creative jewish mom

Triangular Spelt Rolls For Purim Or Anytime!

Yippee, the idea of making triangular rolls not only worked the results are truly fabulous, phew! My theme for shaloch manot (mishloach manot, gifts of food) this year is the triangle, so all the food I'm gifting is triangular, including these rolls, which are 50% whole spelt and %50 white spelt, and delicious. It is true, shaping the triangular rolls does take twice the time as my regular single knot rolls, but the effort was well worth it, and the results were so great I made another 2 kilo batch late last night. With the Purim seuda on Friday, you still might like to give this a try, so go for it! Will try to upload photos but having technical issues, and with guests arriving gotta run! Purim Sameach!

Rolls are made by rolling out small circles, mini pita sized, and folding in three sides so they overlap. That is it! Yes mine rose and filled the whole tray and I had to separate them after baking, but that works too.

Tiny Mezonot Hamburger Buns To Make Adorable and Tasty Appetizers

Never mind the specifics of the stock photo I've used here, this article is about making tiny buns that are not colored, though was that done with beet juice and tumeric, hmmm, interesting! I wanted to share with you a recipe that a neighbor gave to me to bake tiny mezonot hamburger buns that are perfect for appetizers when you need something just a bit next level! (If you don't know what "mezonot" is, don't worry about it, or look it up if you like, but basically regular bread is not mezonot, while these are not technically "bread." I made the recipe for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, for our morning dairy kiddush/meal as I wanted to change up the usual of too many sweet things and start serving more actual food instead. I had planned on making these tiny buns and filling them with a slice of sweet potato, slice of fried eggplant, pesto and soft white cheese, (divine) but I ran out of time and simply included them on our cheese board already sliced, and they were truly a hit!

Giant 6 Strand Challah That Uses 1 Kilo Of Flour Per Loaf

Giant challahs, often used for banquet style meals on shabbat or for a festive occasion are something one can truly bake at home. Okay, maybe not the most giant ones, but something large enough to do the job! This past shabbos was the pre-wedding celebration for one of my sons, and we hosted a crowd of 50 for the Friday night and shabbos day meals, which means in my case, that losts of challah, and challah rolls needed to be baked! For the main table where the groom sits, flanked by his father and soon to be father-in-law large challahs are the custom, so I baked something that was big, but still would fit in my freezer drawers, and that turns out to be two large challahs made from 2 kilos of flour. I do do have a large 90cm oven, so I can bake challahs made from 2 kilos of flour on one tray, but if you don't, you can still bake these challahs one at a time, and they aren't so huge that you have to worry about whether the inside got baked, just follow your usual baking time and assesment. For the freezing part I put piece of cereal box cardboard under the loaves for extra reinforcement and they were fine, though one left over loaf did eventually break after being handled too much, so croutons anyone?

A Giant Key Shaped Challah!

Didn't bake the traditional key shaped challah yet? Not to worry, you can do it this week as well!

I'm so happy to share with you my first ever giant schlissel challah, the key shaped challah that we traditionally bake the very first shabbos after Passover. Yes of course, I do make key shaped challah every year, but over the years they have seemed to get smaller and smaller. This year, after baking 2 kilos of challah which did include 3 smallish keys, I had the nagging thought that I really wasn't giving it my all, and so friends, I got out two more kilos of flour on Friday morning, and I'm so happy I made the extra effort to really make this tradition the focus of our Friday night shabbos meal! Of course, now there is no going back, but that is just fine, looking forward to trying something new next year! And those tiny key shaped challahs? I gave two of them to neighbors who don't have this tradition, but certainly appreciated it! Keep on reading to see the challah before baking and a few tips I learned this time around! Hello, like you need a huge tray or a DIY tray to place the challah on your table, any guesses what mine is made from?

Simple Flowers And Leaves Decorated Challah

I am rushing to post this as there is still cooking to be done for the holiday of Shavuot, which we are welcoming tonight! Round braided challahs decorated with simple flowers and leaves really do make your holiday table special, so if you have a few extra minutes, give it a try, even for just one challah! This design is quite simple to make, and if you follow the instructions, I do think you'll be happy with the results! Trust me, I've been doing this for years, with varied results, and this design actually looks good after baking as well, which many just do not. So make some round braided challahs using my 4 strand round challah tutorial, set aside a grapefruit sized piece for the decorations, and keep on reading!

Flower Covered Challah For Shavuot!

