June 19, 2016
Author: Rachelle Grossman
Ingredients:
1 lb. chicken liver
2 large onions
1 hard boiled egg
Mayonaise
Salt
Pepper
Preparation:
Sautee onions until soft
Add chicken livers and cook until no longer bloody
Remove from heat and let cool
Chop egg, onions, and liver
Combine with salt, pepper, and mayonaise to taste
Enjoy.
June 19, 2016
Author: Ellie Austin
My food story is as rich and mixed as my family heritage. My paternal grandmother came from Nanjing China. She liked to cook all things Chinese: eggrolls, noodles, noodle soup, and meat stew. My paternal grandfather was an Italian- American. He liked Italian cuisine like pasta, calzones, meatballs, and red wine. My mom’s family is of Scottish, English, and Native-American descent. They came to NYC from New England. My mom is a good cook. She makes some of the tastiest meals from beef, lamb, and venison. On major holidays or table is full of food from all different parts of the world.
Ingredients:
Flour
Water
Milk
Eggs
Salt
Butter
Pepper cheese
Preparation:
Mix flour, water, milk, eggs, and add salt
Knead, roll, and pull the dough as long as you can. (Long noodles symbolize long life.)
Cook in boiling water for 20 minutes.
Add salt, pepper, cheese, and butter to taste.
June 19, 2016
Author: Yvette Schlussel
Ingredients:
1 eggplant, sliced and salted
2 hard boiled eggs
1 onion, sliced and salted
½ cup walnuts sauteed
½ tsp salt or soy sauce to taste
Preparation:
Saute eggplant, add onions and walnuts.
Coarsely grind in food processor
Mix in 2 hardboiled eggs
Serve on toast or crackers
August 15, 2012
Author: David Sax
First printed in the NYTimes Magazine, August 12, 2012.
On Friday afternoons, my father-in-law, Howard Jack Malach, would leave work early and drive across town to Grodzinski, a kosher bakery, before it closed for Shabbat, all for the sake of the babka. Yes, there were closer bakeries with their own babkas in this corner of Toronto’s Jewish suburbs, but to Howard, Grodzinski’s babka was king — a dense, perfectly moist loaf with veins of dark, sugary chocolate.
At home, Howard would set it on the counter (where his wife, Fran, would inevitably tear a chunk off), slicing the loaf for the kids at the end of dinner. The next morning, he’d reheat the leftovers until the chocolate melted, then dunk sticky slices into his coffee. Three years ago, Howard’s prostate cancer, dormant for a decade, metastasized in his bones. As his appetite disappeared, he shed weight at a terrifying pace. The doctor prescribed hormone blockers as a temporary solution, and when the cancer retreated, Howard switched to a raw vegan diet prescribed by a naturopath. This was tough for me. In the few years I’d known Howard, food was our strongest thread. We bonded over smoked-meat sandwiches and hamburgers, sausages and doughnuts. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t feign appreciation for freshly pressed almond milk and cold pizza with walnut crust and cashew chèvre. Some months later, when Howard was in Florida, the cancer began its final assault.
The family pushed for more kale salads and wheatgrass shots, but I encouraged Howard to eat whatever he desired. Each meatball that I sneaked onto his plate not only brought him joy; it also brought us closer. One night I gave a talk at a Jewish delicatessen in West Palm Beach. Howard had taken his cooler of sprout salads, but when the buffet opened up, he led the charge, elbowing past Florida’s aggressive early birds to load his plate with pastrami, corned beef, coleslaw, pickles and potato salad. I managed to snap a photograph of him tearing into a sandwich, but I wish I’d recorded the sigh of pleasure that followed it. As we drove back to the condominium together, I sensed something different between us. Howard opened up about things I’d never heard him discuss with anyone: work, money, death, his hopes for his kids’ futures. Walking on the beach the next morning, he told me for the first time that he loved me like a son. A week later he returned home, and a week after that he had an operation.
