It’s really much cheaper to make your own condensed milk. And you can make quantities of it at one time with almost no effort. But it does require time and patience. It’s something to stir while doing other kitchen projects. Like an intensive cooking or cupboard-cleaning session, or a morning of  phone calls you’ve been putting off. Actually, the coolest thing would be to have a magical spoon that stirs all by itself. Lacking that, just old-fashioned patience and time will  do.

Why would I want to make my own condensed milk? Well, here in Israel, all condensed and evaporated milk is imported in squeezable tubes and cans. Living in a dairy-rich country, it seems wrong to buy a milk product that’s been shipped across the planet. That’s Noble Reason Number One.

Then, while these products have kashrut, they don’t bear a “mehadrin” hechsher (the most stringent kashrut approval).  As the milk I buy is “mehadrin,” it’s sensible to put the excess into products that even my most stringently observant guests will eat. That’s Noble Reason Number Two.

And Number Three, for some reason I had too much milk taking up room in the fridge and I wanted to use it up before it got old and I had to (shudder) pour it down the drain.

As a teenager living in Brazil, I used to hang out in the kitchen with the servants and watch them cooking. The two maids, Rose and Lydia, would let me get in their way among the pots and pans, answering my questions with good humor and occasionally poking sly fun at my ignorance. All our food was made from scratch, from the bread crumbs that coated shnitzels, to the daily rice and black beans, to Floating Island for dessert. (For some reason, those ladies loved to make Floating Island, although I don’t believe they ever ate any of it themselves.) They made lots of condensed milk for us back then.

My mother has often said that she misses her two girls, for girls they were when they worked in our home – rather, young women whose own watchful mothers accompanied them to the interview when my Dad hired them. We have often wondered if dainty-stepping Rose married her Portuguese policeman, whom she didn’t like but who was terribly in love with her and wrote letters (first read by her parents) offering his honorable hand and heart. Lydia, who was a little older and not so pretty, graduated from housemaid to cook in our home. Although only semi-literate, she could make out a recipe from Dona Benta’s cookbook and proved to have a light, sure hand with that savory Brazilian fare. I hope she married a nice man and has long been surrounded by grandchildren of her own.

That was long ago.

But condensed milk. All it takes it to put a liter or two or three in a big, wide pan and let it simmer without boiling till it’s reduced by at least half, if not more. Wide is the operative word here; you want lots of space for the water in the milk to evaporate. Once the milk steams, you must keep stirring and removing the skin that forms on top of the hot milk, or it will prevent evaporation. And scrape the bottom every so often to keep stray bits of fat that drop down from scorching. That’s where patience comes in.

It may take as little as half an hour, or up to several hours, depending on the quantity of milk you’re reducing. Get it down to at least half, if not a quarter of the original volume. The milk will turn tan to beige over the process and start giving up that sweet, condensed-milk odor. When it’s been reduced, allow it to cool somewhat, and strain if you want it free of floating skin particles and the inevitable slightly scorched bits. Refrigerate and use as needed. Condensed milk freezes well. If you’re fond of recipes that require it, freeze by the cupful or 2-cupfuls.

Brazilians reserve the skinny layers and when there’s enough, make biscoitos de nata from it – little milk-fat cookies. They are rare nuggets because they’re really a by-product of making condensed milk at home. I have Dona Benta’s recipe but confess that I didn’t make them this time. I put the cupful in the fridge and promptly forgot about it till it did get too old for use. I am ashamed.

But next time I make condensed milk, I’ll make you the biscoitos. Meantime, here’s the recipe, with a photo borrowed from jmarconi via Flickr, whose images of northeastern Brazil gave me a shock of recognition and nostalgia.

Milk Cookies (Biscoitos de Nata)

Source: Dona Benta Comer Bem, Companhia Editora Nacional, 1969 edition.

Ingredients:

2 cups of skimmed milk solids

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

Flour, as needed

Method:

Put the milk solids, butter and salt in a bowl. Add just enough flour to make a tender dough. Either roll out on a floured surface and cut out circles, or shape as in the photo above by dropping spoonfulls onto a baking tray lined with parchment and pressing a fork on each to make indentations. Bake at 375° F – 190° C for 12 minutes or until golden.

Another thing you can do with excess milk is make dulce de leche. The  granular texture of the home-made product doesn’t resemble the slick commercial stuff, which is usually smoothed down with glycerin. But it’s the real, original milk jam. Use it to fill pastry, make ice cream, sweeten coffee as they do in Cuba, or spread on toast. Or just serve it on a little plate, with a coffee spoon. Like any other jam, it needs added sugar.

