Category: Dessert

Cheese Babka Straws


Babka straws were the surprise one hit wonder (ok there was more than one!) from my cookbook Millennial Kosher, and they never get old. It’s that back pocket recipe we all need for a last minute dessert, a Shabbat morning treat or a food gift for a new neighbor.


I’ll never forget happening upon a bakery stand at a Farmer’s Market in upstate New York last summer to find my babka straws being sold! I don’t know who was more excited, me or the lady who had prepared them from my book. It was so thrilling.


And of course the weekly photos that slide into my DMs every Friday of freshly baked babka straws remind me that this recipe is a keeper. And for good reason. They’re super easy, thanks to store bought puff pastry, and they come together in no time. Even your kids can make them!


In honor of the holiday of Shavuot, I decided to put a cheesy twist (pun intended!) on the classic recipe, and I may even like them better than the original.


Wishing you and yours a happy holiday!

Cheese Babka Straws

Cheese Filling:
8oz. block cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk

Vanilla Crumbs:
½ cup flour
½ cup sugar
¼ cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed
1 egg + 1 Tbsp water, for egg wash

Method:

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Prepare the cheese filling: In a bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, egg yolk. Beat until creamy.
3. Prepare the vanilla crumbs: In a second bowl, combine the flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt. Mix until crumbly.
4. Prepare the babka straws: Working with one sheet of puff pastry at a time, roll the dough out lightly to form a large rectangle. With the short side facing you, Spread half of the
cheese mixture on the bottom lower half of the dough; fold uncoated half over cheese side.
4. Using a pizza cutter, cut the pastry into ½-¾-inch strips. Transfer each strip to one of the baking sheets, spaced an inch or so apart. As you set them down, twist the ends in opposite directions
to give the straws a spiraled look. Repeat with second sheet of puff pastry and the remaining cheese filling.
5. Brush straws lightly with egg wash. Sprinkle with vanilla crumbs.
6. Bake until puffed and golden, about 25 minutes.

NOTES:
Since this recipe uses cream cheese, it should be stored in the refrigerator.
Straws may be frozen raw or baked. I prefer to freeze them raw and bake fresh. Place frozen straws directly in the oven and bake as above.

Related Recipes:

raspberry palmiers
apple and honey tart
quick and easy rugelach

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Marzipan Butter Cups

It’s so weird to be posting post COVID-19. It’s like there was life before the Carona virus and life after the Carona virus and they just aren’t the same.

And I don’t mean just because we are quarantined, and our kids are being homeschooled, and we’re all juggling this new reality of social distancing, nonstop cooking, cleaning and keeping the kids busy. By now, that seems like regular life.

Having been hit with a really bad case of the virus, over 2 weeks of nausea, vomiting, fever and body aches, and 6 days in the hospital, I feel SO LUCKY TO BE ALIVE! Every day that I wake up and I’m breathing, I am so thankful and emotional that I get to live this life – even if it’s hard, and every day feels like a challenge.

The love that I received from this amazing community that we’ve built here is truly beyond words. The messages, the prayers, the GREATEST HUG that held me tight is something that I will never forget and I am so grateful for. I’ve often called the BusyInBrooklyn community my “instafam” but I never realized just how great it really is until I fell ill. I am so thankful for each and every one of you, and your support through this time has meant the world to me.

Of course to all of my amazing friends who sent over dinners, toys for my kids, gifts and flowers, how can I ever thank you? Even though you were juggling your own crazy quarantine life, you made it happen and I am so lucky to have you in my life!

I’m taking things slow these days, one step at a time. Of course Pesach is coming and like much of the world, I’m making Passover for the first time, but I’m keeping things sans-pressure. We will get through it, we will manage and it will be beautiful no matter what!

As we celebrate the Exodus from Egypt this year, I’m reminded that although we are quarantined in our homes and it somehow feels like we’re in exile, I have truly never been more free! Our freedom is a state of mind that we get to choose every day. It is a realization that our circumstances don’t get to define how we allow ourselves to feel. If there is life and health, there is hope. Everything else is just details.

To me, nothing is more reminiscent of Passover than the taste of marzipan! All the Pesach desserts were always scented with the essence of almond, and I couldn’t love it more. My kids are big on rainbow-cookie-flavored desserts, so I came up with this easy and delicious way to enjoy it! Making homemade marzipan is super easy, and when it’s enrobed in my favorite kosher for Passover chocolate chips, made by California Gourmet, it just takes it over the top.