After a few days in intensive care, the doctor said he could eat anything, and I asked Howard what he wanted. I brought him cheeseburgers, milkshakes and smoked-turkey sandwiches from his favorite restaurants, finishing whatever he couldn’t. When his tumor grew and he couldn’t swallow, he asked me to keep bringing food, so he could smell it. “Just a schmeck,” he’d say, inhaling deeply to capture the aroma of a lamb kebab, then groaning in nostalgic approval. Eventually our routine was reduced to Vernors ginger ale, which we dabbed on his lips with a small sponge, one drop at a time. One Friday afternoon, I stopped at Grodzinski on the way up to the house, where Howard was now under palliative care, to buy a babka. The family rushed through a teary dinner, and at dawn, the nurse woke us up and took us into his room. “It won’t be long,” she said, her stethoscope to his chest. Standing around the bed — singing, praying, crying — we witnessed Howard’s last breath.
Eventually I left the room and began making phone calls. It was Shabbat, which meant Howard’s body couldn’t be retrieved by the funeral home until sundown. We stayed with him in shifts, but by 9, hunger overtook grief, and I found myself in the kitchen, making French toast. My brother-in-law Evan came up beside me. “You should make it with that,” he said, pointing at the babka we’d forgotten to serve the night before. I sliced the loaf, soaked the pieces in egg and fried them in bubbling butter. The air filled with chocolate and cinnamon and caramel, as the sugars glazed into a shiny crust. Evan and Howard’s brother Stephen grabbed the slices straight from the pan, moaning in approval as the melted chocolate filled their mouths. “What should we call it?” I asked Evan. His face was streaked with dried tears, but he smiled as he savored this impromptu tribute to the man who lay above our heads. “Let’s call it a Howard Jack,” he said.
Ingredients:
1 Babka choclate or cinnamon
5 Eggs
1/4 cup(s) milk
4 Tablespoons butter
Preparation:
Slice babka into 1 inch thick pieces.
Beat eggs with milk until uniform
Melt butter in a large saucepan on medium heat
Dunk babka pieces in egg wash until coated, then cook them in pan, about 4 mins a side, until just crisp.
Be careful not to turn the heat too high, or leave the babka pieces on too long, lest they burn.
Serve with maple syrup, whipped cream, berries, or just on their own.
August 27, 2012
Author: Joan Lynch
My mother-in-law, Bridie Lynch, emigrated from Ireland in her early twenties and met her husband, Michael, in Chicago. When I met my husband, Jack, I was immediately welcomed into a large, loving Irish family. My mother had died when I was 7 years old and we did not have a large extended family. I enjoyed meeting Jack’s 2 sisters and the many aunts, uncles and cousins who were an important part of their lives. My Bubbie, Bridie, had a good sense of what she could do to help out and make me feel comfortable with my “new family”. She loved our 4 children and welcomed each one enthusiastically.. The Irish were good cooks and they cooked simply. I have included a family cake recipe.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks of butter
1 cup(s) Sugar
2 1/2 Cup(s)s flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 rinds of oranges
2 eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 cup(s) raisins
1 cup(s) finely chopped walnuts
Sour Milk
1/2 cup(s) canned milk
1/2 cup(s) water
1 teaspoon vinegar
Glaze
2 Oranges
1 cup(s) Sugar
Preparation:
1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Combine flour and other dry ingredients and add to sugar mixture
3. Add liquid ingredients and beat well
4. Add raisins and nuts and beat again
5. Put batter in a lightly greased bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour
6. Squeeze two ouranges and combine with 1 cup sugar. Pour slowly over cake when you take it out of the oven.
September 14, 2012
Author: Yael Kornfeld
My Bubby was a very special individual who had an open door policy and was known in her community for being someone who would happily host anyone traveling through her city. Bubby always had these special sugar cookies ready and available for all of us. Bubby used to sprinkle them with extra sugar on top although I prefer to frost them and decorate them with all different colors. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ cup sugar+2 tbsp
¼ cup margarine
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp vanilla
Preparation:
Mix it all together and bake for about ten minutes or so.
