Start with the Basics

I've been in the casting process this week for the next play I'm directing, On Golden Pond.  Do you know the movie?  It had Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda as a couple in their late 70s who return to the same rural cabin in Maine every summer that they bought when they were newly married.  That's really about it for the plot, except for a subplot concerning their adult daughter and her difficult relationship with her father.

The movie came out when I was nine or ten, and I loved it.  What nine-year-old loves On Golden Pond?  I think mostly it was because I was obsessed with Katharine Hepburn.  As an aside, do you know if you type the name "Katharine" into Google, the first entry is for Katharine McPhee, who was on American Idol, and not Katharine Hepburn?  That just seems wrong.

Most people are nervous when they come audition.  The thing they don't know is that I'm nervous, too, because I really want to find the right people. 

It's a little like having the right ingredients--if the basics are solid, it's much harder to screw up the end product.

This month's Cake Slice pick didn't initially interest me--a loaf cake of frozen mousse sandwiched with chocolate wafers.  However, the mousse is simple and delicious.  I made a few adaptations to use coffee rather than espresso beans, and Kahlua rather than Frangelico because I don't think I've ever had Frangelico in the house.

We served it for the Bastille Day dinner, and it was delicious.  Better yet, I was able to make it a day ahead of time and didn't have to worry about it the day of the dinner party.

Frozen White Chocolate-Espresso Loaf Cake

Adapted from The Cake Book  by Tish Boyle

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 tsp. powdered gelatin

2 1/4 cups heavy cream

1/3 cup ground coffee

9 oz. good-quality white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tbsp. Kahlua liqueur

Nabisco chocolate wafers

Line a large loaf pan with plastic wrap, ensuring that the ends of the wrap hang out of the pan.

To make the mousse, pour the water in a small coffee cup and sprinkle the powdered gelatin over it.  Let it sit for five minutes.  In the interim, make a small sachet out of cheesecloth (I used an old linen tea towel) and put the ground coffee in it.  Place the sachet and 1/2 cup of the cream in a small saucepan.  Bring the cream to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat and set it aside for at least fifteen minutes.

Place the coffee cup in the bottom of another small saucepan or skillet and add water until it comes halfway up the side of the cup.  Bring the water to the boil and stir the gelatin until it is totally dissolved.  Then turn off the heat and set the pan aside.

Remove the coffee sachet from the cream, squeezing it to release excess liquid.  Put the saucepan back on the heat and let it come to a boil.  Put the chocolate in a medium bowl, then pour the hot cream and gelatin over it.  Whisk the hot liquid into the chocolate until it is completely melted, then whisk in the vanilla and Kahlua. 

Let the chocolate mixture cool.  Then pour the remainder of the cream in a medium bowl and whip it to the soft peak stage using a hand mixer on medium speed.  Fold in the white chocolate mixture in three installments.

To make the cake, pour about one and a half cups of the mousse over the bottom of the loaf pan and smooth it.  Spread one of the chocolate wafers with a dollop of the mousse and press it against the long side of the pan.  Continue placing the chocolate wafers in rows in this same manner--you may need to break wafers in half to get to the end of the pan. 

When you put the second row in, make sure the wafers are sandwiched against the first row.  Continue until you have put it as many rows as possible, then carefully pour the remaining mousse in and spread it evenly.  Cover the pan with plastic wrap, ensuring that it is touching the mousse.  Freeze for at least four hours, or overnight.

To unmold, lift the edges of the plastic wrap.  Cut into 3/4 inch slices and allow them to stand a few minutes at room temperature before serving.

Makes approximately ten slices.

Bastille Day

Thanks to everyone who entered the olive oil giveaway last week.  After searching for a random number generator, I found one on random.org--who knew there even was such a site?  The winner is Nami from the terrific blog Just One Cookbook.



Yes, we have a French flag. 
David is obsessed with flags.

My friends Scott and Kathy used to celebrate Bastille Day every year--sadly, they've deserted Alaska and moved to Kentucky, but this year David and I hosted a small Bastille Day dinner to keep the tradition strong.

Since it's been chilly and rainy here in Anchorage, David made Julia Child's beef bourguignon and ratatouille, and I whipped up a frozen white chocolate mousse dessert (coming Friday!) and some savory madeleines.

You read that right.  Savory madeleines. My mouth waters just thinking about them.