Dulce de Leche

Ingredients:

For each liter of milk, 250 grams – 1 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or lemon zest.

Method:

In a large, wide pan, simmer the milk and sugar together over low heat, stirring often. Cook till the milk has reduced to a semi-solid mass and you can see the bottom of the pan when you stir. Add vanilla or lemon zest just before removing from the fire.

Photo of dulce de leche by Fabiana of the delicious Brazilian blog, Figos & Funghis.

Katherine Martinelli is an internationally published food and travel writer and photographer who contributes regularly to publications on three continents. A native New Yorker, she currently calls Be’er Sheva, Israel home.

That’s how Katherine introduces herself on her delicious blog, www.katherinemartinelli.com . But I can say more. She writes the kind of blog you and I love. It’s chock-full of recipes that turn ordinary ingredients into food experiences (like her Sour Cream Smashed Potatoes), and humor, and the most sensuous, mouth-watering photographs. Everything that the ardent foodie likes.

I’m tickled pink that Katherine has agreed to write a guest post on Israeli Kitchen. (I’m telling you, just looking at that photo makes me want to reach into the screen and tear a chunk off that cake.) So please welcome Katherine, and read on…

♥

I discovered this Cinnamon Bun cake during a brief stint photographing contest finalists for The Joy of Kosher website. I wasn’t entirely sure how it would come out. I mean, who doesn’t love a good cinnamon bun, but does it really need to be turned into a cake? Well, let me allow the fact that it was gone in two days flat speak for itself. And there’s just two of us. We ate it for dessert, and for breakfast, and as an afternoon snack. I think it makes a perfect holiday breakfast, something pretty and festive to place on the table.

The cake comes together easily, and this is from someone who is an infrequent baker with a temperamental oven. Be sure to position the cinnamon buns so they face out as this makes for a very pleasing presentation. Although I opted to make this cake dairy it can also be made parve by using margarine in the cake and parve cream cheese for the frosting. I can’t speak to how that will taste, but I’m sure it would be fine.

Cinnamon Bun Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from The Joy of Kosher

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients:

Cinnamon Bun Cake:

1 1/3 cups warm water

4½ teaspoons active dry yeast

1 1/3 cups vegetable oil

4 eggs, whisked

7½ cups AP flour

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. Put the warm water in a bowl and sprinkle with the yeast. Allow to sit until yeast starts to foam, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the oil and eggs and stir to combine.
3. In a separate bowl stir together the flour, 1 cup of the sugar, and salt.
4. Add the dry mixture to the wet in thirds, stirring to combine.
5. Knead for about 10 minutes, until smooth and cohesive (it may be slightly sticky)
6. Form the dough into a ball. Put into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp dish towel. Allow to rise in a cool, dark place until doubled in volume, about 1 to 2 hours (may vary based on temperature and other conditions).
7. Preheat the oven to 350F/177C.
8. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and set one aside. On a lightly floured surface, roll one out into a large rectangle.
9. Spread half the butter over the surface then sprinkle with half the cinnamon and remaining sugar (feel free to use more cinnamon if desired).
10. Roll the dough into a log. Using a sharp knife, cut it in half, then cut those halves into halves. Repeat once more to have 16 equal pieces.
11. Set aside and repeat with the remaining dough, butter, sugar, and cinnamon. You should end up with 32 cinnamon buns.
12. Lightly grease a bundt pan. Place two rolls into each indentation of the bundt pan so you have one facing out and one facing in. You should end up with two layers of 16 rolls each.
13. Put in the oven and bake 40 to 50 minutes, until golden brown.
14. Allow to cool while you make the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:

4 ounces cream cheese

2 tablespoons butter, softened

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup powdered sugar (plus more to taste)

1. In a large bowl mix together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until light and fluffy (do by hand with a wooden spoon or in the bowl of a stand mixer).
2. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until it reaches the desired consistency and sweetness. Feel free to add more powdered sugar if you have more of a sweet tooth.
3. Drizzle over the Cinnamon Bun Cake.

Sometimes nothing but a peanut butter cookie will do. With a glass of milk, naturally. And something different in the cookie – not chocolate chips. Looking through my freezer, which often yields gratifying surprises, I find a bag of cranberries. Ah! Perfect.

This recipe requires a lot of cranberries. A lot of everything, in fact. So the cookies, which have a slightly crisp crust yielding to a just-chewy-enough interior with those bright little berries in it – are good just before a brisk, 30-minute walk. And don’t eat too many before heading out.

