Tag: chanukah recipe

Sachlav Donuts

Ah, sachlav, the warm and milky pudding drink that gets me through the winter, and transports me to my favorite place on earth… Israel.

Sachlav is an #oldiebutgoodie here on the blog and I’ve been making it forever. But I dreamed up a sachlav donut a couple of years ago and I’m so glad I finally made it happen!!

These donuts are really a cross between malabi and sachlav, malabi being the chilled version of sachlav – usually topped with a pomegranate syrup and pistachios – so I kind of fused the concepts together here to give you two different flavors.

But donuts are donuts and this dough is beautiful, soft and supple and you can use it with any filling or glaze you like! Or just roll in some cinnamon sugar and stuff with caramels.

If you’re a lazy dough maker, like I used to be, I totally won’t just you for going on a donut crawl and ditching the fryer, that’s what bakeries are for! There are so many amazing flavors around nowadays, I don’t think homemade donuts are essential. But latkes are another story.

I hope these donuts warm you up and give you that fuzzy feeling I get when I drink a warm cup of sachlav on a cold winter day. Happy  Chanukah!

 

 

Related Recipes:

sachlav rosewater pudding
rosewater creme brulee
orange cardamom malabi with drunken figs
rosewater cheesecake mousse parfaits

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Jelly Donut Linzer Cookies


Woohoo, it’s officially my favorite time of year! Jelly donuts, latkes, fried food and presents, what could be better?! Lets get the Chanukah fun started!


When Upfield reached out to me about their new plant based butter made with olive oil, I was so excited to use it for Chanukah – the holiday where we celebrate the miracle of the small flask of olive oil that lasted in the menorah for eight days in the Holy Temple. I happen to be a big fan of olive oil in desserts (like in these gelt cookies!), although used to not be so much a fan of margarine.


When I was in kosher culinary school, we only had a meat kitchen, so all of our butter-based sauces and recipes were made with margarine. We used LOTS and LOTS of margarine. One day, someone came in and said that margarine was molecularly equivalent to plastic, and I never looked at margarine the same way again. We started calling the sauces we made “plastic sauce” and I could barely swallow any of them! But that was my Bubby’s margarine. The margarine of today is different.


I started using a lot of coconut oil in my recipes, but there were times that coconut oil just did not do the job, so I was really stuck. I would say that in the kosher kitchen, the butter conundrum is really the #1 obstacle.


For people who keep kosher, pareve desserts is the hardest challenge. While liquid fats can easily be replaced with oils, fat in solid form has always been a problem. So when Country Crock reached out about their plant-based butter made with oils, I was happy to give it a try.


Regardless if you keep kosher or not, plant-based foods are all the rage right now, and for good reason. That’s why we’ve adopted Meatless Mondays in our house, and we try not to eat so much animal protein. It’s amazing to see all the healthy options available on the market these days and I really believe that this isn’t just a passing trend.


I’m so grateful that Upfield, the company behind Country Crock and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, has transformed our Bubby’s margarine into products that are more natural, with less saturated fats and no trans fats, made with ingredients that are better for our health while still tasting great and working well as a substitute for butter in any recipe.


I LOVE how these jelly donut linzer cookies turned out, and not just ‘cuz they make the perfect cookie for your holiday spread, but because they taste absolutely amazing, are perfectly crispy and still, yes, pareve.


Wishing you and yours a very Happy Chanukah!

This post is sponsored by Upfield.

Related Recipes:

jelly ring donuts
pecan lace cookies with raspberry jam
cheese latkes with raspberry sauce
chanukah cookies

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Greek Salad with Feta Croutons

Well hello there everyone! It seems like forever since I’ve actually blogged a new recipe here on BIB! I’ve been in full on cookbook mode these passed few weeks and I couldn’t be more excited about how things are moving along! I was so nervous about how I’d be able to juggle the cookbook, social media posting, messages and blogging but somehow it’s been working. Blogging has definitely taken a back seat, and for the first time in six years of blogging, I’ve starting skipping a week or two here and there. There was a time I thought everything would come crashing down if I didn’t post every. single. week. but lo and behold, the blog is still here and everyone is alive and well.

The truth is, it was hard getting back into it but I couldn’t let Chanukah go by without a few special recipes. I mean, it really is my favorite holiday and as many of you now, it’s both my birthday and Anniversary as well! Chanukah is my favorite time to fry up something crazy, make something Greek and go all out in the dairy department, and I’ve combined all three in this awesome salad!

Most of you have eaten Greek salad about a million times in your life, but you’ve probably never tried tried frying the feta into croutons. Yes! I said FRYING THE FETA INTO CROUTONS! How awesome, right?? At first I wasn’t even sure if it would work but a Chanukah miracle happened (early) and the feta fried up beautifully! It was also my first time using Trader Joes cholov yisroel feta which apparently has been a hidden treasure for the past several years, and OMG is it decadent. It’s crazy salty (which I kinda love), but oh so smooth and it also slices so, so nicely without crumbling. The breadcrumbs really help cut through all that saltiness, and with a forkful of veggies, it’s the perfect little bite.