Wishing you and yours a kosher and happy and safe Passover!

Marzipan Butter Cups
YIELD: 10 cups

3/4 cups blanched almond meal or flour (see note)
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp powdered sugar
pinch of sea salt
1 tbsp water
1 tsp pure almond extract
10oz. California Gourmet KFP chocolate chips

Place the almond meal, powdered sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor with the S blade attached, pulse until the ingredients are incorporated. Add the water and almond extract and blend until a paste forms and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If the paste is very sticky, add more powered sugar until it’s easy to handle.

Form the paste into a log and wrap tightly in parchment paper to form a log, twisting the paper like a candy wrapper. Place the marzipan in the freezer to set.

In the meantime, place the chocolate chips in a Ziploc freezer bag and add to a large bowl. Pour boiling hot water over the bag and leave it in the water until the chocolate starts to melt, about 2 minutes. Remove the bag from the water and mix the chocolate in the bag to move around the chips that arent melted, return to the water until all the chocolate has melted completely.

Set 10 paper cupcake liners on a baking sheet. Snip the corner of the Ziploc bag and pipe chocolate into each liner to cover the base. Bang the tray down on your counter to flatten the layer of chocolate.

Remove the marzipan from the freezer and slice into 10 rounds. They should be the width of the cupcake liner – if they are smaller just flatten with your hand. Place the marzipan on top of the chocolate layer, and cover it with more chocolate, banging the sheet tray on the counter to evenly coat the marzipan.

Sprinkle with more sea salt, if desired, and freeze until solid.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

NOTES: if you don’t have almond meal or flour, you can create your own by pulsing 1 cup of blanched slivered almonds in the food processor until finely ground.

If you don’t have a food processor, use finely ground almond flour and mix by hand.

If you don’t like almond extract, you may use vanilla extract although the flavor will be different!

VARIATIONS: you can make marzipan out of any nut and use the corresponding extract to enhance the flavor. Alternatively, you can use nut butter and add powdered sugar to make it more of a dough, then fill as above.

 

Related Kosher for Passover Recipes:

chunky monkey marzipan nice cream
marzipan date truffles
apple crisp with marzipan crumble

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Funfetti Krembo


Nine years. NINE. WHOLE. YEARS. Somebody pinch me!!!!!! It’s almost like I’ve been pregnant with a blog, and now what? I’ve had a baby? Do I retire now? ha!


I’ve always kind of wondered that actually. Do bloggers actually retire? How does that work? Do you just stop posting? Not that it’s on the agenda or anything. I’d like to do this until I’m old and gray. Oh wait. I AM old and gray. Ok – I’d like to do this until I’m very old, and very gray.

I constantly surprise myself that I still haven’t gotten bored by all of this. I still jump up and down when I nail a recipe, and I do the happy dance when I shoot the perfect photo. I stay up at night dreaming up my next viral recipe and I cry happy tears when the hundreds of photos roll in and it actually happens!

Speaking of tears, I’m crying tears of gratitude as I write this because I am just SO. DANG. GRATEFUL. Grateful to have a job that nurtures me – mind, body and soul. Grateful that any of you even take the time to read this, cook my recipes, message me, share photos with me, and allow me to take a humble place upon your dinner table. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

This year, I was kinda more excited about using sparklers in my photos than anything else! This house was covered in firecrackers and I loved every minute of it! The krembos were a big surprise too, and my kids were so thrilled to come home to such a special treat!


Me? I’ve never been much of a cream person, I definitely prefer salty over sweet, but I love how pretty these turned out, and they are basically a kids cream come true.

Think about customizing them for a party with your sprinkle color of choice, or just bake up a batch of cookies and roll them in whatever fun toppings you have around.

Thank you for sticking around for 9 wonderful years. To many, many more!!

Funfetti Krembo

Yield: 12 krembo (plus extra cookie dough)

12 funfetti slice and bake cookies
1 recipe meringue cream
1 recipe chocolate magic shell
sprinkles, for garnish

Method:

Place the cream in a piping bag with a wide tip. Pipe onto the cookies, creating a mound. Place the cookies into the freezer for 30 minutes – 1 hour.

