One of my greatest cooking inspirations was provided by my wonderful mother, Shirley Fried. When I was probably about 9 or 10 years old, she bought me the New Betty Crocker’s Boys and Girls Cookbook. I read that book for hours on end. I fantasized about making all of the recipes in the book. (I think I only got to make one, possibly two during my entire childhood.) One of the recipes I was most interested in was the recipe for pancakes. Well, I finally did start making pancakes for my family when I was around 10 or 11. For some miraculous reason that my mother and I still can’t understand, my mother did allow me to make pancakes. My theory is that my mother loved pancakes a lot, and she really wasn’t interested in making them herself. My mother bought a mix, I’m pretty sure it was the Aunt Jemima Complete Buttermilk Pancake mix where you only added water. That was okay. I was very happy making the pancakes from a mix for my mother, my father, my brother, and me. When I had children of my own, I enjoyed making homemade buttermilk pancakes. For some reason, I loved making them when the kids had snow days and were home from school. Well, those years are finished, but I always get the desire to make my homemade buttermilk pancakes during Christmas vacation when my kids are all home with me. Right now it’s Christmas vacation in December of 2007. I’m having a wonderful time because I’m off for the week, and my son Benji is home on winter break during his freshman year at Dartmouth College, my son Danny is home too since he’s unemployed right now, and my married daughter Randi, who is also off for the week (she’s a teacher) has been coming over every day. I can’t imagine a better time than this. There is nothing as much fun for me as being home with my three children. Well, we are literally having a food fest due to my uncontrollable desire to cook and bake for the three of them. This morning, I woke up at 6:00 and I started cooking. I started with my kids’ favorite cake I loved calling Benji from his room to lick the bowl and the spatula I used to make the chocolate icing. This big 6 foot kid came running from his room, and you’d think he was still 10 years old. I loved watching my kids as they ate a piece of cake. Then I made a batch of my yummy cheese blintzes. I fried up a few for Randi and Benji, and they loved eating them with sour cream on the side. Then I made made a batch of my homemade buttermilk pancakes. Oh, they are so light and so fluffy and so delicious! We ate them while we caught up on some past episodes of Brothers and Sisters. My kids went crazy for the pancakes. Anyway, once you eat these pancakes, it’s hard to order pancakes out because they just are nowhere near as good as the homemade variety. And making them from scratch is super easy, so please try this recipe.

Makes about 20

• • 2 cups unbleached flour
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 4 T. melted butter/marg.

Into a large mixing bowl, place the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the buttermilk and the melted butter or margarine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and combine with a rubber spatula until the batter is still slightly lumpy. Do not overmix.

Heat a nonstick skillet up, and lightly grease it with margarine or butter (butter burns easily, so I usually use margarine). Spoon batter onto griddle. Cook for about 1-2 minutes until the bottom is nicely browned. Then flip, and cook on the other side. Cook about 2 minutes until browned.

Serve with butter and syrup.

This Delicious Recipe For French Toast Bread Pudding Will Warm You On A Cold Winter Morning! 

My family adores french toast. My mother, Shirley Fried, especially loves my French toast. Every once and awhile, I make a batch for her when she comes down to visit me and the kids. I love cooking for my mother, especially since she is my number 1 fan. (My father was my other number 1 fan, but tragically for me, my mother, and my children, the most wonderful man in the world, Murray Fried died 6 years ago. Anyway, I’ve cooked yummy French toast for breakfast for my family for years, and everyone loves it. I sometimes make my french toast using challah, which is an egg bread that is very similar to brioche. Many diners serve French toast made with challah because it has become quite popular. When you use challah to make your French toast, you are definitely kicking the standard recipe up a notch. Anyway, I decided that I needed to adapt my challah French toast recipe so that I could serve it at family gatherings and feed a lot of people without having to stand at the stove while my guests were over. Plus, I wanted to be able to prepare the dish in advance, and you really can’t do that with French toast. I experimented until I came up with the most amazing version of French toast bread pudding, using challah. I served it at a Chanukah party this past Sunday which was given by the wonderful Marsha Greenhouse. Marsha Greenhouse is my daughter Randi’s mother-in-law. Marsha is a warm and genuine from the heart person (a real mensch), and she hosts the best family get togethers imaginable. I love going to every party and gathering at her house. Plus, she kindly lets me cook and bake for these parties to my heart’s content. One of the dishes I made for this gathering was my challah French toast bread pudding. It was delicious! I got lots of compliments, and of course I love that! I think one of the best moments for me was when Marsha’s boyfriend, Al Berman asked me for another piece of the bread pudding. When he put a bite in his mouth he said, “Ooh, this is sooo good.” And Al knows his food. (He’s an excellent cook himself!) There is just nothing as gratifying for me as cooking and baking for people I care about. Please try this recipe. When you take a bite into this yummy challah French toast bread pudding, which truly tastes every bit as good as regular French toast, you will vow to make this again and again for your friends and family, too.

