Category: Dessert

Strawberry Rhubarb Soup


Strawberries and rhubarb are as fresh and delightful as the spring air they herald. They pair wonderfully in recipes and add a burst of color as well as tang. The natural sweetness of the strawberries lends itself well to rhubarb’s tartness for a perfect balance of flavors.

While many people opt for a creamy potato leek soup, or a cheesy french onion soup for their dairy Shavuous meal, I like to take advantage of the fresh seasonal fruits for a cold and refreshing fruit soup. Think about it – you’ve got steaming lasagna coming, and lots of rich and creamy cheesecake for dessert, who needs another heavy plate of soup? This light and refreshing soup makes the perfect starter.

NOTE: the leaves of a rhubarb plant contain oxalic acid and can be toxic. While many stores sell the stalks already trimmed, make sure all the leaves are removed before using.

With minor tweaking, you can also use this recipe as an ice cream sauce or compote, see below for details.

Strawberry Rhubarb Soup

5 stalks rhubarb (1 lb.)
1 container strawberries (1 lb.)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup pomegranate juice (I like Pom)
1 cinnamon stick
pinch of allspice
pinch of nutmeg
mascarpone, creme fraiche, sour cream or plain yogurt
mint leaves, for garnish

Method:

Hull and clean strawberries and cut into quarters. Remove leaves from rhubarb, clean and dice. Add fruit to a pot to which water, juice, sugar and spices have been added. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for 20-30 minutes, breaking up the fruit with a spoon every few minutes. Leave the soup to cool and blend with an immersion blender, regular blender, or food processor.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

To serve, spoon a dollop of mascarpone, creme fraiche, sour cream, or yogurt over the soup. If you’d like, you can use a knife to swirl in the cream (as pictured), or you can mix it into the soup. Garnish with mint leaves.

TIP: To use this recipe to make ice cream sauce, leave out the 1 cup of water (just use 1 cup of pomegranate juice) and simmer for 15 minutes, breaking up the fruit with a spoon. Do not blend. Cool and serve over ice cream or as compote.

NOTE: If using frozen strawberries and rhubarb, leave out the cup of water (you can adjust the consistency and taste after cooking by adding a bit more water or sugar, if needed).

Yield: approximately 6 cups soup.

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Mini Zucchini Muffins + Rivka’s Pumpkin Cake

We don’t have an eiruv in my community, which means that once you have a baby, you are stuck at home for Shabbos until your baby can walk! So getting invited out for Shabbos (to sleep over) is a real treat! A few weeks ago, my good friend Rivka, a shlucha in Long Island City, invited us, and we were more than happy to accept. Rivka’s mother is Moroccan and her family is in the restaurant business, so it is no surprise that she knows how to cook! She make some traditional Moroccan foods, but her table is a kaleidoscope of different cuisines.

Rivka is not only a good cook, but a very practical one. Instead of three courses on a late Friday night, she serves one. She made mini pumpkin muffins which she served at breakfast, for snack, and in a cupcake tree along with the Shabbos meal. Pumpkin cake is moist and dense, so it lends itself well to be served as a kugel. I myself have served it that way many times.

My kids were head over heels for the mini cupcakes (kids love anything mini, don’t they? maybe because it’s more their size!) so last week, I purchased a mini muffin pan, and went to work on some muffins for the kids. I’ve mentioned before how I’m not the biggest baker, and it has a lot to do with the fact that cake is just so unhealthy. When I see myself throwing white flour, sugar and oil into a bowl, I think to myself, “Am I really going to put THAT into my mouth?” Not that it tastes bad, cake is delicious. And I do buy it on occasion. It’s easier when I don’t see how it’s made (even though I know it’s full of junk). So, I justify this recipe by reminding myself that it’s filled with zucchini, a vegetable :)

Feel free to make this cake in a bundt pan, it is absolutely delicious any way you bake it. You can make a zucchini bread in loaf pans, or larger cupcakes which you are free to frost with a maple cream cheese frosting!

NOTE: When I make these, I like to shred double the amount of zucchini and freeze half for the next time. Just thaw the zucchini in a strainer and press down with a paper towel to squeeze out excess water.

