Room for Dessert - Food Blog

I think the thing that I love the most about baking is seeing someone enjoying what I’ve made. Nothing comes even remotely close to this satisfying feeling, not even solving a really frustrating bug at work. I really love my job, and there are times that I think I’ll enjoy doing it forever, but lately I’ve come to think that baking is something that I like even better. That’s why I love sharing the stuff I bake so much.

Each Purim, we have this great custom of exchanging food related gifts with each other (in Hebrew it’s called “Mishloah Manot”). Usually the gifts contain cookies, Haman Ears and all sorts of goodies one can think of. Usually I make them for our families, but this year I decided to play “The Cookies Game” - it’s a game organized by a food forum I participate in. You need to prepare your gift, containing various sorts of cookies, and the game’s manager sends you a name and address to send it to, but doesn’t give away the forum nick name of the person you’re sending it to.

I’ve made:
- The wonderful white chocolate and cranberries cookies I’ve posted about a few weeks ago.
- Haman Ears using my white chocolate and Irish Cream dough.
- Nutella filled rolled cookies.
- Coffee and milk chocolate cookies. Neta, a very good friend of ours brought them to me a couple of weeks ago, and I absolutely LOVED them! I asked for the recipe immediately and decided to make them for the gift. I don’t yet recommend the recipe, though, because mine came out a bit different - some of them were great but some of them were really hard. When I asked Neta about it, she said she also gets inconsistent results with this recipe, so until I research it a bit further I don’t recommend it.
- My mom’s and Avi’s all-time favorite cookies - maple pecan cookies wrapped in a serious coat of powdered sugar. I like them better without the powdered sugar, which is a bit too sweet in my opinion. This time I also improved the recipe a bit, cause the dough was really hard to work with because it fell apart all the time. I added 2 Tbsps of milk, and it sorted things out.
- A wonderful and so easy to make cream and dulce de leche cake. Originally it was supposed to be with nutella, but there was too much nutella in the cookies as it was, so I decided to go with something a bit different. The recipe is from Pnina T, a wonderful virtual friend of mine from an Israeli food forum.

I made them all, wrapped them up nicely and safely, and sent them. Of course I made similar things to mine and Avi’s families. Unfortunately, the person I’ve sent it to didn’t contact me since she got it, last Friday. Hope it wasn’t because she hated the cookies

Coffee and chopped chocolate cookies / Adapted by my friend Neta from an Israeli food forum
Makes about 50 medium sized cookies

Ingredients:
100 gr butter, soft
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp coffee
a pinch of salt
100 gr white/milk chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup pecan nuts, chopped

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 356°F (180°C).
2. Beat butter and sugar together until a light cream is formed. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated.
3. Stir in flour, baking powder, coffee and salt and mix.
4. Fold in the chopped chocolate and nuts.
5. Roll balls of the dough and flatten them with the center of your palm. Place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
6. Bake for about 15 mins, or until golden. Let cool for several mins. on the tray until moving them.

עוגיות קפה ושברי שוקולד / עיבוד של נטע, חברה שלי, מפורום אורט
עבור כ-50 עוגיות בגודל בינוני

רכיבים:
100 גרם חמאה, רכה
1 1/4 כוסות סוכר חום כהה
1 כפית תמצית וניל
1 ביצה, טרופה קלות
1 כוס קמח לבן
1/2 כוס קמח חיטה מלאה
1/2 כפית אבקת אפיה
1 כף נס קפה
קורט מלח
100 גרם שוקולד חלב/לבן, קצוץ גס
1/2 כוס אגוזי פקאן, קצוצים גס

הכנה:
1. מחממים תנור ל - 180 מעלות.
2. מערבלים חמאה וסוכר במיקסר באמצעות וו גיטרה במהירות בינונית עד לקבלת תערובת תפוחה ואורירית. מוסיפים את הביצה ואת תמצית הוניל ומערבבים עד לקבלת תערובת אחידה.
3. מערבבים פנימה קמח, אבקת אפיה, קפה ומלח ומערבבים.
4. מקפלים פנימה שוקולד ואגוזים.
5. מגלגלים כדורים מהבצק, משטחים אותם מעט בעזרת מרכז כף היד, ומניחים אותם על גבי תבנית מרופדת בנייר אפיה.
6. אופים כ - 15 דקות, או עד להזהבה. מניחים להצטנן מספר דקות בתבנית לפני שמעבירים.

