7 posts tagged “holidays”
I don't have time to really post now, but wanted to get a pic up of the macaroons. I decided to add a bit of matcha powder (thank you Auntie Mae!) to the batch and they were such a nice delicate flavor, and nice and green for Spring. My friend BD still prefers the plain coconut ones, but I am fond of all.
If you remember, Purim took me by surprise this year because I've been busy experimenting with macaroons for Passover. I had planned to bake some this weekend, but given our busy schedule, expected not to do it, and instead to feel guilty and/or stressed for the rest of the week. However, the cookie gods have shined upon us, and have arranged for Queenie to have a last minute sleepover at a friend's house, and Spit Spot, after a very long nap, is playing next door with the neighbor's cats.
So. The dough is in the fridge cooling. I opted to keep it all-purpose flour this year without diluting it with whole wheat (you can substitute up to half, but I cannot remember if I actually do that or not). I think prunes make them healthy enough, don't you? I'm also experimenting with poppy seed filling for the first time. We'll see how that goes.
Poppy seeds are the traditional hamantaschen filling, along with prunes. The story goes that Queen Esther lived on nothing but poppy seeds and chickpeas for 3 days while she stored up the nerve to tell her husband that his vizier, Haman, was planning to kill the Jews and that she, herself, was Jewish. I've also read the word taschen is German for purse or pocket (the shape of the cookies) and that mohn means poppy in Yiddish or German. So they are "poppy pockets." Perhaps the Haman pun was just too good to resist?
Here's the most basic recipe for poppy seed filling (the same one on several sites) I found some others that required overnight soaking, grinding, and the additions of butter or cream, but I used the basic as I have no cream, and wasn't really looking for the overnighting of anything:
2 c. poppy seeds
1 c. milk
3/4 c. honey
1 tsp. lemon peel
1/2 c. raisins
Grind poppy seeds (I tried this with dry seeds in the Cuisanart but it didn't really work. I've read it's to break down the bitter shell to get to the starchy sweet inside, but have read some bakeries don't bother. I'm hoping just beating them up a bit in the grinder helps. The soak overnight recipes make more sense to me, if grinding).
Mix with milk and honey and cook on low until thickened. Add remaining ingredients, cool.
I'm thinking it might need a quick puree for the raisins. I'll let you know how they turn out.
I plan on sending some to a friend's father in law. Several years ago I offered him some of the regular ones. He looked at me and said, "I only eat poppyseed ones." Okay, old man. So now you will eat these. There. I win. Silly, no?
edited to add: I think I may have overcooked the poppy seeds. Compared to the fruit filling it does not take long on the stove! I tried to re-soak them a bit in some more milk, but as I've already added the lemon this may backfire. Stay tuned.
Update: I have made a few rounds of the regular cookies. Success! The first batch was a bit sad looking (like pancakes, they seem to get better with each batch in the oven as I re-familiarize myself with how thick/dry the dough needs to be and I tweak the cooking time) but tasty tasty. Hooray! I will try to make more in the morning for my ballet friends and Batty's family.
Update, next day: Success! I kept the seeds overnight in the fridge, attempted to smoosh them in the blender again this morning (unsuccessfully, really) and cooked some with suspicion. But surprisingly, they are wonderful! Creamy and not too sweet, nor bitter, with a wonderful exotic aroma about them. I am pleased. Hopefully, others will be too.
I love to bake and I'm pretty good at it (at least my 6 year old and her friends think so). It's my diet downfall, for sure.
In any case, I've been experimenting with baking macaroons in time for Passover this year. We're going to Arizona to visit friends for the seder, and I'd like to contribute. The host, Arizona Mom, has been a friend of my family's forever, and a surrogate mom to me, as her name attests. She is also a fabulous cook and host, and will need no help from me, but she leaves dessert up to the guests, and no one has ever brought homemade macaroons that I know of, so I'm gonna fill that niche.
Luckily, one of my good friend's birthday just passed, and she loves macaroons, so it was a good time to start. I'd never made them before. I've found there are 3 basic types of recipes: egg-white based, condensed milk based, and some with flour. Obviously, the flour ones won't work for passover, so I'm skipping those for now. My friend is lactose intolerant, so I started with the egg-white based. I made plain coconut, and chocolate, and shaped them into delicate little pyramids.
I wish I had taken photos - they were fabulous! Now I just have to find some quiet time to try the next recipe. I'll let you know how they turn out.