• • 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, plus extra for greasing baking dish (I like taste of butter more than margarine)
  • 1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons maple syrup (I actually use 2 tablespoons of Log Cabin and 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup, but I don’t think it matters which type of syrup you use)  *see note at bottom
  • 1 large loaf of challah bread (a loaf should weigh about 15 oz.)
  • 8 extra large or jumbo eggs (I used jumbo the last time, and I loved result)
  • 2 cups of light cream or half and half (I don’t notice any difference in end result)
  • 2  tablespoons sugar (optional- you may eliminate if you want to reduce sugar in recipe))
  • 1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (I use this but you may cut it out for a low salt diet)
  • cinnamon (McKormick) to sprinkle on top before you bake

• optional 3/4 cup chopped pecans (tried it and liked the result, but equally good without- Just remember that many kids don’t like nuts, so if you’re making this for kids, it’s probably better to leave the nuts out!)

Generously grease the bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 x 2 inch oval or rectangular baking dish (I bought an inexpensive, beautiful white oval baking dish at IKEA). Slice the challah about 1 1/2 inches thick. Then cut the slices into pieces. They don’t all have to be exactly the same size, but they should be somewhere around 2 inches square. You definitely should use the crust- do not cut the crust off! In a small saucepan, melt the butter over a low flame. Then add the brown sugar and the syrups; mix until the brown sugar is dissolved. Then pour the syrup mixture into the prepared baking dish. Place the pieces of challah in the prepared dish in one layer. Fit the pieces right up against each other, like puzzle pieces. It’s okay to squeeze them a little so they all fit.

In large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, light cream or half and half, vanilla, salt, sugar,  cinnamon. Ladle the custard mixture over the challah evenly. Then press down with your hands very lightly on bread, so challah soaks in all the custard.  If using the pecans, sprinkle them on top, and then sprinkle with cinnamon lightly but so that there is a light sprinkling over all.  Cover the dish with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 to 4  hours or overnight. (I usually do it overnight just because it makes the job easier for me.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees – and take bread pudding out of the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.  If you feel you should, sprinkle just a little more cinnamon on top. Bake uncovered in the middle of the oven until puffed and golden for about 45 to 50 minutes. Serve immediately.  I make this to bring in for school breakfasts.  I bake it for about 35 minutes at home.  Then I cover it tightly to keep the heat it.  Then when I get to work, I take off the foil, and bake it for another 20 minutes or so to finish it off.

Optional serving suggestion:  Warm up about 1/8 cup of pure maple syrup in microwave, and drizzle it over the top very lightly right before serving or just serve with extra maple syrup on the side.

You will be amazed by the result!

Note:  The last few times I made this, I used 2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup and 1 tablespoon of light corn syrup. I like to use some pure maple syrup, just because it has more maple flavor.

Note:  Just make sure that the pudding is baked through even at the center so you won’t be eating undercooked eggs.

Note:  last made on July 3, 2011- I used 9 extra large eggs as I didn’t have the jumbo, and I used a mixture of whole milk and heavy cream- and it was yummy!!!