Mini Zucchini Muffins

2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
3 eggs
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1-2  tsp cinnamon (depending how cinnamony you like it)
1 tsp salt
2 cups grated zucchini, unpeeled
chopped walnuts (optional)

Method:

Whisk sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold in the zucchini. For mini muffins, bake at 350 for 18 minutes. For a loaf or bundt pan, bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour, until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Rivka’s Pumpkin Cake

These work extremely well in mini muffins because they are more dense but still very moist. When I called Rivkah for the recipe, it turned out to be nearly identical to mine (hers called for just 1/2 tsp more of the baking soda and powder).

I have made these to serve as a kugel, filling muffin tins with the batter, and adding a tsp of blueberry pie filling in the center (I happen to have a picture of it because I had made them on my anniversary Shabbos, and as luck would have it, the blueberry pie filling turned out as a heart in one of them, so I served it to my husband and told him I made it that way on purpose!)

2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 15oz. can pumpkin (not pie filling)
chocolate chips (optional)

Method:

Whisk sugar, oil and eggs together. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold in the pumpkin. For mini muffins, bake at 350 for 18  minutes. For a loaf or bundt pan, bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour, until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

NOTE: If you’d like to make this as a kugel, and you feel it’s too cakey, you can double the amount of pumpkin (either by using 2 cans, or by using 1 and halving the batter ingredients). Adjust baking time accordingly.

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Quick & Easy Individual Trifles


I love the look of trifles. All the neat layers and colors are a feast for the eyes. I’ve made salads, as well as desserts, in trifle bowls. The thing about it is, although it looks pretty, it’s just not that practical. When serving salads, it becomes impossible to mix, and all the vegetables start to fall over the sides. Desserts are simple enough to serve, but once you start spooning out portions, it looks less than appealing on the plate. My solution? Individual trifle bowls. I found them a few years ago at Crate and Barrel, but you can easily use margarita glasses, glass cups, or any see-through dish. You can even buy those plastic margarita glasses as an inexpensive substitute for the real thing.

There are no rules to making trifles. You can use your creativity to flavor the toppings and add exotic fruits. Brownies, chocolate cake and vanilla sponge cake are good starting points. Personally, I always fall back on the simple and classic sponge cake-vanilla pudding-whip cream-strawberry trifle.

The basic recipe for a trifle includes (in said order):

1. cake (sponge cake works well because it’s dry and can soak up the juices)
2. syrup or liquor (optional)
3. custard or pudding
4. fruit or pie filling
5. whip topping (you can flavor it with coffee, or chocolate if you’d like)
6. chopped candy bars, toasted coconut, chocolate shavings, etc. for garnish
(if you have room, repeat the layers)

A few weeks ago, I had an entire leftover French Coffee Sponge Cake (similar to a marble sponge cake but with coffee instead of chocolate) that wasn’t touched. Instead of throwing it away, I decided to whip up some mini trifles, along with a quiet game night, for just my husband and I. It took about two minutes to put together (I used ready-made pudding and the air-canister of whip topping) but it tasted like a decadent dessert.

Quick & Easy Individual Trifles

Store-bought sponge cake
Store-bought pudding
ready-made whip topping
chocolate liquor or syrup
chocolate shavings or chopped candy bar, for garnish

Method:

Cut the pound cake into small pieces. Fill the bottom of the trifle bowls with 1/3 cake. Drizzle with chocolate liquor or syrup. Top with 1/3 pudding. Finish with 1/3 whip topping. Garnish with chocolate shavings or a chopped candy bar (nutty chews and viennese crunch work well).

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Leftover Cereal Bar Treats


If you’ve got loads of leftover cereal that you want to use up before Pesach, this is a great quick and easy recipe. In my house, sugary cereals are reserved as a Shabbos treat. During the week, we have moderately sweet ones like honey nut cheerios, rice krispies and raisin bran. On occasion, when my kids don’t want to eat their breakfast, I’ll mix one tablespoon of fruity pebbles into a bowl of rice krispies and they’ll eat the whole thing :)

Now since the sugary cereals are reserved for Shabbos, it’s no wonder that those make up most of my leftovers. In this recipe, I used super golden crisp, fruity pebbles, cocoa pebbles, honey nut cheerios and some healthy raisin bran (leave it to me to deguiltify the sweetest of treats…this time however, I will do no such thing…these are legitimately loaded with sugar, no qualms about it!).