Just a word to the wise.

Peanut Butter/Cranberry Cookies

Printable version here.

Yield: about 45 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine or butter at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup peanut butter

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-1/4 cups dried cranberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 350° F – 180° C.

1. Beat margarine (or butter) till smooth. Add the brown and white sugar, beating till all is blended and creamy.

2. Beat the eggs and add to the butter mixture. Beat in well. Add the peanut butter, and beat some more.

3. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the peanut butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the cranberries and beat, beat, beat again, until the fruit is well distributed throughout the mass.

4. Line a cookie sheet with baking paper. If not using paper, don’t grease the sheet.  Use a tablespoon to separate pieces of dough onto the cookie sheet.

5. Bake 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are slightly brown. Allow them to cool down; they will become crisp.

You can infuse cream with lemon grass, basil, mint, or bay leaves too, but rose geranium is special. The recipe is from Elizabeth David’s Summer Cooking. The wise Ms. David said, “The flavour of the geranium leaves is exquisite.” I can’t say it any better.

And if you prefer to serve berries with this cream, or figs…oh dear.  Too good to describe.

Geranium Cream

yield: 1-3/4 cups: enough to accompany 4-6 peaches or 1 to 1-12/ cups berries.

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh, heavy cream

3/4 cups soft cream cheese or 1 package Philadelphia cream cheese.

4 tablespoons sugar

2 large rose geranium leaves (or 3 medium)

Pour the cream into a double boiler. Add the sugar and the geranium leaves. Over a low fire, allow the mixture to heat through without boiling.

Allow it to cool but keep the leaves in. Mix the cream cheese in, stirring to obtain a thick, uniform cream.

Cover and refrigerate for 12 hours. Just before serving, remove the leaves.

Slice 4 peaches or whatever seasonal fruit you favor. Leave berries whole, if using.  Place 1 sliced peach in each serving bowl.

Sprinkle the fruit with sugar.

Spoon cream over the fruit and stir gently to coat the fruit. How much cream per serving depends on how much cream you like. For us, this covers about 4 servings, but then we really love cream.

Do you have to be Jewish to love cheesecake?

Well, no.

But it helps.

Shavuot  is coming up next Tuesday night. We have reasons  – religious reasons – for eating dairy on Shavuot. For many, that’s cheesecake.

And what, you might ask, rolling your eyes, does cheesecake have to do with receiving the word of G-d on Mt. Sinai?

Well, nothing.

The custom is to eat dairy. Cheesecake is modern tradition, based on the indisputable fact that it’s delicious.

Two commonly accepted reasons for dairy on Shavuot. The gematria, or numerical value of chalav – milk – is 40. We eat milk to remember the 40 days that the Jewish people waited while Moses received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. (Moses was fasting the whole time, by the way). Another reason is that the laws of ritual slaughter and kashrut were unknown till the Torah was received: to avoid eating un-kosher foods while spiritually preparing ourselves, we refrained from meat entirely and got our protein from dairy.

I’m afraid that if cheesecake had been around while we were waiting, our minds would not have lingered long on things spiritual. But – we are also commanded to rejoice on our holidays. Is cheesecake a cause for rejoicing, or one of many ways to rejoice?

This recipe takes a certain amount of focus. And two or three mixing bowls. And some time. But it’s worth the effort because it’s one of the best I’ve ever made. Rich and dense, with a tart-sweet marbling of puréed fresh apricots – a melting mouthful.

If you use a springform pan and grease it well with butter, you will have a smooth-edged cake. I was chicken about its being hard to remove so I placed baking paper in a pan with a removable bottom and got bumpy edges all around.

But when I served the cake to the ladies of the book club, nobody refused to eat the bumpy edges and got up from the table enraged. In fact they loved it.

The cake goes in four stages: bake the cake bottom, pureé the apricots, mix the filling and bake. It needs at least 3 mixing bowls. But don’t be daunted. Read the recipe through and follow my tips for a seamless baking session.

Apricot Swirl Cheesecake

adapted from Junior’s Cheesecakes by Fine Cooking, The Taunton Press

1 9-inch cake – 12 slices

Printable version here

The Cake Base

Ingredients:

1/3 cup flour, sifted

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch salt

2 large eggs, separated

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Zest of 1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preliminaries:

Preheat oven to 350° F, 180°

If using a springform pan, grease all inner surfaces very well with butter. If using a pan with a removable bottom, place a sheet of baking paper inside.

