creative jewish mom

Baking With Kids: Spelt Pita Bread With Zatar

I'm so happy to report that today on a day off from school my  10 1/2 year old daughter decided she wanted to bake some pitas based on a recipe she saw in a magazine, and the results were so fantastic she just finished a second batch! And I have to be honest, this wasn't really baking "with" kids, as she really did everything herself! I stepped in to check the consistency of the dough, and to convince her to wait before putting the pitas in the oven. Oh and of course I also stepped in as a professional taster, and to my surprise the pitas tasted delicious! I'm so proud, and I'll admit, happy to have a little help in the kitchen!

Ingredients:

• 6 cups organic spelt flour (or the flour of your choice)
• 4 teaspoons dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar/honey/date syrup
• 2 teaspoons salt (or a bit less)
• 2 cups warm water
• olive oil
• zatar (optional)

Preparation:

1. Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water with the sugar/sweatener, wait until yeast is activated and  starts to form a froth.
2. In a mixer, combine flour and salt, and add water. Mix and when well mixed, add yeast mixture.
3. Kneed for roughly 10 minutes until a nice moist dough is formed.
4. Place dough in a plastic bag and set aside for at least an hour so dough has a chance to rise.
5. Remove risen dough from bag and make 16 balls.
6. At this point you can turn on the oven and pre-heat to 180c/350f  if you haven't done so.
7. Roll balls into pita shape, place on parchment lined baking tray, and brush with olive oil and sprinkle on some zatar (if desired)
8. To get slightly fluffy pitas, let pitas rise before baking (1/2 to 1 hour) and then bake for around 7 minutes at 180 C/350f. 
9. Hide the results or they will be devoured, really!

Note: These pitas did not form a pocket, but one can easily cut them in half for sandwiches. Some of our friends have had luck getting the pitas to form pockets by either using the grill in the oven and flipping the pitas over, or putting the pitas at the bottom of a hot oven. In any case, to form a pocket the pitas do need to be rolled out fairly thinly, but not too thinly, which kids may have a difficult time doing. So in my opinion, ditch the pocket!

If you'd like to read about how I make pitas that do form a pocket, and using a recipe that makes a huge batch, check out my whole wheat pita recipe, which can also be made using spelt flour or a combination of wheat and spelt, or any combination of gluten flours that suits you. Enjoy baking healthy and delicious bread for your family....there's no better feeling!

Chocolate Almond Matzo Bark!

Chocolate almond matzo bark — a fabulous solution for using up all the little bits of nuts and things left over from after a week of Passover, while making a delicious treat! With the last day of the holiday just a few hours away, I'm rushing as usual to finish up my cooking, but had to share this one with you all, as it's so simple and delicious....of course you don't have to add the matzo, or the coconut, and maybe you have some raisins or craisins, or hazelnuts, which would be great too!

Just melt a few 100g bars of dark chocolate in a double boiler, and pour over the mix you've made with chopped nuts, matzo etc. Sprinkle coconut on top and put in the fridge or freezer to cool.

Chag Sameach!

Baking With Kids: Chocolate Crackle Cookies

Last Friday afternoon my daughter baked her first batch of cookies— chocolate crackle cookies! The recipe was quite simple to make and the results were delicious. We did leave them in the oven a bit too long, (on account of my inexperience with baking cookies) so they were a bit harder crispier than they should have been, but that didn't keep them from getting eaten up! 

These would be a perfect little treat for kids to bake and give to friends on Purim! Wrap a few together in cellophane and tie with a ribbon, and place in your homemade gift boxes from recycled materials, like the oatmeal can packages we've made this year. 

Ingredients: (we made a double batch, resulting in a nice amount of cookies......)

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon rum flavoring
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder (3/4 envelope, for Israelis)
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200c, or 375F
2. Combine eggs, sugar, oil and rum and whip for at least 5 minutes.
3. Add flour, baking powder and mix for another 5 minutes.
4. Add the cocoa and mix until dough forms. (can refrigerate at this point if desired)
5. With damp hands, form small walnut sized balls of dough. 
6. Dip ball in powdered sugar, (or skip this step and sprinkle with powdered sugar after baking which is what we did, as you can see. Though effect of cracks in cookies is much better if you dip balls in powdered sugar, will try that next time!)
7. Place on cookie sheet lined with baking paper.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Don't worry if not all the cookies crack, more important to watch the baking time!

Note: If using a mixer isn't kid friendly enough, try whipping the eggs and sugar together with a soup wand (a great kitchen tool for so many things!) or alternatively in a blender, which is what we did!

Enjoy! I can see that this is just the first of many more home baked goods on our horizon, now that my daughter is on the scene, and her little brothers are urging her on! 

Challah Rolls For A Crowd!

Yesterday afternoon I baked 64 nice sized challah rolls for a sheva brachot celebration that we the neighbors were holding for another neighbor's daughter who got married last week.

After the traditional Jewish wedding the couple does not go on a honeymoon, they stick around for at least a week to continue the celebrations with friends and family, and get accustomed to their new status with loved ones close by. Once a day, for seven days, a festive meal is made, usually for a nice sized crowd, and specific blessings are said for the couple, which are called sheva brachot (seven blessings). As it turns out this particular meal was prepared for 150 people, and so everyone pitched in. I happen to know that the mother of the bride loves my rolls, so I just had to volunteer to make them, or at least 64 of them!

To make nice sized challah rolls, I recommend making no more than 32 rolls per 2 kilo batch. Of course you can adjust this number, this is just the exact number of rolls that fits perfectly on my oven tray. I should add that my oven is a 90cm freestanding oven, so the rack is almost (?) twice the size of that found in a regular built in oven. (The 90cm built-ins are substantially smaller, so consider that if you get to design yourself a kitchen!  The six burners and the huge oven in my freestanding oven was one of the best purchases I ever made!)

