - 6 small and 6 large. Roll each piece into a long rope.
8. Take three long pieces and attach at one end. Braid. Set aside. Repeat with the other three long pieces.
9. Take three small pieces and attach at one end. Braid. Set aside. Repeat with the other three short pieces.
10. Lay one short piece braid over one long piece braid and pinch to bind together. Repeat with other two braids. You now have your two Challahs.
11. Beat one egg yolk with 1 TBSP of water. Brush each challah with the yolk mixture. Let rise for about 1/2 hour as oven preheats to 375 degrees.
12. Bake for 30 minutes in oven.

Chocolate Flourless Cake: a Passover Dessert You'll Crave

Chefdruck's Tasty Tuesday

Soon after I started dating Steve, I attended my first Passover Seder at his parents' house. I was charmed by the tradition of retelling the history of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. Everyone takes turns reading from the Haggadah, in our family's case a thick stack of photocopied readings, history, and maps about Passover that Steve's dad has cobbled together over decades of holding Passover seders. Sitting around the table loaded with ornate china and silver, I imagined a very young Steve reading the same words that I was reading out loud.

I was a little put off by some of the food on the table like the gefilte fish and the chopped liver, but I put on my game face and dug right in. Our first year together, I even tried to "keep" Passover with Steve by abstaining from all things made with wheat that was allowed to rise (bread, pasta, or cereal) and substituting copious amounts of Matza (unleavened bread). After a week, I was painfully constipated and very grumpy from having unsatisfying breakfasts. I decided to show my support for Steve by making Passover a week full of delicious meals, instead of a time to be endured.

This decadently rich chocolate fondant cake is Kosher for Passover because it does not contain any flour. However it is so delicious that it should not be saved for Passover alone. It's like the offspring of a brownie and fudge. And it's so easy to make that it's almost embarrassing.

Chocolate Fondant Cake
14 ounces of bittersweet chocolate
8 eggs
2 sticks of butter
1 cup of sugar

1) Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

2) Melt the chocolate and the butter at very low heat.

3) Beat the eggs.

4) Fold in the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture.

5) Add the sugar.
6) Butter and sugar a round pan. Pour in mixture.
7) Cook for about an hour – begin testing with knife at 45 minutes.

The Way to a Man's Heart...

I grew up in my mother's kitchen, her willing little apprentice.  I started out cutting baguettes and setting the table.  By age seven I had graduated to peeling carrots and potatoes.  Day by day I sucked up her knowledge and became a cook like my mother.  I learned how to make her favorite dishes like Boeuf Bourguignon and Pork Medallions with Mustard Sauce with my eyes shut.

When Steve and I were first dating, food played a big part in our relationship.  I invited him over for a romantic dinner to show off my cooking skills.  Because we're both fairly competitive, he retaliated by inviting me over to show off his cooking skills.  Both meals were a hit, we fell in love, and the rest is history.

Everyone knows the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.  But everyone also knows that the first love of most men is their mother.  So once I had won Steve's heart with my French cooking, I set out to learn how to cook like his mother so that he would feel at home with me too.  Steve's mom is an amazing baker and cook so this was no easy task.  After failing miserably at making challah and brisket, I realized that I had to find my own Jewish dishes.  Over the years, I've built up a small repertoire for the Jewish holidays.   But much to my children's chagrin, I still can't make challah.

Today I worked hard as he fasted for Yom Kippur and I put together quite a feast.  At sundown we sat down to a mountain of bagels, steaming bowls of homemade chicken soup with matzo balls, carrot souffle, and noodle kugel.  Twenty-five years ago, sitting in my mother's kitchen, I would have laughed at you if you told me that I would one day be rolling my own matzo balls!

Here is my recipe for carrot souffle - a dish so sweet and delicious that it will seem criminal to count it as a vegetable.

Carrot Souffle
2 lbs fresh carrots boiled until soft (can use baby carrots)
6 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
6 TBSPs matzo meal
2 TSP vanilla extract
2 sticks melted unsalted butter
Dash of Nutmeg

TOPPING INGREDIENTS:
6 TBSPs dark brown sugar
8 TBSPs melted butter
2 cups crushed corn flakes

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

To make the pudding. Put cooked carrots and eggs into food processor and puree. Add the rest of ingredients. Process until smooth.

Bake in greased 9”x13” pyrex pan at 350°F for 40 minutes.

Mix the topping ingredients together. Put the topping mixture over top of baked soufflé. Bake another 5 to 10 minutes.

You can serve after cooled for 20 minutes or reheat the next day in the microwave.