Wordy-ish Motzaei Shabbat

Blogging takes time. I get all kinds of annoyed when the blogs I frequent don't update as often as I would like, but let's face it - we all have lives, and while they may be interesting to write about, the truth is that the more interesting the life, the less time to post. So this will be another ridiculous entry with some pics and little else. Call it the unacceptably verbose version of "Wordless Wednesday."

First, the continuation of Ayelet's birthday festivities:

1. birthday cake - chocolate "buttermilk" cake, chocolate fudge filling, vanilla frosting, design courtesy of Shana, who has since vowed to refrain from bow making in the future2. decorated sugar cookiesThose cookies were a result of an anniversary order for the 28th anniversary of friends of ours, ordered by their son, also a friend of ours and Dano's surrogate big brother.This is the platter they received, which had oatmeal peanut butter sandwiches, cappucino-cinnamon squares, chocolate caramel cookies bars, and sacher torte sandwiches. And here is the full selection of the decorated cookies:I had a lot of fun making them - hope they catch on!This was the regular platter from that Shabbat - all the aforementioned flavors plus ginger crinkles.

Next up, cookies that were part of a dessert bar at the sheva brachot that a friend made. The flavors were peanut butter bites, orange-cranberry-white chocolate cookies, thin mint sandwiches, and a new flavor, chocolate dipped pecan shortbread bars.

Here the new flavor gets its close-up:Next, Shalom Zachar cupcakes, along with a platter for the same celebration.Here is Shana's artsier pic of the same cupcakes
And the platter:Yes, Arica, this was from you - chocolate caramel sandwiches, lemon drop sandwiches, Mexican brownies, cherry chocolate chip cookies, and linzer cookies.

This was a collection of most of this week's flavors - this assortment was for a book debut party

Orange-cranberry-white chocolate cookies, chewy cherry oatmeal cookies, cinnamon squares, pecan pie thumbprints, apple crumble squares, chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies, and lemon rosemary shortbread. (The other flavor, chocolate raspberry truffle brownies, is not pictured.)

Finally, a birthday cake for the tenth birthday of the sister of a bat mitzvah, whose yom huledet happened to fall out on the day of her sister's party. Yellow cake, chocolate filling, white vanilla frosting, and lots of fondant flowers, in line with the garden theme of the bat mitzvah, which BTW was beautiful. (Passaic people, it was Elana S.'s bat mitzvah, from the old country - her video had a shot of Dani in Morah Melissa's class and lot of girls from the grade - so cute and nostalgic!) Kol hakavod to Shana, who made all of the flowers and the number ten on the front of the cake, as well as critical design decisions. She is becoming an indispensible help!And that's all for now - hope you enjoyed the pix. I will not make any ridiculous pledges about posting more often, because honestly....

Shavua tov,

Dvora

What I learned today - well, really a while ago

Some people love to share their knowledge, often as soon as it is acquired. I, on the other hand, like to mull it over a bit, see if I can improve it, tweak it, consider whether it was really as valuable as I may have impulsively thought before. Or I could say that I just procrastinate in posting about it. Nope, the former sounded better!

Here are three food finds that have made my life better!

1. Sriracha chili sauce
Since it opened a long, long time ago, David and I loved Dougie's fire poppers and hot wings. Nothing like eating greasy protein while the roof of your mouth burns. But I despaired of being able to replicate the recipe - even the supposedly taste-alike recipe of the husband of an Ulpan friend never panned out, and web searches yielded nothing. Then Pesach came and went, and Rami Levy was out of Tabasco sauce. Problem, because we like Tabasco in several recipes that would not be the same without it. So I bought Sriracha chili sauce (Thai chili sauce in Hebrew), thinking it might be a substitute. Well, it's not. It contains sugar a a few other ingredients that Tabasco (chilis, vinegar, and salt) does not. But lo and behold, it tastes just like what I remember Dougie's sauce tasting like! First I used it to heat up leftover schnitzel, cut in pieces and sauteed. Then I used it to baste chicken wings. Mmmm! All of the flavor, without all of the pesky health code violations that made Dougie's Restaurants an endangered species. Now I just have to work on replicating the chili, and we are good to go...

