I love to make this as a side dish to go along with a light dairy meal, as part of  a brunch buffet, or for Yom Kippur break the fast feast! I made this today for my grandkids (by special request of Noah) forNoah, Ezra, and Hannah, and for my daughter Randi, and the kids said it was the best one I’ve ever made. The kids ate 2/3 of it as an after school snack. I don’t know why, but it was so fluffy and perfect! 

My wonderful mother, Shirley Fried, got this recipe from her best friend and our favorite neighbor, Adele Hochheiser. I think the recipe is nicknamed Sister’s, because Adele’s first cousins affectionately referred to her as “sister.” My mother made this often, and oh did my mother, my father, and I love it. For some reason, my brother Kenny was not fond of this dish. My mother made this to go with our fish night- our Wednesday night dinner. I don’t think I’ve written about my mother’s weekly dinner schedule yet- when I was growing up, so this is as good a place as any. Throughout my entire childhood, we basically ate the same thing every week. And believe me, that was not a bad thing. There is something very reassuring about knowing what your meals are going to be. My mother’s meals were all extremely balanced, too. I loved each and every meal. How I looked forward to them!  Here is our weekly dinner menu:

Monday: rib steak ( and sometimes London broil, which was cooked by me in my teen years after we had a gas grill), french fries, LeSeurr peas, salad with Wishbone Italian Dressing, and years later, Ken’s Caesar, or Milani 1890 French)

Tuesday: stew (Adele Hochheiser’s recipe) with rice and salad, or spaghetti and meat sauce (my Aunt Sally Hindes’s recipe) with salad and garlic bread, or sweet and sour meatballs with mashed potatoes, frozen spinach, and salad, or vegetable soup with flanken (a rare treat)- soup served separately and flanken served on a plate with mashed potatoes, or meatloaf (Anita Lapidus’s recipe) with baked potatoes, string beans and salad

Wednesday: a beautiful platter of tuna salad served on a bed of lettuce surrounded by sliced cucumbers, radishes, green peppers, and a plate of sliced Jersey tomatoes (in the summer), accompanied by macaroni and cheese casserole, or this noodle pudding recipe, or brown rice pudding, or apple fritters.

Thursday: same as Tuesday

Friday: My mother alternated between chicken and brisket. She cooked one Empire frozen chicken cup up in eighths baked with either Saucy Susan, or Kellogg’s Cornflakes Crumbs, or fried Southern style by our beloved cleaning lady who I loved, Harriet. The chicken was served with one 8 oz. can of peas and carrots, salad, and my mother’s delicious pineapple noodle pudding. She served her brisket with our favorite potato dish from my Grandma Hindes’s recipe, brenta, peas and carrots, and salad.

All dinners were followed by either a half of a grapefruit, fruit cocktail, sliced canned peaches or pear halves, a wedge of cantaloupe, or jello.

This was followed by dessert. My brother Kenny and I were allowed one Tastycake, or 3 Hydrox, or 3 Chips Ahoy cookies. This was my father’s favorite part of the meal.  He would take out one package of chocolate Tastycakes, Krimpets, peanut butter Tandytakes, or  a  Tasycake Junior, and he’d eat the entire package with a few glasses of ice cold skim milk.  How my father adored his Tastycakes!

Anyway, here is the recipe for Adele’s noodle pudding.  It is rich and delicious!

for the filling:

• 1 pound extra wide or broad egg noodles (such as Pennsylvania Dutch) (As of March 2019, I buy wide egg noodles at Whole Foods)
• 1 1/2 sticks of butter or Fleischmann’s margarine- update- use only 1 stick of salted or unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar (I reduce to 3/4 cup sugar)
• 1 pound small curd or whipped cottage cheese I use Friendship brand whipped cottage cheese or or Friendship cottage cheese)
• 1 pint (16 oz.) sour cream
• 5 extra large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 scant teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup raisins (optional- I usually don’t use them)

Update: As of 2018 and 2019, no cornflakes crumbs topping; instead sprinkle top with cinnamon.

but if you prefer the cornflakes crumbs topping:

Mix one cup of Kellogg’s Cornflakes Crumbs (this comes already prepared as crumbs in the box) with 3 tablespoons melted butter or margarine.  Set topping aside.