Maple pecan cookies / Slightly adapted from Carine Goren’s recipe
Makes about 50 cookies

Ingredients:
200 gr butter, soft
1/4 cup demerara light brown sugar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
200 gr pecan nuts, chopped

powdered sugar, for coating

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 338°F (170°C).
2. Beat butter, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla extract and milk until a light mixture is formed.
3. Add the flour and salt, mix just until a uniform dough is formed, add in the nuts, and mix shortly.
4. Refrigerate for 30 mins.
5. Roll small balls and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
6. Bake about 20 mins, or until golden.
7. When cool, roll the cookies in a bowl with powdered sugar.

Note: If you don’t intend to roll the cookies in powdered sugar, add 1/4 cup more sugar (1/2 cup total).

עוגיות מייפל פקאן / עיבוד קל למתכון של קרין גורן
עבור כ - 50 עוגיות

רכיבים:
200 גרם חמאה, רכה
1/4 כוס סוכר חום בהיר, דמררה
2 כפות סירופ מייפל
1 כפית תמצית וניל
2 כפות חלב
2 כוסות קמח
קורט מלח
200 גרם אגוזי פקאן, קצוצים גס

אבקת סוכר, לציפוי

הכנה:
1. מחממים תנור ל - 170 מעלות.
2. מקציפים חמאה, סוכר, סירופ מייפל, תמצית וניל וחלב במיקסר עם וו גיטרה במהירות בינונית עד לקבלת תערובת אורירית.
3. מוסיפים קמח ומלח, ומערבלים מעט, רק לקבלת בצק אחיד. מוסיפים את האגוזים ומערבבים קלות.
4. מקררים את הבצק 30 דקות.
5. מגלגלים כדורים קטנים מהבצק ומניחים על תבנית מרופדת בנייר אפיה.
6. אופים כ - 20 דקות, או עד שהעוגיות מזהיבות.
7. לאחר הצינון, לגלגל באבקת סוכר.
הערה: אם אתם לא מתכוונים לגלגל באבקת סוכר, תוסיפו עוד 1/4 כוס סוכר (כלומר סה”כ 1/2 כוס סוכר).

Nutella and Cream cake / Adapted by Pnina T from Carine Goren’s recipe
I substituted the Nutella with the same amount of dulce de leche
For 1 English Cake mold
 
Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten
250 ml heavy cream
a pinch of salt
90 gr sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (140 gr) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp full of Nutella

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 329°F (165°C).
2. Mix cream, salt and sugar until the sugar melts.
3. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract.
4. Sift in flor and baking powder and mix slightly, just until incorporated.
5. Place the mixture into a greased mold.
6. Heat shortly the Nutella or dulce de leche in the microwave, pour it on top of the cake and using a knife, create a marbeled pattern.
7. Bake for about 40 mins, or until golden. 

עוגת שמנת ונוטלה / עיבוד של פנינהט מפורום מתכונים של תפוז למתכון של קרין גורן
אני החלפתי את הנוטלה בריבת חלב
לתבנית אינגליש קייק אחת

רכיבים:
2 ביצים
1 חבילה (250 מ”ל) שמנת מתוקה
קורט מלח
90 גר’ סוכר
1 כפית תמצית וניל
1 כוס (140 גרם) קמח
1 כפית אבקת אפיה
2 כפות גדושות נוטלה

הכנה:
1. מחממים תנור ל - 165 מעלות.
2. מערבבים שמנת, מלח וסוכר ביחד טוב, עד שהסוכר נמס.
3. מוסיפים ביצים טרופות ותמצית וניל.
4. מנפים קמח ואבקת אפיה לתוך המסה ומערבבים עד לקבלת תערובת אחידה.
5. מעבירים את התערובת לתבנית משומנת.
6. מחממים במיקרו את הנוטלה, ויוצקים מעל העוגה. מעבירים סכין ליצירת דוגמת שיש.
7. אופים כ-40 דקות, עד להזהבה.