This is another outstanding recipe from my Grandma Hindes.  I never had her apple fritters, but I did have my mother’s.  This dish was one of my mother’s favorites when she was growing up.  My mother always mentions what a great cook her mother was, but for some reason my mother didn’t appreciate most of her mother’s cooking when she was growing up.  But my mother did love my grandmother’s apple fritters – a lot.   I remember hearing my mother explain how my grandfather and my Uncle Nat would come home every noon from the dress factory they owned and worked at in South River, N.J. (The South River Dress Company), to one of these delicious full course lunches.  The apple fritters were one of the delicious side dishes she made for them for lunch.  My mother made these when I was growing up, too.  These are delicious!  When most people think of fritters, they think of something that is roundish in shape and deep fried.  These are neither. They are more like a pancake, with a light and airy batter, with delectable chunks of sweet apple inside.  You have to try them.  Really, I can’t tell you how lucky you are to have the opportunity to make this family, heirloom recipe!  Don’t miss this rare opportunity!

• 4 extra large eggs
• 1 cup of regular milk
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 2 generous pinches baking powder (each one about 1/2 teaspoon)
• 2 pinches Kosher salt (each one about 1/4 teaspoon)
• 2 heaping tablespoons granulated sugar
• 6 large Rome, Winesap, Granny Smith, Yellow Delicious, or other baking apples, cut into thinnish chunks (or blueberries, peaches, nectarines- see note below)
• oil for frying ( corn or canola)

Peel and slice the apples.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk the milk with the eggs.  Whisk in the flour, the baking powder, the salt, and the sugar until the mixture is as lump free as possible.  I usually need to add the 1/4 cup more flour mentioned above if the batter is too thin.  Fold in the apples with a rubber spatula.

Heat corn oil or canola oil in a large frying pan, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch high.  Drop spoonfuls in about the size of silver dollar pancakes.  The batter will get a bit puffy, and when it is nicely browned on the bottom, flip over with a spatula.  Brown on the other side, and drain on paper towels.  I serve them with granulated sugar served on the side, but I guess you could sprinkle them with confectioners sugar.  The taste of the granulated sugar on them is perfect, though!

Note:  These may be frozen in an aluminum tin.  Lay them so they are not overlapping.  Then put a sheet of aluminum foil over the first layer, and repeat with a second layer of fritters.  You can heat them directly from the freezer.  Put them on a half sheet pan or on a cookie sheet covered with foil into a preheated oven, about 350 degrees until they are hot and bubbly (about 20 min.) 

In the summer, I substitute peaches, nectarines, or blueberries for the apples.  Nectarines, I don’t peel, which is great.

This morning- June 26, 2011, I just made the above batter, divided in half, added about 1 heavy cup of blueberries to the one half of the batter, and 2 or 3 nectarines, cut up, to the other half of the batter.  Now we have some of each!

The Jewish holiday of Chanukah has always been a wonderful holiday for me.  The special  childhood memories I have of Chanukah always include potato latkes.  When I was a little girl, I would, as usual, be in the kitchen when my mother was cooking.  I loved to stand right next to her as she made her latkes.  She used her mother’s (my Grandma Rose Hindes’s) delicous recipe.  My mother would make a batch of these, and then she would put them in the freezer for a dinner we’d have later in the week.  In other words, these latkes were not meant for immediate consumption.  As I stood next to my mother while she was frying the latkes, I prayed for these words to come out of my mother’s mouth- “Judy, you can have one.”  She always let me have at least one  (She would allow herself to take one too.) She also allowed me to pick off all the little crunchy browned bits around the edges of the latkes.  When I became a mother myself, I was so happy as the holiday of Chanukah approached because that meant it was time for me to start making my mother’s latke recipe.  I loved making them and calling my kids into the kitchen to tell them they could have some hot off the presses.  I also loved making lots and putting them in the freezer, just like my mother did.  There was nothing as gratifying, for me, as watching the expression on my children’s, my husband’s, or especially my mother’s or father’s faces as they put one of these incredible latkes in their mouths.  Please, understand that there is nothing hard about making these.  Once you get the hang of it, you will be making them by the dozens, too!