September 27, 2012
Author: JDCEntwine
Argentina is home to Latin America’s largest Jewish community. Every year, 20,000 people attend Rosh Hashanah Urbano, a public celebration of the Jewish New Year on the streets of Buenos Aires’ Palermo neighborhood. This recipe is courtesy of the first Jewish settlement in Argentina, Moises Ville. Visit JDC Entwine for pictures from the most recent Inside Jewish Argentina trip. Beyond Bubbie and JDC Entwine are partnering to share recipes from communities served by the JDC around the world.
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup(s) sugar
1 cup(s) Honey
1 cup(s) oil
1.5 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground cloves
As much as it takes flour
Preparation:
Combine the ingredients into compact dough. Grease and flour a medium-size rectangular baking sheet. Divide dough in three parts; take 1 with oiled hands and place on sheet.
Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon, cover with a layer of quince jelly diluted with some other jam or jelly (e.g., orange, lemon, peach, or plum). Repeat this step twice with the two remaining parts of dough, layering them. Finally, oil the top and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon.
Bake approximately 50 minutes in moderate to hot oven.
Evette comes from Iraq and grew up eating these cookies, that are traditionally eaten to break the fast of Yom Kippur. She has passed on this tradition to her own grand daughters and game them a recipe book for their Bat Mitzvah’s with all her recipes. She is part of the Dishing Up The Past video project.
Ingredients:
1 cup(s) shelled almonds
1/3 cup(s) sugar
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
Rosewater
Preparation:
Materials
Food Processor
Pot
Large Bowl
Small Dish
Two baking trays
Parchment/wax paper
*To prepare almonds:
1. Boil water in a pot
2. Add whole, unshelled almonds and let them cook for two minutes.
3. Take out a little at a time, drain, and remove peel using thumb and
forefinger. This is called blanching the almonds.
4. Let the almonds dry on a tray lined with parchment paper for one or two days.
5. Grind the almonds in batches in a food processor until quite fine (it is best to do this in two stages or else the almonds will release too many oils and become soggy)
Method
1. Mix ingredients together into a dough
2. Pour some rosewater into a small dish and wet hands with it.
Cut dough into small balls (size of bubble gum)
Shape into a smooth ball, flatten with palm of hand
Punch around the outside of the ball 5 times to shape into a star
Place stars on tray lined with parchment paper
Indent each star lightly in the center (to avoid puffing up)
Place tray in another, empty tray (to avoid burning the bottom of
cookies)
9. Bake stars in a 450º F oven for 7-10 minutes (they should remain pale)
November 1, 2012
Author: David Sax
“Granny” Ella Sax’s signature dessert was her rice pudding, baked without dairy, studded with raisins, blanketed in cinnamon, and drenched in maple syrup. In her warm Montreal apartment, with its candy bowls and old world tchotchkes and hallways smelling of chicken soup, a casserole of rice pudding was always in the oven when we arrived from Toronto, as sure as her sweet and sour meatballs bubbled atop the stove. The aroma of those two dishes mingling in the same space form the perfume of memory for Granny Ella.
Granny grew up in Drummondville, a small Quebec town, east of Montreal, which is overwhelmingly French. I’ve been told she grew up in a priviledged family, with drivers, fine cars, and fur coats, but by the time we’d met, all that remained were photographs and antiques cluttering her apartment. My grandfather, Sam Sax, was a garment worker, and from what I heard, Granny Ella never let him forget that. She consistently held to the idea, throughout her life, that she was Austrian gentry, descended from landed Jewish nobility in the heart of Europe’s cultural capital. She dressed impeccably, accessorizing with scarves and costume jewelry befitting a duchess, and spoke as though she’d just stepped off a carriage into a ballroom, greeting everyone with a drawn out “Hellooooo Dahhling”. You could almost hear the waltz playing in the background.
The truth, however, was that Granny’s family was from Bessarabia, which, although technically in the far flung corner of the Austro-Hungarian empire, is in fact current day Moldova, about as Viennese as colonial Haiti was Parisian. Two years ago, I was visiting Romania, and ate at the house of a Jewish cook there, who served a baked rice pudding. It was nearly close to Granny’s, with no dairy, baked rice, raisins, and tons of cinnamon. The maple syrup, Granny’s decidedly Quebec touch, was replaced with fruit preserves, but otherwise it was similar in many ways.