Pour the chocolate magic shell into a large mug. Place the cookies on a rack set over a parchment-lined baking sheet. Pour the chocolate over the cookies to coat. Garnish with sprinkles and set aside to harden, or freeze until set.

For the cookies:
YIELD: 24 cookies

1 1/2 sticks butter or trans-fat-free margarine
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c sprinkles
1/3 cup nonpareils

In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add in the flour and salt and beat until fully combined. Add in the sprinkles.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide into two. Shape each half into an 8-inch log, about 2.5 inches in diameter. The measurements don’t have to be exact. Tightly wrap the logs in plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Remove 1 log (or both, if desired) from the freezer and roll into nonpareils. Slice into about 12 equally thick cookies and place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Cool completely.

For the meringue cream:
1 cup sugar
⅓ cup water
½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Place the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a small saucepan and dissolve completely over low heat. Simmer until a candy thermometer reads 235°F.

While the sugar is heating, whip the egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. Once the syrup is ready, carefully and slowly drizzle the syrup into the mixing bowl with the egg whites while the mixer is running. Add the vanilla. Keep whipping the whites until the mixture is stiff and glossy, 5 to 7 minutes.

For the chocolate magic shell:
8 ounces chocolate chips
2 tablespoons coconut oil

Melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil over a double boiler, or in the microwave. Stir until smooth.

Related Posts:

8th Blogoversary} Funfetti Tart Number Cake
7th Blogoversary} Funfetti Rice Krispie Bites
6th Blogoversary} Funfetti Raspberry Palmiers
5th Blogoversary} Funfetti Pecan Turtles
4th Blogoversary} Funfetti Cake
2nd Blogoversary} BBQ Brisket
1st Blogoversary} Mulled Wine

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Jelly Donut Linzer Cookies


Woohoo, it’s officially my favorite time of year! Jelly donuts, latkes, fried food and presents, what could be better?! Lets get the Chanukah fun started!


When Upfield reached out to me about their new plant based butter made with olive oil, I was so excited to use it for Chanukah – the holiday where we celebrate the miracle of the small flask of olive oil that lasted in the menorah for eight days in the Holy Temple. I happen to be a big fan of olive oil in desserts (like in these gelt cookies!), although used to not be so much a fan of margarine.


When I was in kosher culinary school, we only had a meat kitchen, so all of our butter-based sauces and recipes were made with margarine. We used LOTS and LOTS of margarine. One day, someone came in and said that margarine was molecularly equivalent to plastic, and I never looked at margarine the same way again. We started calling the sauces we made “plastic sauce” and I could barely swallow any of them! But that was my Bubby’s margarine. The margarine of today is different.


I started using a lot of coconut oil in my recipes, but there were times that coconut oil just did not do the job, so I was really stuck. I would say that in the kosher kitchen, the butter conundrum is really the #1 obstacle.


For people who keep kosher, pareve desserts is the hardest challenge. While liquid fats can easily be replaced with oils, fat in solid form has always been a problem. So when Country Crock reached out about their plant-based butter made with oils, I was happy to give it a try.


Regardless if you keep kosher or not, plant-based foods are all the rage right now, and for good reason. That’s why we’ve adopted Meatless Mondays in our house, and we try not to eat so much animal protein. It’s amazing to see all the healthy options available on the market these days and I really believe that this isn’t just a passing trend.


I’m so grateful that Upfield, the company behind Country Crock and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, has transformed our Bubby’s margarine into products that are more natural, with less saturated fats and no trans fats, made with ingredients that are better for our health while still tasting great and working well as a substitute for butter in any recipe.


I LOVE how these jelly donut linzer cookies turned out, and not just ‘cuz they make the perfect cookie for your holiday spread, but because they taste absolutely amazing, are perfectly crispy and still, yes, pareve.


Wishing you and yours a very Happy Chanukah!

Jelly Donut Linzer Cookies
YIELD: 18 cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) Country Crock plant butter with olive oil
1 cup sugar
1 extra large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup raspberry jam
powdered sugar, for dusting

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix with a hand blender until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and continue to mix until combined. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix and low speed until the dough starts to come together. Press the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/4″ thick and cut into 2″ rounds with a cookie cutter. Cut a 3/4″ hole in the center of half of the cookies. Place cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, until the edges are starting to lightly brown. Cool completely.