Wrap the entire outside with tin foil. This is necessary because at the second stage of baking, the cake will bake inside a water bath.

Have ready a pan into which your baking pan will fit easily, for the water bath.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a small bowl.

Zest the lemon.

Melt the butter.

Separate the eggs, with the yolks in a large bowl and the whites in a bowl big enough to contain them whipped.

Measure the sugar, leave it in its measuring cup, and put a measuring spoon on top of the measured sugar. This spares last-second hunting for the spoon when you’ll need to remove a little of the sugar.

Method:

Beat the yolks for 3 minutes, using an electric mixer set on high. Keep the mixer running and add 2 tablespoons of the sugar from the 1/3 measured cupful. Beat another 5 minutes.

Beat in the lemon zest and vanilla.

Sift the dry ingredients over the egg yolk/sugar mix and beat in on low, just to blend lightly. Blend the melted butter in.

Wash the beaters absolutely clean. In the second bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar till stiff. With a spatula, remove about 1/3 of the whites and fold them into the batter. Then add the remaining whites, mixing lightly. Stop when the whites are evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan. No water bath yet – that’s for when the whole cake is assembled. Bake 10-12 minutes or until just set and the center springs back when touched. It shouldn’t be baked till brown.

Keep the oven on. Leave the crust in the pan – you will bake the cheese filling on top of it. Put the pan on a rack to cool while you’re preparing the filling.

The Filling

Ingredients for Purée:

3-5 fresh apricots: enough to make 3/4 cup puréed.

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1-2 tablespoons sugar

Blend apricots and cornstarch and add sugar to taste. The amount of sugar will depend on the sweetness of the apricots. The purée should still be tart.

Ingredients for Cheese Filling:

3 cups full-fat cream cheese at room temperature. If using American cream cheese, use three 8-oz. packages. Israelis: I used Ski.

1/4 cup cornstarch

1-1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 large eggs

2/3 cup whipping cream

In a large bowl, mix 1 cup (1 package) of the cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, and the cornstarch. Beat on low for 3 minutes or until all is creamy. Beat in second cup (package) of cream cheese, then the third.

Increase the speed to medium and beat in 1 cup sugar, vanilla, and eggs, one at a time. Beat in the cream. Mix thoroughly but stop when everything is mixed; don’t overmix.

Spread the batter over the prepared crust.

Spread the apricot purée over the cheese filling, pushing it down with the back of the spoon here and there. Cut through the purée and batter in a figure of 8, going deep enough to just feel the cake on the bottom. Do this three times, but no more or the cake will will be yellow instead of marbled.

Put the cake in the second pan. Carefully pour hot water between the two pans, up to an inch from the top of the cake pan. Bake for 1 to 1-1/4 hours or until completely set.

Remove the cake from the water bath and put it to cool on a wire rack. Don’t move it for 2 hours lest it fall. When it’s totally cool, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours to overnight.

Leftovers stay delicious if wrapped well and kept cold, for 4 days.

Piles of heavy, red strawberries raise that divine sweet/tart odor in the shuk. Bring some home while they’re still in season. Marry them to cool whipped cream enriched with kirsch. Then feed them to your happy family.

This is hardly a recipe, more like a dream of spring fruit.

Figure on about 1/2 cup of halved or quartered, hulled strawberries per serving.  Once they’re clean and cut up, sugar them lightly – a tablespoon or two will be enough, depending on how many servings and how sweet the fruit is to start with.

Whip a cup of heavy cream till thick, then add 3 tablespoons sugar and whip till it makes soft billows. Add 2 tablespoons of kirsch or other liqueur. Whip again to incorporate the liquid.

Then layer cream, sugared strawberries, and cream again. Top with a few more berries. Drizzle a little strawberry jam over the cream that’s peeking out between the berries, if you like.

Dip your spoon in and eat, closing your eyes to fully get that flavor, essence of spring.  Strawberries and cream for breakfast – what a wonderful way to start the day.

Turning away from grief – for us in Israel and for the suffering of Japan – I’ve been putting my mind towards Purim. I confess, after the shock and tears, it’s a strange feeling to know that a joyful holiday is only around the corner. I hope that this coming Purim will truly foretell hasty redemption and rejoicing.

It was therapeutic to turn to my kitchen, take up my measuring cups, and get to work on something delicious. I found an interesting Iraqi recipe on this eclectic site. Rich pastries stuffed with cheese, nuts, or dates.  They’re meant to be eaten on Purim, I guess, because each one hides a sweet or savory filling in the dough (symbolizing how Queen Esther hid her Jewish origins from Ahasuerosh until the time came to plead against the  genocide Haman had plotted).

