Welcome to the Free Recipe of the Month!
Each month I feature a free recipe (sometimes more!) for visitors and regular subscribers. Once the month has passed, the recipe is retired into the BB Recipe Archives. So bake while the oven's hot! These recipes are only here and free for four short weeks!
Round New Year's Challah (and scroll down for other recipes)
New Year's Apple Tart
Apple Cake
A freshly cut wedge of this bread dipped in honey is an indelible taste experience. It is ambrosial and symbolic. You can also update the usual raisin 'faigele' or round challah with dried cranberries or sour cherries. I prefer Saf or Fermipan yeast for this majestic bread. If making a round bread seems a bit difficult then use this trick: braid it with three braids and tuck the ends of the braid into each other. Then place it in a 10 inch springform pan which will ensure it bakes up into a perfect round.
Challah Dough
1 1/2 cups dark or yellow raisins, plumped
1 3/4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons instant yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light honey
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
6-7 cups approximately, bread flour
Egg Wash Glae
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch salt
1 egg
Sugar or sesame seeds
* Can also use dried sour or sweet cherries.
In a large mixer bowl stir together the yeast and water and let stand a minute to allow yeast to swell and dissolve.
Briskly stir in remaining sugar, honey, and salt. Then add in oil, eggs and about five cups of the flour. Stir into a shaggy mass. Cover and let stand 10-20 minutes to absorb flour. Knead, by hand or with a dough hook, adding in remaining flour as required to make a soft and elastic dough (about 10-12 minutes). Dough should leave sides of the bowl. If it is sticky, add small amounts of flour until dough is soft but no longer sticks. (Note: if you find dough too bulky for your mixer, divide in two. Knead one portion at a time).
Let dough rest on a lightly floured board ten minutes, then flatten and press in raisins as evenly as possible into the dough, folding dough over raisins to "tuck" them in. Place dough in a greased bowl and either cover with greased plastic wrap and a damp tea towel or cover with a damp tea towel and place entire bowl inside a large plastic bag. Let rise in a draft free place until doubled and puffy looking, anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes.
(Alternatively, if you are doing an overnight, cool rise, place dough in a large, lightly greased bowl and insert this in a large plastic bag. Refrigerate overnight. If you see the bread rising unduly in the fridge overnight, open the bag, deflate dough, and reseal. Next day, allow dough to warm up then gently deflate and proceed as follows.
Divide dough in two. For faigele or turban-shaped New Year's challah, shape each section into a long rope (about 12-14 inches long) which is thicker at one end and coil it, starting with the thicker end first, tucking the end in on top to "lock". Or, you can divide each dough section into three ropes, around 14 inches long and make a traditional challah braid. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet.
In a small bowl, whisk together egg glaze ingredients together. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle on sugar or sesame seeds. Let rise until puffy, around 35-50 minutes until almost doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Bak until bread is evenly browned, 35-40 minutes.
Makes one large or two medium breads. Can be frozen baked or unbaked. If freezing unbaked, let bread rise slowly, overnight in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before baking.
Two Medium Breads, or One Very Large One
Easy, gorgeous, and crown pleasing!
This beautiful classic apple crostata is an all season delight but it's a beauty when the new fall apples drop. I use combinations of apples - often Cortland and Yellow Delicious but try your own local apples. This is French pastry shop gorgeous but easy!
Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 6 ounces unsalted butter, in small chunks
3-6 tablespoons cold water
Filling
5-7 large apples (such as McIntosh or Golden Delicious), peeled, cored, and diced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, in small pieces, optional
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch cloves
Egg Wash
1 egg with 2 tablespoons water
Sugar
¼ cup honey
* If using shortening, use half butter flavored and half neutral
For the dough, in a food processor, mix flour, sugar and salt. Add butter in chunks and pulse to produce a coarse, crumbly mixture. Add the water and pulse to make a mass or shaggy dough about 30-60 seconds, drizzling in a bit more water if required to make dough hold together. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead a few seconds. Form into a disk, wrap well and chill for 30-45 minutes.
Prepare apples, place them in a large bowl and toss them with the sugar and butter.
Preheat oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 10 – 12 inch circle. Transfer to baking sheet by folding in quarters and unfolding on baking sheet. Fill with apples to within 2 inches of the dough’s edge. Fold this border inwards and press gently onto fruit. Brush the border with egg wash and sprinkle on granulated sugar. Alternatively, use a 12-inch tart or quiche pan and place dough in the pan and proceed as above for a more refined, less rustic crostata.
Place on baking sheet and bake until apples are oozing juices and coloured and exposed pastry is medium brown, 35-50 minutes. Take the crostata out of the oven and drizzle in the ¼ cup honey into the apples.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Can be made a day ahead.
Serves 8-10
This iconic honey cake is the one I created in the early 80's. I was a honey cake disliker then! I found honey cakes to be dry and too full of spices I didn't like (vs. balanced with the ones I did). So I set out to create a honey cake for the ages. This one is tall, moist, and totally sumptuous. Honey cake haters fall in love with it! It is indeed, 'majestic'. Use a tall angel food cake pan for it (not a Bundt)! Over 90,000 people have downloaded this recipe over the years from my site, it appears on other websites and of course in my cookbook, A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking (get the new edition with the matzoh buttercrunch cake on the cover)
Cake Batter
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 cup canola oil
1 cup honey
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup warm coffee or strong tea
1/2 cup Coca Cola (c), bubbles stirred out
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup rye or whisky (substitute orange juice or coffee)
Finishing Touches
1/2 cup slivered almonds (optional)
In addition, cut out pieces of parchment paper for the bottom and to extend the side (walls) of the cake pan. Use some batter as the glue to make the pieces of parchment adhere. This is so the cake can rise and have something to cling to.
Important : If the cake is rising fast and browning but doesn't seem set, lower the oven temperature to 325 F and let it bake longer but slower. Give it the time it needs! Lastly, bake it on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. This will protect the bottom of the cake from getting dry or too brown while the middle and top of the cake bake through.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray the pan very generously with non-stick cooking spray. For tube and angel food pans, line the bottom with lightly greased parchment paper, cut to fit.Stack two baking sheets together and line the top one with parchment paper. Place baking pan on baking sheet.
For the Cake Batter, in a large bowl (or food processor bowl which I use just as often as the mixer bowl for this cake) l, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Make a well in the centre, and add oil, honey, white sugar, brown sugars, eggs, vanilla, coffee (or tea), cola, orange juice and rye (or whisky). (For processor method - just add in everything else and whiz for 1-2 minutes).
Using a strong wire whisk (if mixing by hand) or in an electric mixer on slow speed, stir together well to make a thick, well-blended batter, making sure that no ingredients are stuck to the bottom.
Spoon batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle top of cake evenly with almonds.
Bake until cake tests done, that is, it springs back when you gently touch the cake center, 65-80 minutes (it takes as along as it takes!). For sheet style cakes, baking time is 40-45 minutes.
If cake appears almost done but wobbly leave it in the oven, lower the oven temperature to 325F and let bake 15-20 minutes more as required.
Let cake stand 20 minutes before removing from pan.
Serves 12-16 (freezes well or lasts 5-6 days, covered properly)
TRICK: I brush the cake with a honey syrup a few hours or days before serving (1/3 cup honey, 1/2 cup water boiled)