I usually double this recipe.

• • 3 large sized Idaho or russet potatoes
  • 2 large eggs or 1 jumbo egg
  • 1 medium to large onion
  • 1/4 cup of matzo meal or 1/4 cup flour (you can use flour, but I think the texture and flavor are better if you use matzo meal)
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • Vegetable oil for frying (for the best taste, use corn oil)Sour cream and applesauce for serving

Peel and quarter the onion.  Then peel potatoes, and pat them dry with paper towels, and quarter them.  Crack egg or eggs into a blender.  Add a few pieces of one potato, and then blend it.  Then add the rest of the potatoes and the onion.  Blend on high until the mixture is the consistency of apple sauce.  The mixture should not be so pureed that it looks like liquid.  It needs to be lumpy.  But there should not be any whole pieces of potato or onion in it.  When the blender is full, dump the mixture out into a large mixing bowl.  If you are doubling the recipe, repeat and dump the mixture a second time into the large mixing bowl.  Then add the matzo meal or flour, the salt, and pepper.  Mix with a rubber spatula.

Heat oil ,about 1/8 to 1/4 inch high, in large frying pan over a medium to high heat (I use both non-stick and regular).  Drop  spoonfuls of batter into oil, about the size of silver dollar pancakes.  You will be able to see when the latkes are really starting to brown.  Loosen them with a good, sharp spatula from the pan, and if they are really browned on the bottom, flip them over.  Then brown them on the other side.  As they are done, take them out and put them on paper towels to drain.  Flip them over on the paper towels to drain on the other side.  Eat immediately with applesauce or sour cream.  Or, you may freeze them once they have cooled.

If you are heating up your frozen latkes,  take out as many as you wish right from the freezer, and put them into a preheated 375 to 400 degree oven on a sheet pan covered with aluminum foil, or a disposable cookie sheet with sides, and heat for about 15 minutes or until they are hot and bubbly.

Note:  If I freeze them, I usually use an aluminum tin, and I make layers without overlapping the latkes, and I put a sheet of aluminum foil in between my layers.

I developed this brownie recipe for Passover because I believed that it was possible to bake Passover brownies that would be just as delicious as regular brownies.  I took one of my regular brownie recipes, and then I just played with it, using Kosher for Passover ingredients, until it was perfect.  This recipe is so beloved by my children, family, and friends, that I actually use it all year round.  These brownies are so delicious that when I serve them for Passover, noone believes they are actually Kosher for Passover brownies.  I love to serve these brownies restaurant style – warm out of the oven with vanilla ice cream and my homemade hot fudge.  Serving them this way transforms an ordinary dessert into a spectacular dessert that everyone loves.

• 3/4 cup matzo cake meal, sifted (I use Manischewitz)- sift first, then measure
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large or extra large eggs at room temperature
• 4 ounces or squares of unsweetened chocolate (I use Baker’s or Nestle’s)
• 1 ounce (1 square) semi-sweet chocolate- or eyeball an ounce of semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Baker’s or Nestle’s)
• 2 sticks butter or margarine (if using margarine, I use Fleischmann’s salted margarine, but in recent years, I’ve switched to using butter)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• optional 1/4 teaspoon instant coffee granules (this is absolutely not essential to use, but it does intensify the flavor of the chocolate and I’ve been doing it lately)
• optional, 1 – 1 1/4 cups roughly chopped walnuts (I usually don’t put nuts in because the kids don’t like them)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the sides and bottom of a 9 x 13 pan with butter or margarine.  Sift the cake flour, and then measure it and set it aside.