I must say – this reminds me of the wry joke that goes around the Internet every so often: How do you define a Jewish holiday?

Like this: 1. They wanted to kill us. 2. We were saved. 3. Let’s eat!

Not true for all holidays of course, but close enough, close enough.

So here is what I baked today, adapted from the original recipe.

Ba’aba Beh Tamur – Iraqi Stuffed Pastries for Purim

About 30 pastries

Notes: the original recipe calls for butter. Pareve margarine works fine too. Likewise, it assumes that you’ll be mixing the dough in a mixer. I just beat everything up by hand.

Here in Israel, you can get concentrated essences of rose and orange water. They’re much stronger than the “waters” and I prefer to use them.

I substituted 1 teaspoon freshly-smashed cardamom seeds for the fennel in the recipe because I dislike fennel. Lacking either of those, use 2 teaspoons cinnamon or the zest of 1 lemon. The dough must have something aromatic or it will be too bland.

My filling was almond/pecan, the nuts ground up quickly in the food processor. I’ll include the recipe for date filling as well. Finally, the buttery dough does seem to call for cheese. I’ll suggest alternative cheeses to the original version’s.

Ingredients:

For Dough:

1 cube fresh yeast

1 cup warm water

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground fennel seed

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons melted butter (or marg)

1 beaten egg for glazing

For Almond Filling:

1 cup ground almonds

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon each rose water and orange water or 1/4 teaspoon edible rose and orange essences.

Method:

1. Dissolve yeast in water. Add flour, baking powder, fennel or other spice, and melted butter. Mix until you have a soft dough that forms a ball.

2. Cover with plastic bag or damp cloth; allow to rise 1 hour or until doubled.

3. Preheat oven to 425°F – 200°C.

4. Work with a quarter of the dough at the time for convenience. Roll it out 1/4″ thin. Use a large biscuit cutter or glass to cut into 3″ rounds. Brush the rounds with a little water.

5. Mix filling ingredients in a small bowl. Put 1 teaspoon filling in the center of each round and fold it over. Press your fingers down all around the edges to seal, or use the tines of a fork. Brush beaten egg on pastries.

Bake 25 minutes.

Date Filling for about 30 pastries:

8 oz. – 250 grams pitted, finely chopped dates. Here you can get date paste in blocks and that’s better.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon milk

1 egg white

sesame seeds

Combine ingredients in top of a double boiler and cook 5 minutes, stirring a few times. Allow the mixture to cool and roll it into balls for stuffing the pastry. When forming the pastry, place a small ball at the center of each pastry round and pinch the sides upwards to make a closed bundle. Flip over and flatten slightly with the rolling pin. Pierce with a fork in several places. Paint the pastries with an egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake as directed above.

Cheese Filling:

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/2 cup mild yellow cheese, grated

1 teaspoon dried, crumbled za’atar, oregano or rosemary

1 finely chopped scallion

1 egg

Combine cheeses, herbs, and egg. Bake pastries as half-circles as in the almond filling.

Too good.

By the way, I wonder if the correct name for this pastry is ba’aba beh tanur, no “m.” I don’t speak Arabic, so I can’t tell if someone’s typo may not be going around, as typos do.

Now,  I have to keep several things in mind. First, that self-denial builds character. Second, that self-denial trims the waistline. Third, that there’s only room for one of these at a time in the mouth and it’s really not mature of me to keep trying to cram more in – no, I didn’t mean that.

Really.

This is just a pre-Purim experiment and a good way to use up the leftover Tu B’Shvat dried fruit. I’m giving, er, most of them away to the book club ladies tonight.

Chocolate Fruit/Nut Clusters

Print-friendly version here.

From The Book of New Israeli Food

Ingredients

200 grams – 7 oz. bittersweet chocolate

60 grams – 2 oz. butter or margarine

300 grams – 10 oz. mixed dried fruit and nuts. Especially nice in the mix are candied citrus peels.

Melt the chocolate and butter (marg is fine too) in a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir gently and constantly till the mass is smooth and glossy.

Add the fruit and nut mixture to the melted chocolate. Mix thoroughly.

Spoon the mixture into small paper cupcake cups by tablespoons, or onto a sheet lined with baking paper. There will be some liquid pooling at the bottom of the pot. Spoon it up and drizzle it over the clusters, filling up any empty spaces. It’ll get hard again, so use it all up.