Or crush by hand about 3 cups of corn flakes, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine, and about 1 tablespoon of sugar.

for an alternate cornflakes crumbs topping:

Make cornflakes crumbs yourself by placing cornflakes in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, and pulsing until the crumbs are quite fine. Continue until you have one cup of crumbs.  You will probably need about 3 cups of cornflakes to make one cup of cornflakes crumbs.  Mix with 3 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine. Set topping aside.

for a more rustic cornflakes crumbs topping:

Place about 3 cups of cornflakes into a ziploc bag.  Using a rolling pin or your hands, crush the cornflakes until you have crumbs that are not quite so fine.  Mix cornflakes with about 6 tablespoons of melted margarine or butter.  Set topping aside.

for the filling:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 13 glass baking dish.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Cook noodles till al dente.  Drain noodles in colander.  While noodles are draining, put the margarine or butter into the same pot to melt on low heat.  When margarine or butter is melted, take the pot off the heat.  Put the noodles back in.  Add the sugar and mix with a rubber spatula.  Add the cottage cheese and mix in.  Then add the milk, the vanilla, the beaten eggs, and mix in with the spatula.  Finally, add the sour cream, and blend in.  (add raisins at this point if you wish)

Pour filling into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle topping on- either cinnamon or cornflakes crumbs topping evenly over the top of the filling.  Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour 10 min. to 1 hour and 20 min. until starts to puff in the center, and until the bottom and sides start to brown.  The center should be set, and a toothpick should come out clean.

Notes:  The topping is optional.  If you prefer, you can just sprinkle the top with cinnamon.  You can also reduce the calories in the dish by reducing the sugar to 3/4 cup and reducing the margarine or butter to 1 stick.  You may also use a 2% fat cottage cheese.  I do not recommend using a low fat sour cream or low fat milk. 

May 18, 2011

My daughter Randi asked me to make the kugel with whole wheat noodles.  Luckily I found Ronzoni whole grain egg noodles at the Stop and Shop in Aberdeen.  The bag is only 12 oz. but I basically kept the quantities of everything the same since whole grain tends to absorb more liquid.  Changes included for the filling: I used about 1 1/4 cups milk, I used only 1/2 stick butter, I added about 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon to filling and 3 small boxes of organic raisins, I used 1 teaspoon vanilla, I used a heavy 1/2 cup sugar, I happened to use 1 pound Friendship 2% cottage cheese- pot style,  I used 16 oz. Daisy sour cream, 5 extra large eggs.  For the topping, I melted 2 tablespoons butter in a bowl, I added 2 cups of coursely crushed corn flakes crumbs, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Follow above directions for baking.

Updated January 3, 2019: I made the dough to bring over to Randi’s house, and kids cut out the shapes and decorated the cookies. So much fun! (Noah is 10, Ezra is 8, and Hannah is 3). Now, I made only half a recipe, but I still used 1 egg, and the cookies were perfect! It’s hard to describe the bliss I felt during my time with the kids doing this activity!

This is my favorite recipe for buttery, sugary cut out Chanukah cookies.  When my son Benji was going to Hebrew School, he made these cookies in his class.  I got the recipe from his Hebrew school teacher.  I loved and still love making these cookies with my three children.  It was actually one of the few recipes I enouraged them to help me with.  I sometimes let my children roll the dough out and cut out the shapes with the Chanukah cookie cutters.  Then I always let them decorate the cookies.  They really went to town decorating their cookies with different colored sugar.  When the cookies came out of the oven, they each kept their own cookies.  It was so cute.  Their favorite shapes were the menorah, the dreidle, and the Jewish star.  The sad thing for me today was that I made a batch of these cookies all by myself.  It just wasn’t the same.  I  still have one third of the dough left, and I’m planning on forcing my son Danny, who is 22 years old and still lives with me, to make that last batch of cookies with me, and I will absolutely insist that he decorate the cookies too.

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine (I use Fleischmann’s salted margarine) at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar (on 12/2011 I reduced the sugar to 2/3 cup which turned out great)

1 extra large egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1 teaspoon Kosher salt (if using unsalted butter which as of 12/2011 is my preference)

1 teaspoon baking powder

Variety of different colored sugar (I use blue, pink, green, red, and yellow)

In bowl of food processor with metal blade or mixer with paddle attachment, cream margarine or butter with sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and mix.  Add the flour, and sprinkle the baking powder and salt right over the flour.  Pulse until mixture comes together as a ball.  Dump the dough onto a lightly floured board or piece of wax paper.  Turn it a few times and flatten slightly.  Cut it into 3 equal sections.  Wrap each section in plastic wrap or wax paper, and refrigerate at least one hour.

Take one piece of dough out or refrigerator.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Put a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet.   Sprinkle a little flour on a sheet of wax paper.  Sprinkle some flour on top of the flour.  Roll out 1/4 inch thick.  Cut out shapes.  Transfer the cut out shapes onto the cookie sheet.  Reroll the leftover scraps and cut out additional shapes.  Transfer to the cookie sheet.  Then sprinkle the cookies with the sugar to your liking.  Bake for about 10 minutes until the cookies just start to brown around the edges.  Cool on a wire rack.

Repeat process with rest of dough.  You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for up to a week.

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.