Normally you would not find me hyping my kids up on this “junk” (yes, it is pure junk), but you know what? if there is any time of year to make these, it’s now. They are the perfect bartering tool for your kids at a time when you could really use their help. It goes something like this: “If you help clean this refrigerator, I’ll give you a piece”….”If you go play nicely with your sister and stop fighting, you can have a one of these”….”If you go eat your sandwich on the step outside and promise not to bring any crumbs back inside the house, you get these for dessert”…you get the drift!

So, if you are looking for a bargaining chip, or you just want to get rid of your leftover cereal, go ahead and whip up a pan of these gooey treats!

Leftover Cereal Bar Treats

4 tbsp butter or margarine (I use smartbeat light)
1 container marshmallow fluff
8-10 cups assorted cereal

How to:

In a large pot that can accomodate your cereal, melt butter. Add fluff, mixing over low heat until smooth and melted. Add cereal and mix well until all cereal is incorporated. Pour mixture into a 9×13 pan and using the back of a spoon, evenly press into the pan. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Cut into squares or shapes (using a cookie cutter). Alternatively, you may spoon the mixture into a cupcake pan for individual servings.

If you like your cereal treats less gooey, feel free to add more cereal until you have reached your desired consistency.

Other ways to use up leftover cereal:

Create bars using dark/white chocolate and/or peanut butter
Add to trail mix with dried fruit, m&ms and nuts
For unsweetened cereal like cornflakes/shredded wheat, crush and use on fried chicken or fish
Sprinkle on yogurt or ice cream
Add to homemade cookies or granola bars

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1-2-3 Decadent Molten Chocolate Chip Cakes


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For many of you, this will be your last crumby Shabbos and I was thinking to myself, what is the most indulgent, delicious, chometzdik food I can post? I could not think of anything better than chocolate chip cookies. The cowboy cookies that I posted back in January where one of my most popular posts, which is really telling. I think people just love cookies, especially chocolate chip ones. This recipe takes them to a whole ‘nother level. Imagine biting into a crunchy cookie, and the inside starts oozing warm chocolate ganache? Well that’s what this recipe tastes like. And when you hear how easy it is to make, you’ll be on your way to the supermarket for some frozen cookie dough!

Now since these mini cakes/pies are made using individual cookie dough cubes, you don’t have to feel guilty about having one. It’s as if you ate ONE chocolate chip cookie. How many of us can eat just one? But with these, the chocolate syrup makes them rich enough that one cookie is more than satisfying. And they taste just as good as those molten cakes you get at the restaurant, even better!

I made these for the first time this past Shabbos and I wasn’t sure if they would hold up on the blech for my Shabbos day guests. Not only did they hold up, they were amazingly delicious! One of my guests took a bite and was shocked to taste a warm dessert! So, if you’d like to surprise your guests at your day meal, go ahead and keep them on the blech, just not too close to the fire or they will burn and dry out.

1-2-3 Decadent Molten Chocolate Chip Cakes

1 box frozen cookie dough (I used Ostreichers) or make your own
1 package tart shells (mini pie crust)
chocolate syrup

How to:

I barely have to give you directions, this is as easy as …well…pie! (pun intended!)
Go ahead and unwrap your pie crusts. They come in mini pans. I found the easiest way to bake these is to put them in aluminum muffin tins. Pour a squirt of chocolate syrup into pie crusts. Set a frozen cookie dough cube on top of the syrup. Bake at 350 until cookie is golden brown (watch them carefully!).

Note: The pie crusts take longer to brown than to bake the cookie. I find that no one really eats the pie crust, just the inside, so I don’t mind if it’s not browned, just baked (it will be done if you bake with the cookie, just not brown). I would say not to worry too much about the pie crust turning brown, it’s more important that the cookie doesn’t dry out. If you really want, you can prebake the piecrusts for a little so that when they bake for longer with the cookie, they will turn brown.

Credit: I found this recipe on the facebook group “I Don’t Cook But I Give Out Recipes” posted by Ahuva Edelstein- Rabinowitz and Chanie Adler Tilis. Thanks!

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