2. Magic season salt
Over Pesach, Lori gave me a recipe for brisket, which included seasoned salt as an ingredient. She also kindly gave me a recipe for the seasoned salt. We liked the brisket, we loved the season salt. We now sprinkle it on chicken and saute it for a quick dinner, sprinkle it on Amnon fish (more or less Tilapia) with a little schwarma seasoning and olive oil and bake for an easy, spicy lunch, sprinkle on zucchini slices and roast, sprinkle it on stir-frying vegetables, sprinkle it on baked potato, we just sprinkle it a lot. In fact, it was a major component of last night's dinner. The original recipe is found here, but I made a couple of changes: I omitted the cornstarch (not sure why it is absolutely necessary, unless you are keeping it for a long time), and decreased the salt. I usually make a double recipe and cut the salt to half or 3/4's of the listed quantity (putting in between 2 and 3 tablespoons for a double batch). You may want to play with this yourself, but even with the full amount it was very good. And the name - the kids were so astonished by how tasty the chicken was and how simple its preparation was that they called it magic chicken.

3. Cool drink
If you put a fruity tea bag into a glass of diet 7-Up, it makes a really refreshing drink with a twist - "Fruit Galore," "Wild Berries," and "Cranberry" (all Wisotsky flavors) were really good.

And that's the accumulated wisdom of this season...

UPDATED: I have gotten rid of (what I hope is all) the appalling typos that made reading this post an adventure in decoding. My apologies. Sometimes I write with the simple intention of getting something posted, but I would never stand for that in a student, so how can I accept it from myself?

Dvora

Small packages

I have been dying to jump on the mini-dessert bandwagon. Isn't everything cuter when it's little? A few weeks ago I attempted to make some mini tarts. The tarts succeeded, the photos not so much. This was the last few days of my former camera, which started to show the effects of being dropped days and days prior. It seemed to be okay, then just suddenly started to give up the ghost - ooh, mysterious. Lucky for me, I had a new one on the way. But in any case, these are the teeny weeny desserts we enjoyed, just please forgive the horrible quality of the pictures.

Mini apple crumble tarts - yummy apple filling, with a crumb topping. They were delicious, though I did discover that without the pans, they do not stand up well to gentle reheating. After all, shouldn't every apple pie be eaten warm, preferably with ice cream or whipped cream on top? I will have to remember the pans next time. They were floppy, but still so good.

Chocolate ganache mini tartlets, topped with coffee whipped cream and a sprinkling of sugared cocoa. Really good, and a great size - two bites of dessert, very little guilt.

Milky way tarts - what you can't see is the layer of caramel under the bitterweet chocolate ganache. Really more of a milky way midnight tartlet, which prompted David to say that they taste pareve. Which is really to say, "I prefer my chocolate very sweet - high cocoa solids content - phooey. Give me the less than 40% any day. " Not that he necessarily knows what all that is about. But that is the interpretation. If I, on the other hand, can fool myself into believing that a high percentage actually makes the chocolate a good thing for me to eat, I am totally good with that.

If you all can think of more flavors to make mini - tarts or tartlets, mousses, cakes, cupcakes, pavlovas, trifles - anything you think would rock in small size - please let me know. I have a few more in the pipeline, but I have to come up with free time to experiment!

Now back to this week's baking!

Dvora

A very psychedelic birthday to you!

Ayelet is turning 14 this week - all week long! We prefer to celebrate both Hebrew and English birthdays and the span in between, so from Sunday to Friday (and really through Shabbat), we will be paying tribute to the fact that Ayelet is no longer 13 - maybe we will have better luck this year, i.e. less thirteen-ish behavior...

In honor of entering into the birthday zone, we had tie-dye cupcakes (inspiration courtesy of my friend Lisa, who could tell you all about it herself if only she would update her blog!!!! hint, hint, of the not-so-subtle variety!) They were tasty, if not delicious, but the visual certainly made quite the impression. They were lots of fun to make, and next time, maybe I will go bolder on the colors.

Here's a view of the inside - groovy, right?!

The most recent platter photo that I managed to come up with is this, taken with my new camera. I am trying to decide whether the "Food" setting is best, or if I should go with "Close-up" or "Auto."A very tasty selection of chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies, raspberry truffle brownies, sugar cookie ganache sandwiches, apricot squares, and molasses cream sandwiches. Yum, if I am allowed to say so myself!

I hope to get some more posts up this week, on a variety of subjects including baking experiments and fun food finds, but I can't make any promises.

With the best of intentions,

Dvora

Too much pressure to write a snappy title

My mom has commented to me how she marvels at my ability to come up with clever titles. While I beg to differ - they have rarely been all that witty - now I am completely blocked. I got nothing. Thanks, Mom!!! Just kidding - no offense intended. So here I go, continuing on with my second century of posts. No, not 100 years, just 100 posts. And you all are stuck with the lamest of headlines.