We had two couples over for dinner, so David proposed that I halve the original recipe because two madeleines per person sounded like enough.  I refused, which was the right decision.  These little suckers are good, and there wasn't a leftover madeleine to be had.

If you don't have a madeleine pan lying around, the recipe suggested a mini muffin tin--not a bad idea, though obviously not as pretty.

Make sure that your pear is really ripe--mine was not quite there, and had less flavor as a result.

Blue Cheese, Pear and Hazelnut Madeleines
Adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp. sea salt

3/4 tsp. fresh-ground black pepper

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

3 oz. blue cheese, finely crumbled

1 ripe pear, cored and diced

1/3 hazelnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.  In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt and pepper, then add the buttermilk, oil and crumbled cheese.

Whisk the dry mixture into the wet one until just combined, then fold in the pear and hazelnuts.

Spritz your madeleine pan thoroughly with baking spray with flour, and then fill the molds two-thirds of the way full with batter.

Bake for about sixteen to eighteen minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into one of them comes out clean.  Cool for a few minutes on a baking rack before unmolding.

Makes twenty-four madeleines. 



In Praise of the Potato

There's always a point during Passover when I whine about all the things I can't eat.  I'm a bread person, after all, and much as I like matzoh there comes a point when I get pouty.  My husband David, who is not Jewish despite the fact that he looks more Jewish than I do, occasionally eats a piece of toast while I stare at him in despair.  In his defense, it's probably not much fun for him either.

At this point during Passover, the humble potato becomes a lifesaver.  It's carbalicious, it's warm and satisfying, and it can be made into many different incarnations over the holiday.  Mashed potatoes.  Home fries.  Baked potatoes.  The list goes on.

I am not an enormous fan of potato gratin, or scalloped potatoes, but I recently bought David a copy of Alice Waters' new book.  We knew our seder was going to be of the dairy variety due to the high number of vegetarians, so I found myself looking at dairy-heavy vegetable dishes when I came across this one.

This may be the potato gratin that changes your opinions about potato gratins.  Delicately flavored with bay leaves and fresh thyme, it is creamy but not heavy.  Unlike a lot of potato gratins, there is no cheese, just a combination of milk and cream.

And, if you use a mandoline or food processor to slice the potatoes, it goes together fast.  I had intended to do a delicate overlapping layering of the potato slices, but with fourteen people coming in the door as we were finishing the preparations, it wasn't quite that artistic.  It also accounts for the distinct lack of photos.

This recipe easily doubles.  I recommend you make it immediately before it goes into the oven so the potato slices don't discolor;  you could make the potato slices ahead of time, but Waters warns against putting them in water because the potato starch will be lost.

Alice Waters' Potato Gratin

Adapted from In the Green Kitchen by Alice Waters

2 tbsp. butter, cubed, plus more for buttering the dish

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1 cup 2% milk

1 tbsp. kosher salt

3/4 cup vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

3 1/2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled

1 tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped

Fresh-ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, cream, bay leaves, salt and vegetable stock.  Heat the mixture to a simmer;  when it reaches a simmer, reduce the heat to low.

Butter a shallow, medium-sized gratin dish or casserole and set aside.  Slice the potatoes to approximately 1/8 inch thick using either a mandoline or food processor.  Immediately begin layering the potatoes into the casserole, ideally overlapping them.  However, if fourteen people are showing up at your door imminently, throw those potatoes into the dish to the best of your ability.

When the potatoes are in the dish, turn off the heat on the cream mixture and remove the bay leaves.  Pour the warm mixture over the potatoes, stopping just before it gets to the top of the potato slices.  If you overfill, it will spill over in your oven--I can attest to that.

Sprinkle the cubes of butter evenly over the gratin, then cover the pan with foil.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes;  check to make sure the potatoes can be pierced with a knife.  Then remove the foil, sprinkle the thyme and pepper over the potatoes, increase the heat to 400 degrees and bake for another 25 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are lightly browned.

At this point, there will be quite a lot of cream in the bottom of the dish.  The dish can be served immediately, or you can let it rest for another 5 to 10 minutes to allow some of the remaining cream to absorb.

Easily serves 8 as a side dish.

