Baked Sufganiyot

It’s that time of the year when our homes have a distinct seasonal smell. For us that includes latkes and sufganiyot to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Chanukah. It is the fourth night of Chanukah, also called the Festival of Lights, which commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem during the time of the Maccabean revolt. We celebrate the miracle that 1-days worth of oil lasted for 8 days. Thus, the traditional foods for this holiday involve a lot of oil!

This year we decided to make traditional (aka fried) latkes, which are potato pancakes and baked sufganiyot, which are traditionally jelly-filled donuts. I made this recipe a few years ago for a family Chanukah party and wanted to give it another try. The recipe comes from an old Cooking Light Magazine, one of my favorites!

Ingredients

1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
3/4 cup warm low-fat milk, divided
6 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon of butter, softened
1 teaspoon grated orange rind (I used 1 teaspoon orange juice as a substitute)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
About 3 1/2 cups of flour, divided (I used 2 cups white whole wheat and 1 cup all purpose flour)
Cooking spray
Jam
Powdered Sugar

Notes

Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup warm milk in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes or until foamy. Add remaining 1/4 cups warm milk, and next 5 ingredients (through egg). Beat with a mixer until blended. Blend in flour gradually until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead dough until smooth and elastic, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking. Place the dough in a large bowl covered with cooking spay. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour). Punch dough down and let rest 5 minutes. Divide dough into 16 balls. Place dough balls onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and let rise in a warm place until they double in size (about 45 minutes). Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake balls at 375 degrees for about 10-14 minutes or until lightly browned. Let balls cool completely and then use the handle from a wooden spoon to make a pocket in each ball. Fill with Jam and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Results

To call this recipe a doughnut seems like a bit of a stretch. But with that said, these jelly-filled sweet rolls are delicious! We used raspberry jam for ours, but you can use whatever jam you like. These are great for breakfast or a snack. Happy Chanukah everyone!

Forks: 4/5

Chocolate Honey Cake

I hope everyone had a great summer! Jay and I were busy making plans for our wedding next August, and I was also working hard on collecting data for my thesis. School is back in session and Fall is right around the corner. This time of year always gets me in the baking mood, especially because the holiday of Rosh Hashanah (The Jewish New Year) is approaching. It is traditional to celebrate by eating sweet treats such as apples with honey or honey cake to ensure a sweet new year. This is the second year Jay and I have made this wonderful, chocolate honey cake recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup vegetable oil (or half oil half applesauce)
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs lightly beaten (or 2 eggs and 2 egg beaters)
2- 3/4 cup flour (I use 1 cup white flour and 1 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup strong coffee, cooled

Notes

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease the bottom of 5 mini loaf pans (or one 10-inch tube pan). In a medium bowl blend the first 5 ingredients. Then whisk in the eggs and stir in the coffee. Sift the dry ingredients into another, large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 15 minutes at 350F then reduce the temperature to 325F and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes longer or until the cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool on rack for several hours.

Results

This is my favorite honey cake recipe to make. It is so moist and of course sweet. I think the coffee helps round out the flavor of the cake and adds a little extra dimension. The cake is perfect for Fall and pairs well with tea and coffee. This year we made a bunch of the mini cakes so that we could share them with our families to enjoy during the holiday. I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and sweet new year!

Forks: 4.8/5

Mini Cinnamon Spice Donuts

Happy New Year everyone! It has been quite a while since we have blogged, but we have never stopped cooking and baking. The Jewish holiday of Chanukkah was just over a week or so ago. Chanukkah celebrates the miracle that a little bit of oil lasted eight days. Therefore, the traditional foods eaten during the holiday are often fried in oil, such as jelly donuts.

In addition to donuts being an appropriate treat during the holiday, Jay loves Entenmann’s donuts all year round. This is just a fact. I also used to like Entenmann’s donuts growing up; they were often a favorite birthday treat at school. However, after recently trying an Entenmann’s donut again, I was surprised how different they tasted from the nostalgic memories I have about them. Ever since I learned that Wilton makes donut pans, I have wanted to make a homemade version, one that would be tasty and a little bit more nutritious. I chose the mini donut pans simply because I thought mini donuts would be fun to make. Also, with the colder weather I thought the cinnamon spice recipe would be really nice.