“This is my grandmother’s recipe,” the woman told me. “She came from Bessarabia.” When I came home, I told my father and my aunts, which soon provoked the usual arguments. “Mom was Austrian” vs “Mom was Hungarian” vs “No, she was Bessarabian”. What I thought was definitive proof proved no more final than her recipe itself, which omits what kind of rice to use, its consistency, and how much maple syrup. Like its namesake, it’s best shrouded in mystery, left up to the next generation to shape to their narrative.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cup(s)s Rice
3 Cup(s)s water
1 cup(s) raisins
1-4 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 egg beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup(s) Brown sugar
lots of cinnamon
1 apple peeled and grated
Preparation:
1. Cook rice in water just until all water is absorbed.
2. While rice is cooking, combine oil, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar and lots of cinnamon (the more the better) in a large bowl.
3. Combine with rice, raisins and apple until well mixes together, place in an 8-inch square pyrex pan, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon, and bake, covered, at 350 for 1 hour.
Serve warm with maple syrup.
November 27, 2012
Author: Jason Turbow
My grandmother was a wonderful cook, within a narrow scope. By which I mean that she was a wonderful Jewish cook. She came to Brooklyn from a shtetl in Eastern Europe at a very young age, eventually settling in Southern California to raise her family. And she knew only one way of cooking: brisket, potatoes, latkes, matzoh ball soup. The standards.
My favorite was her Mandelbrot, complete with chocolate chips and a sprinkling of cinnamon on top. Because she was picky, she put her own spin on it, substituting walnuts for the almonds (the “mandel” part of the name, no less), among other tweaks.
She made Mandelbrot for every occasion—usually happy, sometimes sad—at which the family would gather. My mother picked up the tradition in our own house, and just a whiff of the stuff baking tells me that we’ll soon be surrounded by loved ones. It also brings me back to a little yellow kitchen in Tajunga, and a woman whose primary expression of love occurred over an oven, baking delights that continue to keep her memory tangible, all these years later.
Ingredients:
Beat 3 eggs
Add 1 c. sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla
Add about 1 c. chopped walnuts
1 ½ c. chocolate chips
Preparation:
Let the dough rest for about ½ hour to firm up.
Grease a 9 ½” x 11” cookie sheet.
Form three strips of dough lengthwise on cookie sheet.
Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (about 4 to 1, sugar to cinnamon).
Bake at 350º for about 45 minutes. Turn off oven. Cut strips into slices, separate the slices and return to oven to dry out.
December 26, 2012
Author: Chef Micah Wexler
Ingredients:
Challah
y:6 pieces
Bread Flour 172g or about 5 Cups
Water 112g or about 1/2 Cup
Yeast 1g or about .35 Teaspoon
Salt 3g or about 1/2 Teaspoon
Water 154g or about 2/3 Cup
Yeast 4g or about 2/3 Teaspoon
Sugar 71g or about 1/3 Cup
Bread Flour 400g or just under 3 Cups
Eggs 2 each
Salt 8g or about 2 Teaspoons
Butter, cubed 90g or about 2/5 Cup
Milk 14g or about 1 Tablespoon
Babka Filling
y:1qt
Chocolate chips 390g or about 2 Cups
Sugar 75g or just over 1/3 Cup
Salt ¾ tsp
Ground Cinnamon 1 ½ tsp
Butter 67g or about 3/10 Cup
Streusel Topping
y:1qt
AP Flour ½ cup
Powdered Sugar ½ + 1/3 cup
Butter 6 Tablespoons
Preparation:
Challah
1) Mix bread flour, water, yeast and salt til it becomes a dough.
2) Proof for at least 1 hr in a covered, oiled container. The starter can sit in the refrigerator
overnight to develop more flavor.
3) Mix water yeast and sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle, let sit for 5 minutes for the yeast
to bloom.
4) Mix in bread flour and the starter.