In a double boiler or in a saucepan over lowest heat, start to melt the margarine.  Then add the squares of chocolate.  Keep moving the chocolate around so that it doesn’t burn.  When the chocolate and the margarine or butter are totally melted, take them off the heat.  Throw the sugar into the pan, and mix with a rubber spatula to blend.  Crack in the eggs, and mix them in one at a time just until blended. Mix in the vanilla. If you are adding the instant coffee granules, then crush them with your fingers, and add at this time.    Then add the cake flour and the salt, and fold it in with a rubber spatula, just until it is blended.  Add optional nuts.  Do not over-mix.  Spread the batter in prepared pan.  Bake for about 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  The brownies will also feel firm to the touch and will have started to separate from the sides of the pan.  Serve warm immediately, or at room temperature.

Note:  You can prepare the batter, put it in the baking pan, and refrigerate it until you are ready to bake it.  When I bring these to a friend’s or family member’s house, I prepare the batter that day or a day in advance, put it in the prepared cake pan, cover it with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate until I leave my house.   Then I put them in the oven 30 minutes or so before I want to serve them.  This way, I can serve them warm out of the oven with some vanilla ice cream and my homemade hot fudge. 

My Children’s All-time Favorite Dinner Recipe

If I had to name the one recipe out of all my recipes that I have made more than any other, it would be my recipe for chicken with the crumbs.    When I was growing up, my mother made chicken for dinner every other Friday night in honor of the Jewish Sabbath.  She made two chicken recipes, and this recipe was one of them.  But my mother used a whole cut up chicken rather than cutlets, which I use.  I loved her chicken! Occasionally, we had leftovers, and I loved eating the chicken cold, too.  I will never forget the time that my mother packed a leftover piece of chicken for me to take to camp for lunch.  When I got to camp, I realized that I had left the lunch bag in the driveway.  To this day, I still haven’t gotten over the disappointment!  I was devastated, because I didn’t get to enjoy that 1 piece of leftover chicken for lunch.  Anyway, when I started making this recipe for my children, I realized that they didn’t enjoy eating chicken on the bone, so I adapted the recipe and switched over to cutlets.  This recipe quickly became my children’s favorite, and I definitely made it at least 2 times a week.  I can still hear either one of my sons, Danny or Benji saying to me, “Mommy, can we have chicken with the crumbs?”  I especially remember all the times I picked Benji up from his morning nursery school.  When we got home, Benji would go into the family room, and get real cozy in front of the tv to watch some of his favorite cartoons.  I’d say, “Benji do you want some leftover chicken with the crumbs?” Of course, I knew what the answer would be, so I’d fill up a plate with the chicken, and I loved bringing it to him.  He was my little prince.  Then years later, when Danny would come home from college, the first thing he asked me to make was of course, chicken with the crumbs.  I couldn’t make it fast enough for Danny. Please, try this recipe.  Your kids will be asking, “Mommy, can you make us some chicken with the crumbs?”

• • thin sliced chicken cutlets (I find that Purdue are the thinnest and the best)

• Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Crumbs
• oil (light olive oil, corn or canola)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cover a half sheet pan (or other baking pan with sides) with aluminum foil.  Grease the foil with a tablespoon or so of the oil.  Put some oil into a bowl- about 1/2 cup to start.  Then put all your cutlets into the oil.  Smoosh the chicken around in the oil.  Pour some corn flakes crumbs onto a large plate, about 3/4 cup to start with.  Take one cutlet out of the oil after you make sure the cutlet is coated on both sides, and lay it on the crumbs.  Turn the cutlet a few times, patting the crumbs on it.  I go pretty heavy with the crumbs, but you can go light if you wish.  Then, transfer the cutlet to your prepared sheet pan.  Repeat with all cutlets.  Then, drizzle the remaining oil from the bowl over the cutlets.  The cutlets only need a drizzling of oil on top.

Bake in center of preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until chicken is cooked through.  If you are using thicker cutlets, I recommend you reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and cook about 30-35 minutes.  If you are using chicken pieces, I recommend cooking at 350 degrees for about an hour.

Note:  I usually use light olive oil when I make these because it’s healthier, but for the best flavor, I sometimes use corn oil.