They have so many names in English - hamentasch, homentash, homentasch, (h)umentash. In Hebrew you should say “Oznei Haman”, which simply means “Haman’s Ears”.

So just before Purim (the Jewish holiday during which we eat these great cookies), I wanted to suggest the new white chocolate and Irish Cream flaky dough I dreamt about a couple of weeks ago. It’s perfect for making Hamantash! I know because I’ve tried

And let me tell you, that Avi never loved Haman Ears before last year, when was the first time I tried making them. He said it was because their dough is usually so thick and tasteless. So the secret is (except having a good dough recipe) simply rolling the dough as thinly as you can, and then the ratio of dough-filling is simply perfect! Since then Avi really loves them. Also, my dear friend Shany, that visited me a couple of days ago, really loved them eventhough she doesn’t normally like Haman Ears as well. So go ahead, give them a try, you won’t regret it! And happy Purim everyone!

These I’m giving away as a Purim present (called Mishloah Manot)

You can find the recipe for the dough, both in English and in Hebrew here.
For shaping the Haman Ears, you need to roll out the dough, cut circles of it (a cup will suit just fine), fill each one with 1/2 tsp of Nutella (in my case ) and form a triangle out of it.

You know these times when you see a post on another blog that makes your mouth water and your imagination picture the taste of the great food creation you’ve just bumped into? And then you put the recipe in your “to make” list, and… simply forget about it after a couple of days? That’s the problem with those “to make” lists - they’re so full of recipes, that when you wanna prepare something, you almost never go to look there. In case you wondered, no, I don’t have a solution for this (sadly..), but what I do have is such a recipe that stayed in my mind (and in my “to make” list) until I just had to do it.

Nicisme from Cherrapeno is one of my favorite food bloggers. I really love everything she makes, the beautiful photos she takes and, of course, her writing. A while ago she made these wonderful looking white chocolate and cranberry cookies, that looked and sounded just delicious. A few days ago I gave in to a great crave for white chocolate (and for these cookies in particular) that I had, and made them.

I tweaked the recipe quite a bit, partly because I didn’t have some of the ingredients, and partly because nowadays I’m trying to subtract a little amount of fat from anything I make. They came out absolutely marvelous! I think they’ve definitely entered my top 5!
They are soft but still chewy, the taste of white chocolate blends wonderfully with the cranberries, and the rolled oat just adds some extra crunchiness to the whole thing. Definitely a keeper in my book! Thanks, Nic!

Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies / Adapted from Bill Granger’s recipe
Makes approx 30

Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter, softened
145g light brown sugar (Demerara)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp milk
140g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
200g rolled oats
140g white-chocolate chunks
85g dried cranberries

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line two baking trays with baking parchment. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add the egg, vanilla and milk and beat until smooth.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the oats, chocolate and cranberries and stir together. Add to the creamed mixture and stir together well.
3. Roll small tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place on the baking trays. Flatten the balls with a fork dipped in flour, or with the center of your palm.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes until pale golden (note that white chocolate tends to easily burn, I recommend turning the pan once during the baking time and keep a close eye on the cookies). Leave to cool on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

עוגיות גרנולה עם שוקולד לבן וחמוציות / עיבוד למתכון של ביל גרנג’ר
עבור כ-30 עוגיות

רכיבים:
125 גרם חמאה, רכה
145 גרם סוכר חום בהיר (דמררה)
1 ביצה, טרופה קלות
2 כפיות תמצית וניל
2 כפות חלב
140 גרם קמח
1 כפית אבקת אפיה
קורט מלח
200 גרם שיבולת שועל
140 גרם שוקולד לבן, גרוס גס
85 גרם חמוציות מיובשות