It’s funny because I was never really much of a feta person, probably because I never had really good feta, so Greek salad wasn’t really on my list of faves. It might also have to do with the fact that I’m not a fan of goat or sheep milk products, and most feta is made with sheep milk. I’m so crazy sensitive to the taste, that I can tell if my butcher used the meat grinder to grind lamb before he grinds the beef, because I can taste even the slightest hint of it. And it’s so, so sheepy. I mean, I’m no picky eater but I just. can’t. swallow it.

What’s crazy is, I decided to give the Trader Joe’s sheep’s milk feta a try because so many people told me it was the best feta they ever ate (it’s imported from Israel after all), and even though it had the absolute, most slightest hint of sheep, I was able to tolerate – and even enjoy – it.

So, if you can find Trader Joes best kept secret, go grab a package for this awesome recipe, or use your favorite brand. This post is not sponsored by TJ’s, although how amazing would that be, right?

Related Recipes:

spinach pappardelle with feta and fried poached egg
harissa whipped feta with za’atar eggplant chips
summer tomato feta salad
roasted eggplant parmesan with feta

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Donut Milkshakes

OMG OMG OMG OMG!! Should I even talk right now or do these insane milk shakes just do it for you?! Chanukah is coming and on Chanukah we DONT. COUNT. CALORIES. Ok????? And because we don’t count calories, I had to put a holiday spin on one of the huge food trends right now – over the top milkshakes! I don’t know if you’ve seen these gazillion-calorie monstrosities but they are insane. Milkshakes topped with pieces of cake and candy, with more candy glued to the glass and just tons of junk everywhere.

It says a lot about the state of our health when restaurants are actually serving that stuff, and when people are actually ordering it, but for these 8 DAYS, we are going to have some crazy fun, donut milkshakes included. Believe me, I would never make this stuff on a regular day. Not even my birthday. But my birthday is on Chanukah so YAAAAYYYY!! I’ve put together two variations, based on the two most popular Chanukah donuts – custard donuts with chocolate glaze and jelly filled donuts with powdered sugar. Of course nowadays you can find a bunch of other flavors, but these are the classics we grew up on. Milkshakes are about nostalgia too, especially for me, as we had a real milkshake machine growing up. Not a blender. A milkshake machine. It came with a stainless steel cup that you hooked onto this machine. A stick with a blade would break up the mixture and you had a real frothy milkshake! My brother would take it out on Saturday nights and make himself a huge shake with his pizza. Memories! And who can forget being young and biting into a huge jelly or custard donut and licking out the filling with your tongue? These shakes mix the best of both worlds and I hope they bring up some fun childhood memories for you too!

 

 

Related Recipes:

jelly ring donuts
deconstructed jelly donut pancakes

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Gelt Hot Chocolate

I’m super excited for this Chanukah blog post because WE’RE HAVIN’ A PARTY! Albeit a virtual one, but we can still have fun, right?! And all parties have to have prizes, so there’s a great GIVEAWAY too!

I got together with a few other bloggers to create a virtual menu and I was assigned the drinks. Now when I think of Chanukah, I imagine sitting by the lights of the Menorah, snuggled up under a warm blanket, sipping hot chocolate and singing Chanukah songs. The kids are around me playing draidel (ok, fighting over draidel), and my husband is frying latkes in the kitchen. Yes, Chanukah is just about the only time I let him take over and make a mess! He learned to make perfect crispy fried latkes when he was in Yeshiva in Israel and I don’t mind getting a little break from cooking so the kitchen’s all his (for at least a night..or two).

While hubby hosts a fryfest, I like to mix up a warm drink – some mulled wine, spiced apple cider, or gelt hot chocolate, obviously. I came up with this fun Chanukah version of hot chocolate based on a drink that my friends and I used to order at a place called Cafe K, back in the old days. Cafe K is still around, and they might still serve it! It was called “Torino Hot Chocolate”, after the chocolate bar that was used to make it. They’d take a whole bar of this chocolate and pour hot milk over it, and that was it! It was a dreamy confection and we’d save up our calories to splurge on it in the winter. It would warm us up from the inside out and we’d relish each and every sip!

I thought it would be fun to do the same with some chocolate Chanukah gelt! It makes a great party drink – just put out a vase filled with chocolate gelt, an urn of hot milk, and an endless selection of toppings and you’ve got yourself an amazing hot chocolate bar that will be the talk of  your Chanukah party!

And now for the rest of our virtual party menu, check out the mouthwatering dishes from these talented bloggers:

Appetizer:  Turkish Lentil Soup by Samantha from The Little Ferraro Kitchen
MainRoasted Jalapeno and Cheddar Strata by Melinda from Kitchen Tested
Side: Mac and Cheese Latkes by Miriam from OvertimeCook
Dessert: Deep Fried Rugelach by Amy from What Jew Wanna Eat

And now for the exciting part – the prizes! We’re giving away 2 separate packages – a cookbook package sponsored by Artscroll and a Gourmet Kosher Foodie Package sponsored by Nomoo cookies and California Gourmet. Enter to win below. Happy Chanukah!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Other Festive Hot Drinks: Mulled Wine
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