Spread raspberry jam on the solid cookies and cover with the cut-out cookies to form a sandwich. The raspberry jam should peak through the hole (add more if needed). Dust the cookies with powdered sugar.

This post is sponsored by Upfield.

Related Recipes:

jelly ring donuts
pecan lace cookies with raspberry jam
cheese latkes with raspberry sauce
chanukah cookies

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Stuffed Dates with Chestnut Cream

Well hello there! It’s been a while. I caught my breath from the holidays, and behold yet another one is upon us: Thanksgiving.

Giving thanks – it’s something we speak about a lot I think, but not something we put into practice that much. I’ve been working on it a lot lately actually – really getting in the moment with my children, being thankful for the craziness and the messes instead of feeling overwhelmed by them.

It happened gradually really, after making a commitment to feeling more gratitude, I noticed how I started to see the good in things more naturally. My kids became cuter, the mess less overwhelming, and I became more productive because life just felt easier. It’s as simple as that.


Or maybe not quite so simple because life gets hectic, and hard, and sometimes it’s just hard to see the good in things – but it’s almost like a muscle, exercising that part of the brain makes it come more naturally. At least that’s been my experience.


So yes, this Thanksgiving I am actually practicing gratitude and I really have so much to be thankful for! When I picked up my camera to do this shoot, it felt so good to be behind the camera and I took the moment to really appreciate having a job that I absolutely LOVE, one that allows me to express myself creatively, and do the things I love.


While I don’t host a Thanksgiving dinner, I’ve been celebrating at my friend Melinda’s house for the past few years and I always bring a dish with me. This year, I really wasn’t feeling pie, even though that’s what I usually bring.

In the past, I’ve brought Mexican hot chocolate pecan pie, cookie butter pumpkin pie, and baklava pumpkin pie. One year I brought the chicken liver hummus from my cookbook, Millennial Kosher, because Mel is a big liver fan! But this year I wanted something easy yet festive and I knew I wanted to do something with chestnuts.

I’ve been dreaming of making my own chestnut cream every since I had chestnut crepes in Paris a few months ago, so I started there. A cake seemed too overwhelming, so what else to do with it? Well…. I love stuffing dates with all sorts of nut butter and tahini, so why not chestnut puree right? Especially when I cook it down with orange, cinnamon and cardamom – the perfect pairing!

Of course I finished it off with a dip in my favorite chocolate – California Gourmet, to really take it over the top. CHECKOUT THEIR SPECIAL PROMOTION HERE, use code 15BUSYBIB for an additional 15% off your order!

Finished with nutty sesame and some crunchy Maldon and you’ve got a dessert to be thankful for! Happy Turkey Day!

Stuffed Dates with Chestnut Cream
YIELD: approximately 3 dozen

2 3.5oz. bags roasted chestnuts
2 cups unsweetened almond milk (see note)
1 cinnamon stick
5 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed (see tip)
2 strips orange zest
juice of 1 orange
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
16oz. medjool dates, pitted
4oz. California Gourmet 48% cocoa chocolate chips
1 tbsp refined coconut oil
2 tbsp sesame seeds, for garnish
Maldon salt, for finishing

Method:

In a saucepan, combine the chestnuts, almond milk, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, orange zest, orange juice, honey and salt. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook over low heat until chestnuts are soft (easy to smash with the back of a spoon), 25-30 minutes. Discard the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and orange zest. Pour the mixture into a food processor or blender and puree until smooth and creamy, adding additional almond milk, if necessary. Cool completely and place the cream into a piping bag.

Combine the California Gourmet chocolate chips and coconut oil in a small bowl and microwave until melted, or melt over a double boiler.

Pipe the chestnut cream into the dates and dip them halfway in melted chocolate. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and Maldon sea salt flakes. Refrigerate until set.

Store the dates in the refrigerator until ready to serve, or freeze and thaw before serving.

NOTE; I use refrigerated almond milk for a creamier chestnut puree. I do not recommend shelf stable almond milk for this recipe.

VARIATION: for nut allergies, you can use oat milk or other creamy milk of your choice. For sesame allergies, omit sesame seeds.

TIP: If you can’t find cardamom pods, you may use ground cardamom, to taste (start with 1/4 teaspoon).

This post is sponsored by California Gourmet Chocolate Chips.

Related Recipes:

chestnut hummus with herbed pita chips
how to roast chestnuts
ferraro rawcher date bites
marzipan date truffles

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