And Chaos Ensued

David and I are still cleaning up the kitchen after last night's Passover seder/blowout.  We had our first one two years ago with about six people, last year increased to about eight and this year went full throttle with a crowd of fourteen that included three children and one person that neither of us had previously met (though she was lovely). 

Despite all the careful planning, there were things we had forgotten, like the hand-washing bowl that is a part of the seder.  While dinner was in the oven, the delicious potato casserole boiled over and caused smoke to fill the kitchen and dining room.  We then opened the doors a little earlier than the section where you open them for Elijah--but no matter.  It was a chaotic seder, but everyone had a good time.

Last week I wrote about the challenges of preparing a delicious meal that is not only kosher for Passover (no bread, rice, beans, corn, peas or things that puff when they cook), plus suitable for the one vegan and five vegetarians that were joining us.  What do you serve under these circumstances?We settled on a dairy meal with a fish dish--for those who aren't familiar with the laws of kashrut, certain fish are considered pareve, or neutral--neither meat nor milk. 

Haroset (traditional fruit-and-nut dish that is part of the seder plate, but also delicious)

Matzoh

Herb-crusted halibut

Warm quinoa salad with vegetables

Roasted asparagus

The best scalloped potatoes ever (will be posted later this week)

Various salads and vegetables brought by friends

Gelato and chocolate-covered matzoh for dessert



This is what I get for forgetting take photos until after the meal.

We had a lot of food, and our refrigerator runneth over.  As it turned out, most of the vegetarians were of the pescetarian, a/k/a Alaska vegetarian, variety--eaters of fish but not meat.  That's just as well since David got carried away when he bought the halibut. 

This recipe originally called for salmon, but oddly salmon was selling at a premium yesterday.  It makes no sense, unless it is all the restaurants in the lower 48 buying Alaska salmon that is causing the price hike.  It worked just as well for halibut, a firm, mild white fish that needs adventurous flavors to be at its best.  I doubled the original recipe, but it can be scaled back down if you're feeding less than a crowd.

Herb-Crusted Halibut

Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa's How Easy is That? by Ina Garten

2 cups chopped mixed herbs--parsley, sage, thyme or whatever you have on hand

2 cups chopped green onions, including both the white and green parts
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 tbsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup dry white wine
5 lb. halibut filet, skin on

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  While it is heating, place the halibut skin side down on a rimmed baking sheet.  In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice and olive oil, then pour evenly over the halibut--there may be a bit left over. 

Combine the herbs and green onions, then pat the mixture evenly over the fish.  Pour the wine around the edges of the halibut.

Bake for fifteen to eighteen minutes, or until the thickest part of the fish flakes easily and is opaque.  Remove the fish from the oven and cover with foil for ten minutes.

Easily serves 12 people.

Southern Comfort

It's really excellent when you can begin a new year by not working for a couple of days, although it is a rude shock to come back to the office.  Today I've been writing a brief for a big mediation later in the week, answering e-mails and generally re-acclimating myself.  It was a lovely three-day weekend, but now it's time to pay the proverbial piper. 

I rarely talk about work here because 1) much of what I do is confidential and 2) I work in a very low-drama office considering that we're a group of litigators.  I work with nice people who do their work ethically and generally try to rebut what most people think of lawyers.

But anyway...the three-day weekend meant lots of cooking, including one of my favorite New Year's traditions, Hoppin' John.  I'll give a shout-out to Ramona over at Curry and Comfort, because she's the only other blogger I saw posting about this traditional Southern dish--hers is a fantastic-looking version flavored with and colored by curry.  It looks absolutely delicious, and it's a great take on the original dish.

Black-eyed peas are eaten on New Year's Day for good luck, and this dish marries them with long-grain white rice in a way that mimics the traditional Monday dish of New Orleans, red beans and rice.  Although the black-eyed peas are typically cooked with a ham hock, I have substituted a spicy chicken sausage that keeps the dish pork-free while still being in the same spirit as the original.

New Year's Day Hoppin' John
Inspired by a Recipe from epicurious.com

1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced

1/2 orange bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp. olive oil
3/4 lb. chicken link sausage, casing removed and coarsely chopped
2 peperoncini peppers, crushed
1 1/2 cups dried black-eyed peas, washed and picked over
1 cup long-grain white rice or jasmine rice
3 cups water
3 cups chicken broth
Kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper, to taste

In a large saucepan, combine the water, stock, bay leaves and black-eyed peas.  If any peas float to the top, discard them.  Bring this mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat so the peas simmer.