Ingredients

1 cup Flour (I Used White Whole Wheat)
¾ teaspoons Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
½ cups Brown Sugar, Divided
1 whole Egg
¼ cups Applesauce
3 Tablespoons Milk, Divided
4 Tablespoons Butter, Divided
½ cups Powdered Sugar

Notes

To make the donuts, mix all of the dry ingredients (flour through brown sugar) in a large bowl, using only 1/4 cup of the brown sugar and setting the rest aside. Then, whisk in moist ingredients (egg through butter), using only 1 tablespoon of the milk and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Pour the batter into a gallon-sized plastic bag and cut the corner off of the bag. Pipe the batter into a greased mini-donut pan, filling each donut space about 1/2 full (for me, this was about 22 mini donuts). Trust me when I say that pipping the batter into the pan is easier than trying to spoon it in, because the mini donut shapes are so small. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 7-8 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before taking each donut out of the pan.

To make the glaze, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter with 1/4 cup brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and boil for about 2 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of milk and bring back to a boil. Add powdered sugar, using the last tablespoon of milk to help thin out the frosting if needed. Keep over low heat (otherwise it will start to crystallize) and dunk each mini donut into the frosting. Frosting should set almost immediately.

Results

The donuts came out really well. Besides being incredibly cute, the mini donuts were a delicious blend of sweet and spice. In terms of satisfying Jay’s donut craving, they certainly did. I thought these donuts were good both with a cup of coffee or tea and for dessert. We have since tried a couple of different donut recipes, but this one is our favorite.

Forks: 4.37/5

V60 Coffee

There are some people that drink coffee and there are some people that don’t. Then there is another group that love coffee. Well, Dani and I drink it and have a small love affair with it too. I could go into all the reasons why you should register a Starbucks gift card and how their marketing works so well, but that is not for here. And I want to talk about coffee here, not the fancy espresso drinks they are so well known for.

A few months ago Dani took me on the Intelligentsia coffee roasting tour and arranged for a private home brewing class for my birthday. We learned about and compared two different pour-over methods and as well proper french press brewing techniques. There are clear differences between the methods, but we enjoyed the cleaner flavors you get from a pour-over. So here’s how you can do a proper pour-over at home too.

We use a Hario V60, so you’ll need one of those or a similar product, a carafe for the brewed coffee to go into, a digital scale, coffee grinder, a filter, whole coffee beans, and water.

Instructions

Step 1: Heat your water. You’ll need more than what you plan to brew, so start with approximately 24 oz for now.

Step 2: Place the V60 with filter over the carafe.

Step 3: Now with the semi-heated water slowly pour water through the filter. This is done to wet the filter and clean out the filter of any loose paper fibers.

Step 4: Empty the extra water out of the carafe. This would not be fun if it was left in.

Step 5: Measure out 32 grams of your unground coffee beans. Then grind it in a coffee grinder to about the size of coarse sand.

Step 6:
Dump these grounds into the V60. Give it a little shake to level out the grounds. The grounds should be loosely packed.

Step 7:
At this point you may need to reheat the water. You want it hot, say just over 200 °F.

Step 8:
Now we start pouring the water over the grounds. Use a thin stream and focus the stream in small circular motion in the center of the grounds. This should all be done on the scale because you are going to add the first 75-100 grams in about 45 sec. Stop once you hit the first target weight and let the grounds bloom.

Step 9:
Once done blooming, you can add the remaining water until the total water added is around 520 grams. Again the stream should be thin and focus toward the center in a small circular motion.

Tips and Tricks

• If the coffee is too over extracted (which to me tastes too bitter) try a courser grind.
• If the coffee has no flavor (too weak) try a finer grind.
• You can also try different water to bean mass ratios. But I’d try to stay close to what we did here.
• Try all kinds of beans and make sure they are not too old (more then a few weeks). In fact the older the beans get you notice how the flavors change.
• Happy brewing!

Strawberry Short Cake Gelato

We are back to making Ice Cream/Gelato. Makes sense, it’s hot out and we need something to cool off with.