Of all my cookie recipes I bake, this recipe is my daughter Randi’s favorite.  She loves them.  I like to make a batch of these cookies, wrap them up in aluminum foil, and deliver them to her as a loving care package.  She puts them in her freezer, and then takes one, two, or three out for a night time treat.  What makes these cookies special is the delicious, melt in your mouth, rich flavor of the cookie dough combined with the yummy jam. And these cookies look as good as they taste!

for the cookies:

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine at room temperature (these cookies come out best if you use Fleischmann’s salted margarine)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• scant 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 of 1 extra large egg yolk
• about 1/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (Minute Maid lemon juice is just as good as fresh)
• 1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached flour
• jam or preserves (I use seedless raspberry, strawberry, or blackberry)

for the glaze:

• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon of water (You can substitute a drop or two of lemon juice for some of the water)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a large cookie sheet with butter or margarine, or put a piece of parchment paper on the cookie sheet.

In food processor fitted with the metal blade (you can do this in an electric mixer, too), cream margarine with sugar, then add vanilla and lemon juice, and pulse to mix.

Add flour and salt.  Pulse until the mixture forms a ball.  If it is too wet to come together, add another tablespoon of flour.  Dump the dough onto a floured piece of wax paper or plastic wrap or onto a floured board. Divide the dough into 3 sections, quickly make each one into a ball, and wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.  When you are ready to bake, take out one section of the dough.  Sprinkle a little flour on a board or counter.  Using your hands, roll the dough into a rope about 9-12 inches long.  It should be about 1  inch or so in diameter.  Then place the rope of dough on the parchment paper on your cookie sheet going horizontally.  Using your index finger, make a 1/2 inch hollow down the center of the rope.  Do not flatten the indentation too much, because that will cause the cookie to  will fall apart when you slice it.  Try to build the dough up on either side of the hollowed our area.  You want to do this, because the jam is going in that tunnel you are creating, and if the sides are not higher than the hollow, then the jam will run out.

Fill the hollow with jam.  Repeat with the other two balls of dough.  Bake for about 20-25 minutes until you can see that the edges are golden brown, but not burned!  Let these cool right on the cookie sheet.  When they are cool, make the glaze.  Blend the confectioners sugar and the water with a wire whisk until smooth.  If the mixture is too thin, add a little more sugar.  If you think it is too thick, then thin it out with a drop more of water or a drop of lemon juice.  It should not look too watery.  Take a spoon, put some glaze in it, and just drizzle the glaze over the logs so they look pretty.  Let the glaze set for about 20 minutes.  Then, using a sharp knife, slice the cookies slightly on the diagonal about 3/4 inch to 1 inch thick.  Transfer them carefully with a metal spatula to your serving plate.  You can make these in advance as they freeze well.  If you are doing this, then transfer the cookies using a metal spatula to a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil, wrap them up, and put them in a ziploc freezer bag.

Note:  The last time I made these, I used amazing jam which I bought in the supermarket, called Bonne Maman  Four Fruits Preserves which is a combination of raspberries, strawberries, red currants, and cherries.  The jam diagonals tasted incredible!

Triangle-Shaped Cookies with Jam in the Center

 Of all of my cookie recipes, this is probably my favorite one.  This was a recipe that I developed when my daughter Randi was going to  the wonderful Solomon Schechter Day School in Marlboro, New Jersey sometime around 1990.  Randi brought home a typed sheet of recipes for the Jewish holiday of Purim on a piece of pink paper from school (I still have and treasure that pink piece of paper).  I started experimenting with one of the recipes for hamantashen on the sheet.  I made some changes, including adding a touch of orange juice to the recipe.  I played with that recipe until it was perfect.  Back in those years, I loved the tradition on the holiday of Purim of putting together Shalach Manos (gifts of food), and delivering them to a few of my friends and family.  My gift platters always had some of my homemade chocolate chip cookies, some Hershey’s Kisses, and of course my homemade hamantaschen. My friends and family looked forward to receiving my homemade hamantaschen, but noone loved my hamantaschen more than Randi, Danny (my son), and, Nana (my mother).  My youngest son Benji only ate the hamantascen if I put chocolate chips in the center.  Every year as the holiday of Purim approaches, my children and my mother start asking me if I’m making my hamantaschen.   I try never to disappoint them.  Please, try this recipe.  I know that if you do, you will agree that the flavor of these cookies is out of this world!

• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons unbleached pre-sifted flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) Fleischmann’s salted margarine at room temperature(if you keep your margarine in the freezer, just take it out, cut it into smallish pieces, and pulse it in processor, it will work just fine)
• 1 extra large egg at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup scant  pure orange juice not use from concentrate (scant means a little less than)
• jam or preserves (I usually use a variety of flavors, but my favorites are raspberry, strawberry, peach, cherry, blueberry, or apricot)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Either grease your cookie sheet with margarine or use a sheet of parchment paper.  I like to grease the pan, because I like how they come out with the bottoms and edges being a little browned, but using the parchment paper makes the job much easier.

Combine the dry ingredients- the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl; set aside.

In bowl of food processor fitted with the metal blade (or alternately using a hand held mixer or a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), cream margarine with sugar- if your margarine is frozen, just pulse it first.  Add the egg and vanilla, and pulse until blended.  Add the orange juice and pulse until blended.

Add dry ingredients all at once.  Pulse until a ball forms.  If the dough is too wet, and it won’t form a ball, add a little more flour, 1 or 2 tablespoons.  Dump the ball of dough out on a lightly floured board or table and flatten it slightly so that you can divide it into 3 sections.  Form each section into a flattish round disk, around an inch or so high.  Wrap each disk in plastic wrap or wax paper.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Take one disk out of refrigerator.  I usually do this on a sheet of wax paper.  Sprinkle some flour on the wax paper.  Put the disk of dough on the wax paper.  Turn the disk over.  Sprinkle some more flour on the wax paper before you put the dough back down.  The idea is to make sure that the dough  will not stick to the paper or your board.  Then roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness.  Using a round cookie or biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass (I use a glass that has a diameter of about 2 1/2 to 3 inches), press down to make your circles.  Gather scraps and reroll them to make additional circles.  Transfer the circles of dough using a metal spatula onto your prepared cookie sheet spaced about 2 inches apart.  Put about a teaspoon of jam or preserves in the center of each circle.  Then bring the sides up and squeeze together to make your triangle-shaped cookies.  Pinch dough tightly enough so the seams are no longer visible and the sides are taught enought o prevent the cookies from leaking the filling as they bake.   You will get about 1 dozen or so cookies out of the one third of the dough.

Bake about 25-30 minutes until the hamentaschen are browned around the edges.  Let them cool a few minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack.  Store them in an airtight container for 3 or 4 days.

Note:  You can use one third of the dough, and then leave the remaining dough in the refrigerator for a few days, and make the rest of the hamentaschen later.  Make sure you put your leftover dough which is already wrapped in plastic wrap or wax paper in a ziploc bag to keep it fresh.

Bake this incredible white cake with rich chocolate frosting for any special occasion! 

I have three children. Randi is my oldest; she’s 25 years old. Next is Danny- he’s 22. And last but definitely not least is Benji- he’s 18. When my children were little, I started the tradition of cooking a special birthday dinner for them, which of course had to include a birthday cake. I adapted this recipe from a recipe of my mother’s (Nana to my kids).   I have so many wonderful memories of all these birthday dinners that all ended with this amazing cake. The combination of the fluffy, buttery cake with the incomparable dark, glossy, chocolaty icing is so good, you will not be able to stop eating it! I know one thing for sure. To this day when I bake this cake, even though my kids are pretty much grown, they still fight over who’s going to get to lick the spatula or the bowl when I make the icing! I promise you – if you make this cake once for your family, you will want to start your own family tradition of making this cake for your children’s birthdays!

Recent note on Dec.11, 2020: I made this for Ezra’s 10th birthday, and Randi called me last night to tell me that it was the best it’s ever been, and that Ezra said, “Safta’s cake is my favorite cake in the world!”

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