After the peas are on, heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  When it is hot, add the olive oil and allow it to warm before adding the chicken sausage and onion.  Fry the onion and chicken sausage until they are lightly browned.  Add the onion-sausage combination to the pot with the black-eyed peas.

Using the same skillet, lightly brown the bell peppers.  When they are soft, add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.  Add the contents of this skillet to the pot with the black-eyed peas.

At the half-hour mark, taste the peas for seasoning and add salt and black pepper as needed.  Crush two small peperoncini and add them to the pot.

When the peas are fully cooked and tender, which should be about an hour, add the rice to the pot.  Cover the pot and cook for an additional twenty minutes or until the rice is fully cooked, adding a bit of additional broth if more liquid is needed.

Once the rice is cooked, remove the pot from the heat and allow to sit for another ten minutes.  Just before serving, fluff the mixture with a fork.

Serves 6.  We served it with a green salad and popovers--the popovers weren't a perfect match, but David was craving them since we didn't have them at Chrismukkah.

Time to Make the Doughnuts

A confession:  I do not like doughnuts.

Part of it is that I generally don't like sweet breakfast pastries (though a good muffin is welcome), and part of it is that a ring of dough fried in oil just isn't appealing to me.

There are several major Hannukah traditions:  lighting the menorah, or candelabra, for eight nights, playing dreidel games and frying foods in oil to commemorate how long the oil lights burned when the Jews reconsecrated the temple.  For more about the story of Hannukah and its traditions, please see this link. 

Latkes, or potato pancakes, are the most traditional food fried in oil, followed closely by doughnuts filled with jam. 

This year, I was lucky enough to receive a gorgeous new wire skimmer from my parents just in time to make treats to take to our friend Vicki's annual Christmas Eve open house.  Earlier last week, I heard a wonderful story on the public radio show Here and Now about a Persian chef's take on traditional Hannukah foods, including doughnuts filled with pastry cream instead of jam.

Pastry cream?  Hmm, maybe doughnuts didn't sound so bad.

These are not your standard yeast doughnuts.  The dough didn't rise very much, and though the doughnuts largely stayed flat, they were delicious when stuffed with pastry cream.

Persian Cream-Filled Doughnuts

Adapted from Chef Reyna Simnegar

For the doughnuts:

½ cup warm water
2 envelopes active dried yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

¼ cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
¼ cup water
2 large eggs
2 tbsp. amaretto liqueur

4¼ cups all-purpose flour

4 cups canola oil

For the pastry cream:

1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 egg yolks
5 tsp. cornstarch

Powdered sugar for garnish

Combine the sugar,  half-cup of water and yeast in a small bowl.  Cover and set aside while the yeast activates.

Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, salt, quarter-cup of water, eggs and amaretto.  When those ingredients are just mixed, add two cups of the flour and mix again.

Add the yeast and remaining flour and mix to combine.  The dough will be pliable and not too sticky.

Dump the dough on a piece of parchment paper and roll out to an even, one-inch thickness.  Set the dough aside for at least an hour in a warm place to rise, covering it with a dish towel or plastic wrap.

When you are ready to make the doughnuts, cut the dough in two-inch circles using a glass or a biscuit cutter.  Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out as many doughnuts as possible.

While you are cutting the doughnuts, heat the four cups of oil in a large saucepan.  The oil is ready when it registers 350 degrees on a thermometer.

Drop the circles of dough into the hot oil, being careful  not to crowd the doughnuts.  Flip with a wire skimmer or a slotted spoon so the doughnuts brown on both sides.  This process goes very quickly--be careful your oil stays an even temperature and keep an eye on them.  Each batch will take less than two minutes.

Place the cooked doughnuts on a paper towel-covered baking rack or in a colander to drain.  Repeat with the remaining dough.

Allow the doughnuts to cool completely.  While they are cooling, make the pastry cream by combining all five of the ingredients in a small saucepan.  Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking frequently.

Cook the cream for an additional minute, continuing to whisk it.  Then remove the cream from the heat and cool at room temperature, whisking periodically.

To fill the doughnuts, use a pastry bag with a long tip.  Insert the tip into one end of the doughnut and carve a small hole before inserting the cream.  I stopped filling the doughnuts when the sides of them bulged and looked as if they were about to crack.