Ingredients

3 cups 2% milk (just what we had on hand, skim has worked well in the past)
¼ cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ lb of strawberries
Couple spoon fulls of strawberry jam
Spong cake

Notes

We used the same base recipe for this that we always do. Since it has been a while I’ll recap how it goes down. Start by bringing 2 ¾ cups milk to a boil. The remaining ¼ cup of milk, cornstarch, and sugar can be whipped in a separate bowl. When the milk reaches a boil add in the other milk mixture and whip it all together in the pot. At this point you can also add in the vanilla extract, mixing everything thing until it is fully disolved. This mixture is then taken off the heat, covered, and put in the fridge to cool for at least an hour and a half.


Once cooled, the milk mixture is put in the ice cream maker. Then the macerated strawberries and microwaved jam are mixed in. Also, we added in three miniature spong cakes- cubed.

Results

This was by far our best non-chocolate ice cream to date. We probably could have used a little more of the strawberry jam and maybe slightly more vanilla. Using the vanilla helps to add some of the creamy mouth feel that you can sometimes lose when using a low fat content milk. Overall it was success and is a good treat at the end of a long day in the heat.

Forks: 4.72/5

Morning Glory Muffins

Everyone knows I love a healthy recipe, especially a healthy sweet recipe! I first made these muffins to bring to my cousin’s house after the birth of their daughter as a quick, nutritious and delicious snack that they could have any time of day or night. This recipe is adapted from one that I found online at allrecipes.com. These muffins are packed full of all sorts of good things including, carrots, raisins, apples, whole grains, flaxseed and depending on preference nuts as well. I like to enjoy these muffins with tea or coffee, but they are great for breakfast, brunch or dessert too. So, with the expectation that Jay and I would be having company over to visit our new apartment, we decided to make up a batch that we could freeze and have on hand to enjoy with our future guests.

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup (white) whole wheat flour
1/4 cup flax meal
1 cup Splenda or sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup raisins
1 apple – peeled, cored and shredded
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Notes

Even though it looks like there is a lot of work involved, a food processor makes quick work of the shredding, and then it is just like any other muffin recipe.

In a large bowl, mix together flours, Splenda or sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and flax meal. Stir in the carrot, raisins and apple.

In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, oil, apple sauce and vanilla. Stir egg mixture into the carrot/flour mixture, just until moistened.

Scoop batter into 18 prepared muffin cups.I fill the muffin cups almost to the top.

Then put the muffin tins into the preheated oven at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

* Interestingly enough, the oven at our new apartment doesn’t indicate what temperature it is at once you set it. This means that we have no idea what temperature it is actually at or when the oven is preheated. It just so happens that Jay brought home a thermocouple and a digital meter from work to test if the temperature in the apartment was accurate according to our HVAC thermostat. Therefore, he had the idea to use it to measure the temperature of the oven. All I have to say is – only an engineer!

Results

These muffins are super moist and sweet and have a really nice color to them. I use half oil and half apple sauce and half whole wheat flour and half white flour to help with the nutrition. I also like to add flax meal for the same reason. All the ingredients combine to create a great blend of flavors. Thus, these muffins are getting a high “fork rating” due to their healthy contents, chewy texture, and great taste. I can’t wait to share these yummy muffins with visitors soon!

Forks: 4.6/5

Welcome Back: On to Year 2

It has been just over a year since we started blogging our cooking and baking adventures, so welcome back as we get back into sharing our creations with you. Since we last posted, we have moved out to the western Chicago suburbs. I started working as an NVH engineer for an automotive supplier and Dani just started her first class of Graduate School at Northern Illinois University studying nutrition. We’re still learning our way around and miss some of our favorite spots in Kalamazoo. As we explore Chicago-land we’ll fill you in on some of our good finds.

So here’s to our slightly less tiny kitchen and more cooking together!

Farewell Kalamazoo

It has been exactly 1 year, 10 months, 9 days and some odd hours since I moved to Kalamazoo. I moved a week after graduating from college to start my first job at Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan. The first time I had ever been to Michigan was during my spring break from school about 2 months before moving there to find somewhere to live. I remember thinking during this visit that it seemed like a pretty small city, which is not where I envisioned moving to after graduation. Needless to say, Kalamazoo was where I made my new home, and I set out exploring right away. I quickly found my favorites spots, most of which, not surprisingly, revolve around food. Thus, I want to share with you some of my favorites places in Kalamazoo before I leave and head back to Milwaukee and start the next chapter in my life.