Ironically, I've seem to find myself quite talented at making Jewish cookies. I've noticed they're not the kind of cookies most people make, maybe because they're mostly associated with one-time-a-year holidays, or because I don't hang out with many Jews, but everyone gets really excited about them when they come around. I've been making hamantaschen and rugelach for a few years. The hamantaschen are huge hits, and this year, people have already asked for orders. The rugelach always go fast at the winter holidays -- they're great with coffee, or in an assorted basket, more grown-up then iced cookies, but popular with the kids, too. The recipes, as well as many others, come from Arizona mom. The hamantaschen recipe was her mother-in-law's mother's and I've seen no other recipe quite the same.
I've also used her tips to start making challah bread with the kids. I don't do much with yeast things, as I usually don't have the time. But I have fond memories of braiding this bread as a child, and my kids love French toast. Most of their Jewish education tends to center around baking and food with me, as I'm a bit temple gun-shy. In any case, our first batch was great, the second, a couple of flat weapons (it's hard to bake with two kids), and the third batch, last week, was just fine. Thanks to Arizona Mom, as I call her, I add some whole wheat flour to make me feel less guilty about the French toast that is to come from it the next day.
I was hoping to bake the new macaroons today, but Spit Spot took a truncated nap, and now I'm off to feed her and finish the housekeeping I've ignored so that I could type.
The girls are still sick. Their fevers are down to non-medicated stages, but Queen is still getting the chills, Spit Spot is clingy, and both are more crabby than quiet.
The parents, meanwhile, are restless. There's shopping to do, and rooms to clean, and peace to be had. But that's hard in a 2 bedroom apartment where we're all on top of each other, separated by disheveled blankets and pillows that have migrated out of the bedrooms. There are unruly piles of crafts, magazines, books, and toys half-finished with, tissues, and tea cups, and glasses of juice. In a word, ugh.
Yesterday, there were bits of peace. After a certain point, I gave up my plans to get things done and actually enjoyed going nowhere, doing nothing more than stringing Jiffypop for the tree, watching Clive help Queen with her reading and math But then I had an intense need to clean the bathroom, pick up the toys, shower.
Today I am hoping to escape a bit to the gym for yoga or spin. I intend on sending Clive to Whole Foods to finish Christmas meal shopping (his domain - Farmhouse chili and cornbread for dinner, pumpkin pancakes for breakfast), and get his own antsy self to the gym.
What I really want to do is to escape to the spa and the movies. Being home all day, I've caught up on much of my New Yorker reading -- all the art, jazz, movies I've been missing. So much to see! In another week or so, our lovely Texan neighbors will be back from their vacation and will babysit for us, so that Clive and I can begin to get back out in the word again.
Babes restless and infighting again. Must go mediate yo-yo's and tiaras.
It's Channukah and I asked Clive to bring home some jelly donuts for dessert. Fried foods are a traditional treat for the holiday (to remind of us of the miracle of the oil burning for 8 days) and a huge treat for my kids. I never ever buy fried food for the home and NEVER EVER donuts.
And now I remember why.
Because I have no self-control.
Clive brought home, not the requested 3 or 4, but 6. I promptly gave 2 away to the neighbors, and thought that might save me, but I did not take into account that Spit Spot would not like hers. So I ate mine....and then...half of hers. Not to mention a coupel Dora chocolate coins. And now I feel just awful and guilty and wish there was a way to be bulimic without actually having to puke or purge anything from anywhere.
But they were very good. I had wanted to try Primo's, but they were Winchell's. Well done, Mr. Winchell!
Happy Channukah everyone!
Hanukkah comes early this year and I am in a present-buying tizzy. My family has decided to just send me a check and let me shop for the girls. On the one hand, this is great. They only get what I want them to get. No mounds of plastic pthalate-filled crap, and no ill-fitting clothes I can't return. Wooo! On the other hand:
It's a lot more work for me, as I hate decision-making-minutia and my brain is already over-flowing with it (e.g., should the Aunt and Uncle get Queen Soledad some fancy German modeling wax or Goblet Jr?).
I kind of get the "we can't be bothered" vibe from the hands-off approach.
Part of me feels the kids kind of have a right to get some pthalate-filled, over-hyped junk, and I just can't bring myself to buy it (even if it's not my money).
Anyway, I'm almost done if I can just hunt down the right size/color/style crocs and get Clive to make a run to The Container Store (the capital of decision-making-minutia).
Are the holidays over yet?
I don't mean to be a Grinch, but man o man I am tired of pound cake. And cookies, royal icing, nonpareils, shopping, receipt-hunting, returning, and ornaments strewn around my apartment (thanks, Spit-Spot).
And yet, as tired as I am of pound cake, I can't stop eating it.
So tonight I tossed the last of it down the kitchen drain to prevent my new clothes from becoming even more uncomfortable.
Clive is going to be pissed. Rule # 507 of Clive's world is Thou Shall Not Throw Out Cake.
Sorry, Clive.