5) Gradually mix in eggs and then add in the salt and milk.
6) Add the cubed butter in pieces, then turn mixer up to medium setting until the dough comes
together. Allow to mix for approximately 8 minutes.
7) Proof dough for an hour, and then divide evenly into 6 balls. Store on a sprayed parchment,
covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator.
Babka Filling
1) In a food processor, mix chocolate chips, sugar, salt, and cinnamon until crumbly.
2) Add cubed butter until the blend is crumbly and mixed.
Streusel Topping
1) In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, mix flour and sugar.
2) Gradually add cubed butter until pea-sized pieces form. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3) Roll out two pieces of challah until approximately 1⁄2” thick.
4) Place 1/3c of the filling in the center of the dough.
5) Spread the filling all over, leaving a 1⁄2” border on one side.
6) Roll out the dough like a cigar toward the edge
7) Pinch the edges so that the filling doesn’t fall out. Repeat for the other piece of dough.
8) Once you have both pieces done, twist them together and pinch the edges.
9) Place in an 8×4 loaf pan, eggwash the top and cover with a handful of streusel.
10) Bake in 375F oven until golden brown.
December 27, 2012
Author: Naomi Leight
A take on Bubbie’s Banana Bread.
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas
1/4 cup applesauce
1/3 cup plain yogurt
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 cups to 2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
Preparation:
Mix all wet ingredients.
Incorporate dry ingredients
Spray pan.
Bake at 350 degrees in loaf pan or muffin tin for 25 minutes
Sprinkle Chia seeds, oats or almond slivers for decoration and extra crunch.
December 27, 2012
Author: Lillian Moon
Ingredients:
1 c. butter
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 c. AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cups milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup toffee baking chips
1 c. chopped pecans
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease cookie sheets.
Mix butter and sugar, beat in eggs one at a time then stir in vanilla.
Combine flour baking powder and salt.
Stir into cream mixture.
Stir in chocolate and toffee.
Drop tbsps. onto cookie sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Allow cookies to cool.
December 27, 2012
Author: Eliav Rodman
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 small pkg instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 pkg (12 oz) milk chocolate chips
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat the butter, both sugars, pudding mix, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat until creamy and fluffy. Then slowly mix in flour and baking soda. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoonfuls, onto an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake for ONLY 9-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool about 10 minutes before eating.
December 27, 2012
Author: Flori Schutzer
This recipe can be simplified by choosing just one variety of citrus to use throughout. Make it you own. It is vital to use really good olive oil. I love the oils that I get from Pasolivo in Paso Robles. Our own local California oil- super tasty and family owned. Keep your carbon footprint small!
Ingredients:
1/3 cup poppy seeds
2 tablespoons or more to taste freshly grated lemon, orange, lime and tangerine zests
1 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup each orange (or tangerine), lemon and lime oils
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preparation:
In a bowl, combine the poppy seeds, zest and milk. Set aside to soak for at least 1 hour or refrigerated overnight. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 6-cup loaf pan with parchment paper. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or using a hand mixer), whip the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. With the mixer running, drizzle the oil and vanilla extract into the egg mixture. With the mixer still running, add alternating batches of dry ingredients and poppy seed-milk mixture to the egg mixture. The batter will be somewhat thin. Pour into the prepared pan. (there will be enough leftover batter to fill a muffin cup or two for the cook and assistant)
Bake 60 to 75 minutes until the center is raised and cracked and the whole cake is firm and dry on the top. Muffins will be cooked after about 30-45 minutes. Be sure to let the cake bake thoroughly or it will fall. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and continue cooling before serving.
December 28, 2012
Author: Tara Berger
Ingredients:
3 large eggs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 pound or 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
Blackberry Jam or Nutella for filling
Vegetable oil, for frying
Preparation:
In a large saucepan, heat 2 inches of vegetable oil at 375 degrees.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat the eggs, granulated sugar and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the ricotta and beat until smooth. Add the flour and baking powder and beat just until blended. (if making ahead of time- take out of the fridge 10 minutes before cooking to get batter to room temp)
Using a very small ice cream scoop or 2 teaspoons, slide 8 walnut-sized rounds of batter into the hot oil. Fry over moderate heat until deep golden all over and cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Balls should rise to the top as they puff up. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the balls to the cookie sheet to drain. Continue frying the remaining fritters in batches of 8.
