Desserts

Chocolate & Nut Hamantaschen Filling (Dairy)

Hamentaschen (Dairy)

This is likely quite old, as my grandmother has written “Spry” instead of “vegetable shortening” or “Crisco”. Spry was a brand of vegetable shortening that was popular from the 1930s - 1960s. I have struggled to interpret the recipe because it is not written in a particularly organized way and is very vague, written haphazardly on both sides. This, too, speaks of this scrap of paper being quite old. My grandmother was an excellent cook, and had an eye for order and organization and I suspect would have written this down differently later in life. Anyway, fruit pie is one of the few desserts I am fairly comfortable with, so in the instructions I will be drawing on my own experience making pies when there are gaps to fill.

I do not recognize the handwriting on this note, although it strikes me as the writing of someone whose first language was probably Yiddish, written in the Hebrew script who studied the Roman letterset from typewritten or printed text. This means it is most likely the handwriting of either my great Aunt Bessie, my great Aunt Ida (unlikely), or my great grandmother, for whom I am named. I say that Aunt Ida is unlikely because she was brain damaged at the age of 9, probably in a pogrom. My grandfather refused to talk about it. The use of “Spry” in place of the more generic term “vegetable shortening” is a clue that this piece of paper is quite old. Spry was a competitor to the Crisco brand that got its start in the 1930s and peaked in popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. I don’t think the brand survived to the end of the 1960s. My great grandmother died in 1955, so it could be hers.

My grandmother always served baked apples for dessert after Shabbas dinner. It's an extremely simple and healthy recipe that can be served hot or cold. We make one apple per person, but you can always make more to refridgerate them for Saturday! She never put any seasoning on the apples since they're quite yummy without any additions, but obviously things like cinnamon-sugar would go well over these. You can use any sort of apple - my grandmother always used red delicious since those were always the nicest apples in our area of the country.

This is an oldie but goodie... a very simple bar cookie recipe that also happens to be pareve and chocolate-free. I have a few friends who are sensitive to chocolate, and I've given a number of them this recipe. It brings back some warm childhood memories for me. The batter pretty much just covers the bottom of the pans - the baking soda makes it rise a bit when in the oven. Even so, the bars aren't all that thick. I get 25 bars out of a pan, so they're more like nibbles

It seems that if you are going to make frozen drinks, you'd need to pour them into their glasses before freezing. But I don't know, having not made this particular recipe. I added that suggestion into the directions, just in case.

My guess is that it's a cookie (biscuit) and it ought to get baked at 350 °F for 10 - 15 min or so? I may have to just try that to see. Also, dry oatmeal? Cooked oatmeal? Normally, dry oats are referred to as rolled oats and cooked oats are oatmeal, but not only is this scrap probably 70+ years old and language shifts, if my grandmother got this recipe from her inlaws (as I am guessing from the 'glass' measurements), there could have been a language barrier, to boot. Anyway, to say the instructions are incomplete is a bit of an understatement.

Having now made this myself, I can say that butter is the obvious choice unless you are baking for a fleishig meal. Butter represents a significant upgrade in flavor. You might try coconut oil in place of shortening if you like the flavor, but I have not tried this myself. They're outstanding, by the way. Don't let the rolled oats deter you.

In the 41 years I knew her, I never knew my grandmother to make cupcakes. It just wasn’t the sort of thing she made. I know this pale blue scrap of paper is very old, but with nary a spatter or folded corner… I think it’s safe to say she didn’t use this recipe much. Still, she kept it all those years. So here it is.

Puffs:

Technically, this recipe is a cross between a true sponge cake, a classic genoise and a chiffon cake. I like it because I do not have to separate the egg whites and yet I get a well- textured cake. It is an exceedingly MOIST cake that keep well and is a good foundation for fresh fruit, pareve, Passover mousse, or a chocolate ganache topping. Although the eggs are not separated you must treat them with care. Another must is a good, stationary, electric stationary mixer (e.g. such as a Kitchenaid, Rival or Sunbeam) with a whisk or whip attachment that will properly mount the warmed, whole eggs. "Are you sure this is a Passover cake" is the reaction most people have on their first bite of this flavorful cake. For people who loathe dry cakes and think Passover cakes are suspect at best, this is a must. A good cake to have if someone in your family has a birthday during Passover.

The advantage of making your own coffee ice cream is that you know with certainty that it's decaf. Also, home made ice cream is just exceptional, generally speaking. We use an ice cream maker - just follow the directions for whatever device you are using.

This is the frozen yogurt version of the ice cream recipe. It's marginally healthier than the ice cream version if you're worried about saturated fats, calories, or sugar content. We tried reducing the sugar content further and using stevia, but wound up with a tart block of ice with figs and walnuts. The bottom line is that in order to make non-fat frozen yogurt at all edible from a texture standpoint, you need to add things to alter the freezing point. Normal humans do this by adding things like sugar, fat or alcohol. Mega-conglomerate food corporations achieve this result by putting in highly processed emulsifiers and thickeners that alter viscosity and freezing point without changing fat content or sugar content. So... in the end, we realized it's a "devil you know" vs. "devil you don't know" predicament when it comes to balancing the conflicting aims of making frozen yogurt palatable/edible vs. "heart healthy" and low glycemic-index. We've opted for the devil we know and love, and just don't indulge all that often.

Home made ice cream is just exceptional, generally speaking, but it's also generally kosher for Passover. This is handy, especially for those of us with spring birthdays. I can't subscribe to lousy excuses for cake on Pesach, but at least with ice cream, no sacrifice in quality is necessary. We use an ice cream maker - just follow the directions for whatever device you are using. Mr. Yakityak was inspired to create this recipe after coming home from Italy, having had a stellar gelato version there.