הכנה:
1. מחממים תנור ל - 180 מעלות ומרפדים שתי תבניות אפיה בניר אפיה. מקציפים חמאה וסוכר יחד באמצעות וו גיטרה עד לקבלת תערובת בהירה וקרמית. מוסיפים את הביצה, תמצית הוניל והחלב ומערבלים עד לקבלת תערובת חלקה.
2. מנפים את הקמח, אבקת האפיה והמלח ביחד. מוסיפים את שיבולת השועל, השוקולד והחמוציות ומערבבים היטב. מוסיפים את תערובת החומרים היבשים לתערובת הקרמית ומערבבים היטב.
3. מגלגלים כדורים קטנים מהבצק בעזרת הידיים או בעזרת כפיות, משטחים אותם קלות באמצעות מרכז כף היד או באמצעות מזלג מקומח ומניחים בתבנית.
4. אופים כ - 12-15 דקות עד לקבלת גוון זהוב בהיר (לשים לב, שוקולד לבן נשרף בקלות, מומלץ להפוך את התבניות בתנור פעם אחת במהלך האפיה ולהשגיח השגחה צמודה). משאירים את העוגיות להצטנן בתבנית 5 דקות לפני ההעברה לצינון על גבי רשת.

You know that you’re hooked to something when you start dreaming about it at night. Actually my addiction to baking isn’t news at all, but dreaming of a new recipe - now that’s a first! And so it happened that yesterday morning, just before waking up, I was dreaming about a recipe of white chocolate and Irish Cream cookies. The dream wasn’t about me baking them or anything like that - I dreamt the recipe! More fascinating than dreaming about a recipe was the fact that when I woke up I remembered it exactly! So after such an incident - wouldn’t you bake them immediately?

And so I did. The funny thing is that for a long time now I’ve been wanting to invent a new pastry recipe, not just tweaking with existing ones and changing little bits in them. I guess I wasn’t daring enough or didn’t have inspiration at the time, but boy was I happy to have this new recipe at hand to test. I was really tensed during the whole making process, eager to know already if the new recipe is any good, taste-wise.

The results were pretty satisfying. The cookies came out having a great flaky and tender texture. While baking, they filled the room with a great scent of Irish Cream, which is always an added bonus, the white chocolate wasn’t really felt, and the Irish Cream has given the cookies a subtle taste-twist but didn’t take over. I also added a little lemon zest, thinking that the white chocolate taste might be overwhelming, which also added to the flavor and scent of the cookies. I’ll be making these again, no doubt about that, and I’ll definitely be using this recipe for tart and pie bases. It would blend great with chocolate filling, for instance.

You can also pair them with some Dulce de Leche, it’s great!

White chocolate and Irish Cream cookies / Self recipe
Makes about 50 small cookies or one 26cm (10 inch) tart/pie base

Ingredients:
50 gr white chocolate
1 Tbsp milk
260 gr all-purpose flour
40 gr almond powder
150 gr butter, cold and diced
100 gr powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of half a small-sized lemon
2 Tbsp Irish Cream liqueur (I used Bailey’s)
1 egg, beaten

Directions:
1. Place the white chocolate and the milk in a pot and melt the chocolate, using a medium flame. Let cool for 10 mins.
2. Put the flour, almond powder, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor. Process them together until getting a crumbly mixture (should take about 5-6 pulses).
3. Add the liqueur, the white chocolate and the egg and process in short pulses, just until the dough is formed.
4. Divide the dough into two halves, wrap each one with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
5. Just before taking the dough out of the fridge, preheat the oven to 347°F (175° Celsius).
6. Take out one of the halves out of the fridge, roll the dough and cut the cookies. An easier way, which doesn’t involve rolling out the dough is simply making litlle balls out of the dough and flatten them slightly using a finger. If the dough gets hard to shape because it warms up and gets sticky, put in the freezer for 5 mins, take out, and continue working with it. Arrange the cookies on a pan, lined with parchment paper. Now take the second half of the dough out of the fridge and do the same thing.
7. Bake for about 15 mins, until golden. Take out of the oven and cool on a rack.
8. Optional: when cooled, dust with powdered sugar.