We are welcoming the beautiful Jewish holiday of Shavuot tonight, and I decided last night that it was time to make some decorated challahs to embrace the holiday, in which we bring flowers and greenery into our homes to remember the lush surroundings on Mt. Sinai. Yes indeed, I did take note of the relative luxury of this act while many of my fellow Israelis were in bomb shelters, and I am grateful to live in a location that is generally not a target, and we have never used the bomb shelter room in our home as such, though I am relieved that we have one! Okay, back to challahs and the upcoming holiday! I love to make round challahs, and they are especially lovely to distinguish a Yom Tov from shabbat.....and a four braided challah looks amazing and is so simple to do once you get the hang of it. Check out my four strand round challah, and become a pro, you can do it! Incase you missed it the link is HERE. Regarding the simple flowers that top this challah, keep on reading......

Spelt And Oatmeal Rolls For The Meals Before T'isha B'Av

A whole eight years ago I posted these photos of my healthful spelt and oatmeal rolls, and now I myself had to visit the blog to look up the recipe, so I realized that I should just re-post it as the photos are good enough, (though I did have to add a title and a watermark) unlike some of my very early blog posts. Tonight we are ushering in the very solemn day of T'Isha B'Av, which is also a mandatory 25 hour fast, (there are of course exceptions for children under bar/bat mitzvah age, those with illness or women after birth,) and we will be eating two vegetarian meals before the fast: one for sustenance and one right before the fast, that is eaten sitting on the floor and with symbolic foods of mourning.

So of course the family and the teens have to eat, and when the kids used up the bread I had planned to serve them later in the day I realized that once upon a time I did bake bread (pre-teen daughter taking over the baking) and that I could certainly revisit those days in order to serve my family something really healthy and great tasting before the fast. To top it off we just happened to have a bag of spelt flour in the freezer, so voila, I baked, or rather I am baking as the rolls have yet to go into the oven.

Special Grape Leaf Challahs For Tu B'Shevat

Wednesday night is the perfect time to bake delicious homemade challah, and with the special shabbat of Tu B'Shevat coming up this week, how about making your challahs just a little bit special? Well, of course all challah is special, but when you spend a few minutes to add a bit of extra something, well special takes on a whole new meaning! Let's do it, shall we?

Lacto-Fermented Pickled Vegetables Are Healthy And Delicious!

Fermented foods like pickled vegetables, sourdough bread, kombucha tea, kefir and yogurt, to name a few, are all great ways to eat healthy pro-biotic foods in order to colonize your gut with good things. One of the interesting and really important things that I learned towards the end of 2016 is what a major role intestinal health plays in our overall health, and how oblivious traditional medicine is to this idea. If you or your loved ones are unfortunately dealing with health issues I highly highly recommend looking into the field of Functional Medicine that addresses the role that food plays regarding illness.

That said, it turns out that my family really has not been eating enough pro-biotic foods, as we are not big yogurt eaters, so I have decides to change this by providing an ongoing source of good bacteria via lacto fermented vegetables. And I have to say, everyone is really happy about this, well except for my husband who for some reason doesn't love the taste of my recent experiments, but I'm going to work on that one!

Pickling vegetables via lacto-fermentation is simple and really so much fun, keep reading for all you need to know, and pat yourself on the back for all those jars filled with lovely pickling veggies!

Chickpea Flour Flatbread

Introducing my favorite new recipe, chickpea flour flatbread, especially great for someone like me who is not eating wheat, or needs to avoid gluten! Of course you could call this is a chickpea flour pancake, whichever sounds better to you! It is true that the taste of the chickpea flour may not be for everyone, but when accompanied by something a bit savory or spicy I think even the pickiest eaters may be won over. I gave my kids a bite together with my hot pepper dip, and they didn't spit it out! So there may be a family meal using these pancakes in the future (with a huge selection of delicious veggie and bean based things to spread on them) in the meantime I'm just going to enjoy them myself, starting with tonight when I plan to enjoy some with the traditional Moroccan salads that I make every week for shabbat.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• 2 cups water
• 1 small white onion finely chopped (and you could add some fresh chopped coriander too)
• 1 tsp baking powder (optional, try with and without and see which you prefer!)
• a dash of cumin, ginger, turmeric and cinnamon (and more than a dash if you like these spices)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if possible, but my family will more likely eat them with the salt)
• olive oil (preferrably spray) to lightly coat pan

Preparation:

Combine dry ingredients and onion. Add water and use a wisk to make sure all lumps are dissolved. Heat a non-stick frying pan and lightly coat with olive oil spray. Use a ladle to place batter in pan, flatten batter with ladle, and once pancake starts to bubble, flip over and continue cooking until nicely browned on both sides.

Pancakes can be stored in the fridge and easily re-heated, though have yet to try freezing them. Cut pancakes into wedges, or if you are skilled at making a thin pancake you may be able to use them as roll ups. I folded one in half to make a very satisfying sandwich. Enjoy!