Freeze the clusters for 1/2 hour before serving. If making them ahead of time, keep them in the fridge or freezer. They’ll stay good a long time, but then again, they’ll disappear before long.

If at first you don’t succeed, fry, fry again.

Tonight Hanukah starts – are you ready? Get out the recipes and arm yourself with spatula and crumpled paper for draining those potato latkehs – or butternut squash latkehs – or apple fritters.

I’m still faithful to potato latkehs of course, or my family would give me what for. The house is fragrant with cinnamon and apples from the applesauce I cooked today for topping  those crisp brown ovals. The sour cream is sitting comfortably in the fridge. I’m set… but I want something a little different.

So I fried these homely little cottage cheese fritters. They’re easy to make and seriously delicious to eat – light, sweet little dough bubbles. The Little One gave her approval, saying “Yum!”  It looks like I have a hit.

Try any of the fritters and latkehs with a dried fig jam and creme fraiche (recipes below). I did, and it was good. Really good.

Cottage Cheese Fritters

Ingredients:

1 cup cottage cheese, drained for 20 minutes

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup milk

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

oil for deep frying

powdered sugar

Method:

1. Mix the cottage cheese and eggs.

2. Stir the milk in; mix well.

3. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cinnamon.  Mix gently, stopping when everything is incorporated.

4. Heat oil to shimmering. Fill a tablespoon half-way with batter, and push each blob of batter off the spoon with your finger. Don’t be tempted to make the fritters bigger; they won’t cook in the middle.

Some of the fritters may first sink to the bottom of the pot and may need to be gently encouraged to break free, but most will rise up and bob around, expanding like little balloons full of hot air.

Fry till golden brown on all sides, drain on kitchen paper, and roll in powdered sugar.

They’re best eaten hot.

Creme Fraiche

Creme fraiche is hard to find and expensive here, so when I need it, I make my own. It has to be made two days before, but Hanukah is eight days long… you’ll have time.

Mix 2 cups of heavy cream and 2 teaspoons of buttermilk in a glass jar. Put the lid on tightly and shake it for one minute.

Let the cream mixture sit out at room temperature for 24 hours. Then stir it and put it in the fridge for another 24 hours.  It’ll keep for a week.

Dried Fig Jam

Ingredients:

3 cups dried figs, soaked in hot water for 1/2 hour

2 tablespoons butter or margerine

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1- 1/4 cup orange juice,  more if needed

Method:
1. Drain the figs, cut the stems away, and chop them coarsely.

2. Heat the butter or marge and the cinnamon stick. Add the figs, the orange juice, and the vanilla.

3. Cook uncovered  for 20 minutes on a medium flame, stirring occasionally. If the jam starts looking dry, add more orange juice, by tablespoons.

4. Serve warm or at room temperature with latkehs or fritters. Store leftovers in the fridge.

What’s the difference between mandelbroit and biscotti? Well, apart from one being Yiddish and the other Italian, of course. The only difference I can see is that biscotti are crunchier – baked longer. The recipes are almost identical.

Traditionally, you drink a little glass of sweet wine with either. But a glass of coffee or a shot of slivovitz work with these not-too-sweet biscuits, too.

Honey-Orange Biscotti

Yield: 20-25

Ingredients:

2- 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup sugar

3 eggs

3 tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons orange zest (1 large orange does it)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350° F – 180° C

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a bowl.

2. In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together till the mixture is light and lemon-colored.

3. Add the honey, vanilla, and orange zest; mix well.

4. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, gently mixing. Stop as soon as the dough is combined. It will be sticky.

5. Line a cookie sheet with baking paper and oil the paper lightly. Spoon out half the dough onto it, making a rough loaf. Now oil your hands and smooth the loaf, stretching it slightly to make a shape about 13″ by 2″ (33. x 5 cm). Do the same with the second half of the dough, making sure to keep a space of at least 3″ – 7.5 cm. between them. They do rise and spread out some.

6. Bake for about 35 minutes, turning the pan around after the first 15 minutes. The loaves should be a warm brown and their surface beginning to crack.

7. Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool down for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325° F – 160° C. in the meantime.

8. Cut each loaf with a serrated knife into diagonal slices about half and inch (1.3 cm.) wide. Place the slices on the pan, cut side up, and return the pan to the oven. Bake 15 minutes, turning the biscotti over 7 minutes into the baking.

9. Place the biscotti on a wire rack to cool down. They will keep up to 1 month in an airtight container, and the flavor improves with time.