Serve on a platter and dust with a liberal amount of powdered sugar.

Makes approximately twenty-four doughnuts.  There was leftover pastry cream, which I served the following day with a pistachio-almond cake.

Another Opening, Another Show

The day has finally come.  "Inspecting Carol" opens tonight, after a complicated (to put it nicely) rehearsal process.  We had our first audience on Wednesday night for a preview, and they had a great time.  On Thanksgiving morning, we had our last rehearsal, which went well.

Fingers crossed (and wood knocked) for a great opening tonight. 

The only good thing about rehearsing first thing on Thanksgiving morning was that the cast and crew had the rest of the day to enjoy the holiday.  Among the other things I was thankful for yesterday was the fact that I didn't have to clean my house and host Thanksgiving.

Our friends Warren and Diane invited us over, and all we had to do was bring a vegetable, a salad and a non-pumpkin dessert.  Piece of cake (literally).

 

In my humble opinion, the problem with many Thanksgiving desserts is that they're just so sweet.  This cake has a light sweetness with a hearty crunch from the polenta, and is just as suited to breakfast as dessert.  I've adapted the original Bon Appetit recipe to provide more of the wonderful amber-colored caramel topping and a retro garnish of maraschino cherries.

Pear Upside-Down Cake

Adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine, November 2011

9.5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup plus 3 tbsp. all-purpose flour

3 tbsp. coarse polenta

1.5 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 lb. ripe medium pears, cored and cut into 1/8" slices lengthwise

1.5 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs, separated

1/2 cup whole milk

3 good-quality maraschino cherries or 3 whole cranberries

Whipped cream for the garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter an 8-inch round cake pan.  Add a parchment round to the bottom of the pan and butter that as well.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, polenta, salt and baking powder.

Combine 1/2 cup of the sugar and 4 tablespoons water in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.  Once it does, increase heat to medium-high and boil the sugar syrup.  Brush down the sides of the pan occasionally with a wet pastry brush and swirl the sugar syrup, but do not stir it.  The syrup will be done when it reaches a dark golden color;  at that time, remove it from the heat.

Add one and a half tablespoons of the butter to the sugar syrup and stir until the mixture is smooth.  Pour the caramel immediately into the prepared cake pan and swirl to coat the bottom of it.

Take the pear slices and arrange them in a fan shape over the caramel in the bottom of the pan, overlapping to fit them all in.  You may have some left over.  In the center of the pan, place either the maraschino cherries or cranberries.

This didn't look quite as perfect as I had hoped (and nowhere near like the magazine's), but that's nothing to get stressed over.

Using a hand mixer, mix the remaining sugar, butter and the vanilla in a medium bowl on medium speed until the butter is pale yellow and fluffy.  Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating between each addition.

You will then add the flour-polenta mixture in three installments, alternating with half the milk, beginning and ending with the flour.

Using fresh beaters and a fresh bowl, beat the egg whites with the hand mixer on medium speed until they reach the soft peak stage.

Fold a quarter of the egg whites into the rest of the batter until combined;  then add the rest of the whites and fold to combine again.

Pour the batter over the pears in the cake pan and smooth with a spatula to level.  Bake for thirty minutes and then rotate the pan, then bake for another thirty minutes or until a cake tester in the center comes out clean.

Cool the cake pan on a wire rack for thirty minutes.  Run a knife around the edge of the cake pan to loosen the cake, then invert the cake on the serving dish and remove the parchment.  Serve with a garnish of lightly sweetened whipped cream if desired.

 

Serves 10 to 12 people.

*The original recipe calls for peeling the pears;  I like the color contrast of the peel and skipped this step.

Going with the Grain: Saffron Rice Pilaf

When I moved to Alaska eleven years ago, people asked "Are there any Jews up there?"

The answer is yes, but not many.  There are two synagogues here, one reform and one conservative.  Both have rabbis who are well-liked in the community.  I belong to the reform synagogue, and admittedly I'm of the twice-a-year variety of Jew. 

The second day of Rosh Hashanah is not a major service, as demonstrated by the 35 or so of us there this morning.  There is something homey about a service with that few people, though--the rabbi made us all squash together in a few rows and take on various parts of the service.