My Favorite Market to Explore: The People’s Food Co-op

Kalamazoo has a pretty small downtown, and in-spite of its size, I always enjoy walking around. One of the places I typically visit is The People’s Food Co-op, a remarkably tiny cooperative food store where Jay and I, in particular, enjoy their naturally flavored honey sticks. Despite its size and high prices, I am always happy to walk around and discover their new products. Also, they are in the process of expanding to a brand new building, which I will have to visit whenever I am back in Kalamazoo.

My Favorite Coffee Shop: Water Street Coffee Joint

Every now and then I get the desire to escape the small-city feeling, and when I do I usually go to Water Street Coffee Joint. I love this coffee shop, because whenever I am there it feels like I am sitting at a coffee shop on State Street in Madison. It has great coffee and tea, a funky atmosphere, and really good people watching too. And as an added bonus, they are also the only place in Kalamazoo that has real gelato!

My Favorite Weekend Activity: Celery Flats

If you know me, then you know I like to go on walks. One of my favorite places to do that is Celery Flats. Celery Flats is a beautiful park that has both paved trails for running and biking and unpaved trails for hiking. I especially like that they have mile markers so you can keep track of your distance when running. Also, because Portage Creek runs through the park they offer canoe rentals, which Jay and I have enjoyed.

My Favorite Restaurant: Ouzos

Jay and I have eaten at so many restaurants in Kalamazoo and during the first year we were attempting to eat at a different one every time. Then when we ate at Ouzos I am pretty sure I can speak for both of us when I say that it became an instant favorite. Since the first time we have eaten there, we have been back many times, and it was even one of Jay’s choices to celebrate his graduation. It seems that whenever we go, Jay and I usually end up getting the same dishes: Jay gets the smoked salmon sandwich and I get the greek style grilled chicken breast. It is such a simple dish, but they make the best chicken breast I have ever had and their ingredients are always so fresh. Thus, Ouzos was also my restaurant of choice for what I consider my “last supper” in Kalamazoo.

My Favorite Saturday Evening Activity: The Little Theater

One of my favorite places to spend a Saturday night is at the Little Theater. The Little Theater is a small, one screen theater that features one movie per weekend about twice a month. I like this theater because the Western Film Society (Western Michigan University student organization) brings films that otherwise would not come to Kalamazoo theatrically, such as independent, art-house films. The Little Theater has great ticket prices: $5 general admission and $3 for students. This was especially helpful because Jay and I have seen so many films there over the past 2 years. I bet it will be hard to find movie tickets for that price in Milwaukee or Chicago! Also, before each film, a member from the film society holds a raffle to win a free ticket, which is always fun.

If you are still reading, thanks for sticking with me! Overall, I am ready to say good-bye to Kalamazoo and welcome the next chapter in my life. And whenever I am back in Kalamazoo, I will look forward to visiting some of my favorite places. But until then, farewell Kalamazoo; it’s been fun.

Cooking is Just Physics – Freakonomics Podcast

I held off on posting this so we could space out some of our posts a bit. Either way, if you know me well, you know I’m a bit of a geek and listen to a bunch of podcasts. None of them are strictly food related, but this last couple of Freakonomics podcasts were all about food. It’s a two parter and links are below to each episode.

• Waiter, There’s a Physicist in My Soup! (Part 1)
• Waiter, There’s a Physicist in My Soup! (Part 2)

They present a debate between the “molecular gastronomy” movement and traditional cooking practices. I’ve learned a little about “molecular gastronomy” from Dani and there was a chef on Top Chef a few seasons ago that used some of the techniques. As Nathan Myhrvold, one of the interviewees puts it, any way you cut it even just applying heat you’re still doing physics.

Sharing a French Press

As Dani mentioned in the biscotti post, we have been heading to Starbucks to share a french press of coffee every Sunday for the past couple of weeks. It’s been a nice way to spend our time together and try some new coffee. The baristas will usually open a bag of beans so we can try a different roast each time.

It makes about 2 cups of coffee for each of us and is a relatively good deal at $3.50. Last weekend we brought along some of the biscotti that we baked and they were very tasty together. If you have some time to sit at a store, I’d highly recommend getting a french press to share with someone.

By the way, I’m a big Starbucks fan. Their loyalty program (Starbucks Card) is a simple way to earn free coffee and has a nice game play aspect to it as you earn stars. My photo of a favorite mug was featured in a fan blog not to long ago too (mine is mug number 3 in the post).