Because I can't help myself, I tried another new cookie last week - homemade Oreos. Do not let yourself confuse them with Whoopie Pies, which, despite the fact that our friend Josh B. calls them homemade Oreos, they are really more like Devil Dogs or Cakesters. These new cookies were crisp chocolate sugar cookies with a vanilla cream center. You can choose whether you prefer to take bites or open them up first and lick out the creamy middle. These were originally fashioned as drop cookies coated in sugar, but I think I will try them as a roll-out next time and see what ensues.

I did - barely - manage to take a picture of last week's variety, though already packed up, the plastic wrap a sign of my forgetfulness.

The selection included kicked-up chocolate chip cookies, glazed orange bars, vanilla cream filled chocolate sandwiches, lemon rosemary shortbread, caramel brownies, and whote chocolate cherry cookies. I did not manage to photograph the birthday cupcakes I made for Rafi and Burry, twin brothers celebrating their 15th birthday. They ordered vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, half red (Rafi's color) and half blue (Burry's choice). Happy Birthday guys!!

This week is quieter, with some mini-dessert experimenting taking place. If it successful, you will be the first to read all about it. If it fails, well, we never had this conversation, got it?!

Dvora

100 Posts and Counting!

I just realized that I reached my 100th post - must be some kind of a milestone! To celebrate, I will... ummm...I don't know what I'll do, but definitely do a little happy dance or something. Thanks to all of you who have been reading faithfully, and to those who just stumbled onto this blog, I hope you enjoyed. Please consider becoming a follower so I know who you are and can properly appreciate you! And if you have not become a Dvora's Cookie Creations fan (or "liker," as they now call it - weird!) on Facebook, please join the party - we are going for 100 there, too!

Here's to a hundred more, but with pretty pictures and interesting text!

Dvora

Sharing a recipe

Since I started making challah just a few months ago, I have really been enjoying the process of making, shaping, baking, and enjoying the challah. Recently, my friend Arica has been on a quest to find a good challah recipe and she requested from her readers to send in their recipes for her to try. Last week, she tried my recipe, and she liked it! I thought if she did, you might too, so I am posting the recipe. To give credit where it's due, this is an adaptation of Lori's recipe for the bread machine, which uses all egg yolks, no whites. In turn an adaptation of another recipe, hers is an absolutely delicious challah, which is rich and yellow in color and very cake-like. Thoroughly addictive. My version is whiter and slightly lighter in texture, and more suited to spreading chummus or chatzilim on top, which is important in this house. One more caveat: I use fresh granulated yeast and dough conditioner in the dough, but you can do just fine with dry yeast.

Challah

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
50 gram bag of fresh granulated yeast (Shimrit in Israel or equivalent in fresh compressed yeast) or 4 teaspoons dry yeast
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon oil

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 eggs + 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

about 7 cups flour

50 gram bag meshaper afiyah משפר אפייה(dough conditioner - optional)

1 whole egg +1 tablespoon water, beaten together, to glaze

Combine the water, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and yeast in the mixer bowl. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes, until it is foamy. If this doesn't happen, your yeast may be past its prime. Then add in the remaining sugar, oil, salt, eggs and yolk, and about 4 cups of flour, and the dough conditioner, if you are using it. Use the dough hook to mix it all together. Add the remaining flour, mix in well, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and let the machine knead for several minutes. At this point, I knead the dough by hand on a floured surface, because I think it is good for the texture and for my mental health. Add flour as needed. When the dough has a smooth, elastic texture, and when you poke it with a finger and the indentation bounces back, it is ready to rise. Place the dough in a greased bowl - make sure it is large enough to accomodate the rising - and turn it to get all sides greased. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to rise (you can turn the oven on for a minute until it is just warm inside, then turn it off and leave the bowl in there, but don't forget it's there and preheat the oven for something else. That will just make an ugly mess and a waste of your effort. I speak from experience.) When it has doubled in size, divide the dough as desired - I find that this recipe makes three good size challahs - and shape. If you are ambitious, the purple Lubavitch cookbook (Spice and Spirit) has a relatively easy to follow set of instructions and diagrams for braiding with six strands. There are also a plethora of instructional videos on line - take your pick. I like the shape that results, so that is the way I braid. Place the shaped dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, if you choose, and let them rise for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Brush the loaves with the egg beaten with water and bake for about 30 minutes, until golden on top and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a cooling rack, so it does not get soggy.

One note: I use a double insulated cookie sheet, and bake the loaves in the bottom third of the oven. You may have to work out this part of the art and science of baking challah all on your own.

Most important, enjoy the process - it doesn't matter what they look like, as long as you have a good time (funny advice from a compulsive perfectionist!).
Good luck, and enjoy!

Dvora