Arrange the fritters on a platter- using a small melon baller scoop our top of ball- fill with jelly or nutella place ball back in and dust well with confectioners’ sugar.
December 28, 2012
Author: Lauren Gordon
Ingredients
1/4 lb (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup unbleached flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
pinch of salt
6-8 plums, or apples, or fruit, sliced or split in half
1tsp cinnamon or more, to taste
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar. Add flour, baking powder, eggs and salt and mix well. Spoon batter into an ungreased 9″ or 10″ springform pan. Cover the batter with fruit. Mix the cinnamon with the remained sugar and sprinkle over the top. Bake 40-50 minutes until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove and let cool.
December 28, 2012
Author: Ann Becker
These two recipes come from Janie Krantz who hails from Sioux City, Iowa, which she says had a large, vibrant Jewish community. She and her aunt think these are the right version of the recipes their Bubbie, Fanni Kantrovich who was from Kiev, used to make. Though who can tell when she always made everything impromptu with no recipe cards in sight!
Ingredients
1/2 c. Crisco
1 c. boiling water
1 t. salt
1 T. sugar
2 c. matzo meal
4 eggs
Preparation
Add fat to boiling water in a sauce pan. Stir in dry ingredients. Beat over low heat until mixture leaves sides of pan. Remove from heat and put in bowl. Beat in 1 egg at a time. Batter should be thick and smooth. Shape into 8 balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour until browned. Serve as rolls or cut in half and fill as a sandwich.
December 28, 2012
Author: Janie Krantz
Ingredients
½ pound soft butter
2 c. flour
5 T. water
1 T. vinegar
1 egg
cinnamon
sugar
tart jam
nuts
coconut
powdered sugar
Preparation
Dough: Cut together the soft butter and flour like pie dough. Then add the next three ingredients and work together. Divide into 4 parts – refrigerate for an hour. Roll out very thin. Sprinkle with cinnamon, sugar, tart jam, nuts, and coconut. Roll up like a jelly roll. Seal ends. Bake 1 hr at 325 degrees on a flat pan. Cut while warm. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
February 6, 2013
Author: Tamar Genger
I grew up in Florida, but the rest of my family, uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents all lived in Toronto. I didn’t get to see my grandparents all the time, but I did get to see them for a few months during the winter when they would escape the cold and a few weeks in the summer when we would escape the heat. In either Toronto or Florida, most of my memories revolve around food.
My Bubbie (my father’s mother) always gave us Nips and her friends in the condo gave us chocolate covered candy sticks. Bubbie would make cornflake crumb chicken and farfel and corn and we loved it. My mother’s mother, we called Savta, was not much of a cook, but boy could she bake.
Every time we visited Savta she would have a batch of Savta cookies waiting for us. Not much to them, they are a basic sugar cookie, but they tasted amazing and were so versatile. We used this dough to make plain cookies, to make hamantaschen and even rolled rugelach-style cookies using the dough. I still make these cookies every year! I will always call them Savta cookies and I hope that I can pass on my memories of my beloved Savta to my kids when we bake together.
This dough is wonderful as a plain cookie, which is why it also works beautifully for hamantashen and even rugelach. Visit Joy of Kosher for additional recipes.
Ingredients:
Makes about 36 cookies depending on the size
• 1 cup margarine
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 21/2 cups Flour
• 21/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
Preparation:
1 Mix margarine, sugar and vanilla in food processor. Add eggs. In a separate bowl mix 2½ teaspoons baking powder with 2½ cups flour. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until dough forms.
2 Roll out dough and use as you like.
3 Bake at 400 for 12 minutes.
4 Variation: You can substitute 1 teaspoon lemon juice for the vanilla and it will make it crispier.