You'll Need:

• my no egg white challah recipe
• 2 kilos of flour per 32 rolls

How To:

Follow the instructions for making standard challah loves, just when making the balls, make 32, instead of the number you'd make for braiding loaves. After balls have rested, roll each ball in your hand to make a rope, about 8-9" long. (My kids gladly helped with this part!) Loosely cross the right side over the left, and bring the top of the right side up through the hole just a bit, sort of like a belly button. Tuck the end of the left side under the roll and voila! Check out the photo above to see if yours look like mine. Set aside to rise until their nice and fluffy, and bake. Yummm! 

For lots more posts about baking challah, simply type challah into the search bar on the top right of my blog, and you'll get a list of all my previous posts. You'll be a pro in no time, and believe me, there's nothing like the smell of freshly baked challah on a Friday afternoon!

Baking Challah With Children

Baking challah with kids is a great activity to do together in the kitchen, and a wonderful way to help them develop a love for this timeless Jewish tradition. When I bake their favorite challah recipe, there's always plenty of dough to let the kids have fun shaping little loaves which they'll proudly eat at our Shabbat table Friday night.

 
I'd recommend spending a little time practicing braiding and shaping rolls with modeling clay, such that when it comes time to work with the real thing everyone will feel confident and there will be smiles all around. And don't forget to let the kids brush on the egg white and sprinkle on some sesame seeds, the final touch before baking. And if your kids aren't around when you find the time to make challah, why not save a little dough for them in the fridge?

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pretzel Rolls—Fun For Kids In The Kitchen!

Baking with the kids can be lots of fun, and especially great when the results are wholesome rolls that are a great accompaniment to a hearty winter soup! At this point, my kids get much more excited about real dough than modeling clay, so when I started to make these pretzels I had plenty of help. My eight year old daughter made some all on her own, and my five year old son was great at preparing longs ropes of dough for me to shape. I used the recipe for my whole wheat oatmeal baguettes, and since I was in a hurry I didn't even let the dough rise, which was fine in this case, though the rolls are a bit denser than if prepared correctly.

Someday I'd like to make real pretzels, but for now this was lots of fun, and the ones that turned out a bit too plump to pass as pretzels have been great little sandwich rolls! Make sure to roll finger width ropes, not wider. Then again the sandwhich rolls are pretty cute too.

And those roses by the way, were the last blooms that I brought indoors after I heavily pruned the rose bushes in preparation for Spring growth. Speaking of Spring, I know some of you wouldn't mind a little Spring weather right about now, so hang in there and get ready for some colorful Spring crafting, which is coming here soon!

No-Bake Cookie Balls (Simple Chocolate Rum Balls): A Dessert Kids Can Make!

My seven year old wanted to bring a cake for his class Chanukah party. He doesn't understand that baking is really not my preferred use of time, and therefore I'm really no expert. I have a few basic recipes that are good and keep the family happy when cake is required! How about a cake like the one I made for Abba's birthday with the mini dreidel cake bunting? No. Hmmmm. Then we remembered the no-bake cookie balls that I surprised him with on his birthday....yes cookie balls! These cookie balls do have some margarine in them, which I try to avoid, though I have a feeling one could probably substitute oil, or maybe oil and some peanut butter? Let me know if you try it!

This is a great recipe that younger kids can help with, and older kids who can heat up something in a pot can do all by themselves.  There is even a kosher no-bake cookie ball mix is a box, but just make your own, the kids will love crunching up all those cookies!

No-Bake Chocolate Rum Balls From Spice And Spirit, The Complete Kosher Jewish Cookbook

Ingredients: (I tripled this recipe to make about 45 nice sized cookie balls - maybe large-walnut size)

• 8 ounces tea biscuits, either plain or chocolate
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 1/2 cup water (if using butter, so you could use milk instead of water)
• 2 tbsp rum (or rum flavoring, though the real thing is preferable, not that we had any!)
• 2 tbsp margarine (can substitute butter for this, of course)
• 1/2 cup coconut and/or sprinkles and melted chocolate (optional)

Instructions: Crush biscuits into small bowl. I used an electric chopper this time, but kids can do it by hand by placing cookies in a bag and pounding with something.  Mix sugar, cocoa and water in a small pot. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil and remove from flame. Stir in margarine, and when it has melted, pour mixture over crumbs and mix. Form into small balls and roll balls in coconut and sprinkles or decorate with melted chocolate and sprinkles as we did.

Great Tip-How To Melt Chocolate: simply place in a cooking bag and insert into your electric kettle (kum kum) after you've boiled some water. Once chocolate has melted, cut a tiny hole at the tip of the bag and squeeze out to decorate! Much simpler than the double boiler method! Just make sure to discard that water that you used to heat up your plastic bag!

An End of Summer Cupcake Party!

Those of you who follow this blog may know that the closest I've come to cupcakes recently is cupcake liner flowers! I prefer to spend my creative time making things that hopefully won't get eaten (the exception being birthdays, wherein I try to make it look like my creativity extends to baking, sometimes with success, but not always.....) but I do appreciate simple food decorating ideas like this sweet cupcake.

My daughter actually made this on a day camp stint with her cousins in New York, and I thought you might appreciate the idea. A beach chair made from chiclets, a beach ball made from a red gumdrop, marshmellow fluff icing colored blue for water and sprinkled with brown sugar for sand. It's that simple! Oh and of course the little umbrella which you can purchase or make yourself with a toothpick and a round piece of paper. (Cut a pizza slice out of the circle and tape or glue the gap closed to form the top of the umbrella.)

So why not celebrate the end of a great summer with a little cupcake party?