עוגיות שוקולד לבן ואייריש קרים / מתכון עצמי - מירי רביבו
עבור כ-50 עוגיות קטנות או בסיס אחד לפאי בקוטר 26 ס”מ

רכיבים:
50 גרם שוקולד לבן
1 כף חלב
260 גרם קמח לבן
40 גרם אבקת שקדים
150 גרם חמאה קרה, חתוכה לקוביות
100 גרם אבקת סוכר
1 כפית תמצית וניל
גרידה מחצי לימון קטן
2 כפות ליקר אייריש קרים (אני משתמשת בבייליס)
1 ביצה, טרופה

הכנה:
1. ממיסים את השוקולד יחד עם החלב בסיר על להבה בינונית. מצננים כ-10 דקות.
2. מכניסים לקערת מעבד המזון את הקמח, אבקת השקדים, החמאה, אבקת הסוכר, תמצית הוניל וגרידת הלימון. מעבדים עד לקבלת תערובת פירורית (אמור לקחת משהו כמו 5-6 פולסים).
3. מוסיפים את הליקר, השוקולד הלבן המומס והביצה ומעבדים בפולסים קצרים רק עד לקבלת בצק.
4. מחלקים את הבצק לשני חלקים, עוטפים כל אחד מהם בניילון נצמד ומקררים למשך שעה.
5. לפני הוצאת הבצק מהמקרר, מחממים תנור ל - 180 מעלות.
6. מוציאים את אחד מחצאי הבצק, מרדדים אותו וקורצים עוגיות. דרך נוספת לעיצוב עוגיות שלא מערבת רידוד היא לגלגל מהבצק כדורים קטנים ולשטח אותם מעט עם האגודל. אם במהלך עיצוב העוגיות הבצק מתחמם והופך דביק וקשה לעיבוד, מכניסים לפריזר למשך 5 דקות, מוציאים וממשיכים כרגיל. מסדרים את העוגיות על גבי תבנית התנור מרופדת בנייר אפיה. מוציאים את החצי השני של הבצק מהמקרר ועובדים איתו בצורה דומה.
7. אופים כרבע שעה, או עד שהעוגיות מזהיבות. מוציאים ומצננים על רשת.
8. אופציונאלי: לאחר הצינון, ניתן לאבק באבקת סוכר.

So we’re 2 months into the strawberries season and I haven’t prepared even one single dessert using them! I did discover several great places to buy beautiful and relatively cheap strawberries, and actually that’s one of the few benefits of my college moving from the lively center of Tel Aviv into the also-lively center of Jaffa… So until now I only bought them for us to eat straight up, or sometimes with a little sugar scattered upon them. But last week I decided to use them for preparing a sweet goodie. I also decided to combine this with making my first ever mousse cake.
Mousse cakes are something I wasn’t technically able to prepare for a long time, since I didn’t have a proper mixer. Since I bought the KitchenAid last September, I’ve been planning to prepare one, but the chance hasn’t come up, and truthfully, I was also a little scared of trying it.

Looking for interesting recipes of strawberry mousses, I’ve found Martha Stewart’s recipe for strawberry mousse cake that looked promising, so I decided to take the recipe of only the mousse from it. I combined it with an improvised base made of biscuit crumbs, butter, lemon zest and strawberry puree. For the topping I planned to use Martha’s white chocolate ganache, but Avi doesn’t like eating big amounts of white chocolate, and since there was also white chocolate in the mousse, I decided to use milk chocolate. So far so good. But when we got to the store to buy that milk chocolate - I thought to myself - why not make it even more special and use one regular milk chocolate bar and one Nougat filled milk chocolate bar? This was the crucial mistake that made the topping of the cake lumpy (pieces of the nougat that didn’t dissolve well, I presume), instead of it being silky-smooth, the way ganache should be…