I love Rosh Hashanah.  I love the food, the music, and the sense that for the next week anything is possible because it's a new year and we can atone for the less-than-stellar things we've done in the year before.  Religion is a wholly individual thing and I don't want to dwell on it here, other than to say that while it's been a tough week, it was nice to have time to reflect this morning.

This post is the last of the Rosh Hashanah recipes I've been testing for the last week.  It's a simple rice pilaf colored and flavored by saffron, which went great with the roast chicken with apples and onions posted last week.  It could also perk up the coloring on a simple plate of grilled fish.

I love the vivid coloring of this dish.

Saffron Rice Pilaf

Adapted from Joan Nathan's Quiches, Kugels and Couscous

1/4 tsp. saffron

3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

1/2 cup shelled pistachios

1 cup long-grain white rice

1/4 tsp. nutmeg, freshly grated if possible

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. salt

2 cups reduced-salt chicken broth

Fresh-ground black pepper

Place the saffron in a small bowl with two tablespoons hot water, and set aside.

While saffron is ridiculously expensive, you need very little of it for this dish.

Heat all the oil in a large, heavy saucepan that has a lid.  Add the onion and sauté over medium heat until lightly browned.  Reduce the heat and add the rice. 

 

Stir the rice and onion to combine, and add the nutmeg, bay leaf, salt and broth.  Taste and add a little pepper--you can always add more later.  Add the saffron with its water and stir again.



I can't believe I actually had a whole nutmeg in the cupboard.  It came from a gift box I received from Penzeys.com, my favorite source for spices.

Bring the rice mixture to a boil.  After it reaches a boil, reduce the heat and cover the pot.  Cook for approximately 15 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is the desired consistency.  In the last few minutes of cooking, add the pistachios.

Remove the bay leaf and serve.  Makes 4-6 side dish servings.

Shana Tova (Happy New Year)

Rosh Hashanah starts tomorrow at sundown.  Shana tovas ("happy new year" in Hebrew) will be filling the synagogue tomorrow night and throughout Thursday.  So begins the Jewish high holidays, which end on October 8 with Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

The holidays start happy and grow more contemplative and solemn.  The new year is an occasion for celebrating, eating sweet foods (typically honey and apples) to wish for a sweet year ahead and meeting with friends.  As we get closer to Yom Kippur, we are to make amends to those we have wronged in the past year, and as to be inscribed in the Book of Life for the next year.  It's a time for thinking about what we can do better in the year ahead.

Which brings me to today's recipe.  I have a weird deal with myself when it comes to sweets--aside from fruit, I generally don't eat them during the week.  It's a way of being disciplined, which is good, because I adore cake.  I could take or leave pie, but give me any sort of cakey fruit dessert and I'm just sold.

When I was in law school, I pounced on this recipe in Cooking Light and have been making it nearly every year since.  Although it's not written for the Jewish holidays, it combines apples, cinnamon and reduced-fat cream cheese for a nearly guiltless pleasure that works either as a coffee cake or a simple dessert.  With that said, the cake is heading off to my office tomorrow morning to, er, keep it away from me. 



If only we had Smell-O-Vision.


Rosh Hashanah Cinnamon-Apple Cake
Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine October 1997

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
6 oz. reduced-fat cream cheese
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 large Fuji apples, cored and chopped (peel if you like--I didn't.  You can substitute another sweet-tart apple.)
Nonstick cooking spray

I don't always have everything organized beforehand, so I feel the need to show off when I do.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine 1 1/2 cups of the sugar with the butter, vanilla and cream cheese in a bowl and blend at medium speed with a mixer.  Add one egg, beat the mixture until just combined, and do the same with the other egg.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.  Add this mixture to the butter one, beating at low speed until just combined.

Stir together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cinnamon.  Combine the apple with two tablespoons of the cinnamon-sugar mixture, stir and add to the batter. 

Coat a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray and pour in the batter.  Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar over the cake.

Bake for an hour and ten minutes.  You will know the cake is done when it starts to pull away from the pan.  Cool on a wire rack.  This cake is so tender that it is best cut with a serrated knife.

Kitchen Renovation Update:  The Backsplash from Hell is gone!  Even with bare walls, the kitchen looks better and our contractor found space for us to have a full size-refrigerator.  Happy new year, indeed.

Yes, the refrigerator is messy.  Don't judge.

Shana Tova!