To sum up the whole story: the mousse was really tasty and had a great creamy texture, and there was just the right amount of each ingredient in it - the strawberries were very noticeable but didn’t overwhelm it, the amount of sugar was just accurate, and the white chocolate was barely noticeable taste-wise, but contributed to the great general texture. The biscuit base was also wonderful - the lemon zest and the strawberry puree really gave it a good twist. The only thing to improve is the ganache - next time I’ll definitely make it using white or dark chocolate.

Strawberry and white chocolate mousse cake / Mousse adapted from Martha Stewart & Self recipe for the base
For a(half-sphere) mold with at least 1.6 liter capacity

Ingredients:
For the base:
130 gr petit-beurre biscuits
70 gr butter, melted
2 Tbsp strawberry puree (from the mousse)
the zest of half of a medium-sized lemon

For the mousse:
450 gr (1 pound) strawberries, hulled and halved
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
230 gr (8 ounces) white chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/4 tsp unflavored gelatin
2 cups (480 ml) heavy cream
2 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar

For the ganache:
2/3 cup (160 ml) heavy cream
340 gr (12 ounces) white chocolate, finely chopped
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
whole and halved strawberries, for garnish

Prepare the mousse:
1. Puree halved strawberries in a food processor. Stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice; set aside.
2. Melt chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring until smooth; set aside.
3. Put 1/4 cup cool water into a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over top; let stand until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir 1/4 cup cream and the confectioners’ sugar in a small saucepan; bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add gelatin mixture, and stir until gelatin has dissolved. Pour into bowl with the melted chocolate, and stir until smooth. Reserve 2 Tbsp of the strawberry puree for the base, and whisk the rest of it into the bowl with the chocolate.
4. Put remaining 1 3/4 cups cream into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until medium peaks form. Whisk one-third of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the remaining whipped cream using a large rubber spatula. Move into the half-sphere mold and refrigerate 1 hour.

Meanwhile prepare the base:
1. Measure the diameter of the mold that contains the mousse. Measure it at the mousse’s level (and not at the top of the mold), in order to know which diameter should the base have. With the mold I used, the diameter was 20.5 cm. I used an adjustable cake ring, adjusted to 20.5 cm, for forming the base’s shape, it’s also possible to use a regular round pan of the matching size.
2. Smash the biscuits to crumbs using a food processor.
3. Transfer the crumbs to a separate bowl or continue working in the food processor’s bowl (to save the wash of one more dish ), and add the melted butter, lemon zest and the 2 Tbsps of strawberry puree. Mix all the ingredients well together.
4. Lay the base mixture out on the bottom of the chosen pan (if you chose to use a ring, its bottom should be sealed with aluminium foil), tighten it using a spatula or the bottom of a clean glass, and put in the freezer until the mousse comes out of the fridge.
5. After the 1 hour has passed, take the mousse out of the fridge and the base out of the freezer, and place the base on top of the mousse. Press the base gently, to attach it to the mousse. Put the mousse in the freezer.

One hour and a half before serving it, prepare the ganache:
1. Bring cream just to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Pour hot cream over the chocolate in a medium bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Stir in salt and lemon juice. Let stand until ganache is pourable and has cooled slightly.
2. Take the half-sphere mold out of the freezer, put the bottom of it in a bowl with boiling water (the water must not touch the mousse at all) for 2-3 seconds only, then turn the mold upside down and support the base of the mousse with your hand. Give the base a little push, and the whole cake will easily pop out of the mold into your hand. Place a rack on top of a big baking pan, and place the cake on the rack.
3. Pour ganache over top of cake, allowing it to drip down sides. Refrigerate assembled cake 1 hour before serving. Using 2 large spatulas, transfer cake to a serving platter. Garnish with strawberries.