creative jewish mom

Black And White Flower Or Spider Web Icing Trick

Making baked works of art can really be quite simple if you know a few little tricks, right? Courtesy of my 14 year old daughter who I have now appointed as chief family baker, I bring to you a little tutorial for how to make black and white icing flowers or cob webs! While she made black and white flowers on mini doughnuts, one can certainly use this trick on cookies, cupcakes and even cakes.......the results will be truly gorgeous, promise! And doing this on a cake would be so less time consuming than many other types of decorations, so give it a try, I'm going to encourage my daughter to do so as well sometime soon, and will share the results, of course. (Well assuming there is time to photograph the results, that isn't always possible, as you can well imagine.)

One disclaimer, we are not professional bakers, and certainly not specialists when it comes to making icing with dairy ingredients as almost all of our baking is for items that will be eaten on shabbat after a meat meal, and thus cannot contain any dairy products. So I will provide you with the icing recipe we used, but there are likely many more options out there that may be more suited to your needs.

The Best Chicken Soup Recipe Ever With Lots Of Vegetables But No White Potatoes!

Photo courtesy of Bon Appetite, check out their chicken noodle soup recipe.

Last Friday afternoon as I was preparing our meals for shabbat, (and taking note of the cold weather forecast) I decided to whip up a big pot of chicken soup as the main course, and the results were so delicious I just had to share my recipe with you. And I'll admit, I love using this blog as a place for saving recipes, so there's something in it for me too! And yes, it is true that it is pretty hard to mess up chicken soup, but know the right veggies to add really makes a huge difference as far as the end result is concerned.

To make my chicken soup even more special and earn it main course status, I also made some croutons, which everyone loved, and they are certainly many steps above the traditional "soup nuts" that so many Jewish families serve with their soup. Just saying folks, those soup nuts are just about the least healthy thing to get your family used to eating, so do keep that in mind!

Ah yes, the recipe, no problem, just keep on reading.....

Chocolate Spoons With Sprinkles

Chocolate spoons with sprinkles made using silicone molds are a fun way for kids to get involved in the kitchen, and they are amazing way to finish off a delicious meal or as a part of a dessert bar. Plus they are one of those things that are simple to make but look really impressive. Adding the sprinkles was my idea as a simple way to make them look more festive, and I just love the results! My daughter actually made about 40 of these for a sheva brachas that i made just before Purim, and I had put aside a few in the freezer to photograph. Now a month later I unearthed them as I was cleaning out the freezer for Passover!

Speaking of Passover, these would be fun to make for Passover, and if you can't find kosher for Passover sprinkles, so improvise with some chopped nuts!

Sugar Free Biscotti With Dried Fruit And Nuts

I love biscotti, what can I say, but I don't love the idea of eating a cookie packed with sugar and wheat, even if it is low-fat, as most biscotti are. So, I decided it was time to come up with a sugar free biscotti recipe, even though I'm not exactly an expert baker! Experimenting in the kitchen can have all kinds of results, but I have to say, my daughter and I really loved these fruit filled oat biscotti, even if my young boys crinkled up their noses and didn't even finish the pieces I gave them. Silly boys, I guess they need some chocolate chips thrown in there, sigh.

So I will say, these biscotti are for those who have shunned the taste of processed, sugar laden, white flour baked goods and whose tastes lean in the all natural, not so sweet direction. And I won't claim to have come up with the end-all in recipes, but it certainly is good enough to share, and maybe one of you will have fun tweaking it some more? I would love to make an egg-free version so that these could be classified as vegan biscotti, any ideas? And I do wish that these were crisper, like real biscotti. These are much softer, not sure why, maybe I needed to bake them at a lower temperature, so that they would bake longer without burning, next time! And just by the way, one can make biscotti that are vegan, and if you are vegan or want to incorporate more vegan foods in your diet, check out more tips for vegan deserts and lifestyle from Vegan Liftz

Jerusalem Artichoke Tastes Like Artichoke Hearts

If you saw these tubers in the store, or even just sitting on a counter in someone's kitchen, would you be able to identify them? Truthfully these Jerusalem artichokes only slightly resemble the ones usually for sale so I was quite surprised by their truly fascinating look. in past years they have only consisted of the middle section, (see my previous post with photo here) without those little fingers, and so they weren't nearly as photogenic! When I served Jerusalem artichoke with my standard Moroccan meat with tumeric and celery last shabbat, most of the guests just assumed that those oblong yellow things on the platter were potatoes, and when I brought out these to show them what the raw version looks like there were many wide eyes at the table.

Mini Doughnuts Using A Combo Mini Doughnuts Machine!

Doughnuts are a traditional Hanukkah treat, though I've always wanted to bake some rather than serve my family the oil laden traditional fried ones. And this year, ta da, we made a whole bunch of mini baked doughnuts thanks to a Bat Mitzvah gift certificate that my daughter finally redeemed (a year plus later) at a department store on our trip to Tiberius. To my great surprise, the only thing that we found in the whole store that was really worth the 250 shekel gift certificate was a combination waffle iron, cake pops, cupcakes and mini doughnut maker!  And just in time for Hanukkah too, so I guess it was just meant to be. My daughter actually made a ton of these but we were so rushed that I hid about five of them to photograph after the houseful of guests left and I could find time to take some photos!

Moroccan Style Halibut Cooked Without What?

The big joke in our house is that the one thing my husband and I disagree on is what kind of fish to serve on Shabbat. You may find this hard to believe, but my Moroccan husband actually requests gefilte fish (which most Moroccans wouldn't even consider touching....) while I much prefer to serve delicious Moroccan fish made using either Nile Perch, Musht (Talipia) or Halibut. (Namely prefer to serve on account of my children's preference and what I think guests will enjoy, I'm personally on a mostly vegan journey, so no fish for me for the time being.)

Truthfully the fish looks so beautiful before cooking that I just had to snap a little photo, and also let you in on a little secret regarding cooking Halibut on the stovetop. Are you ready? DO NOT ADD WATER. Yes, really! Halibut is such a moist, fatty fish, that all of the liquid that it releases when cooked on a low flame is more than enough.

So do follow my Moroccan fish recipe, just skip the water, and of course make sure to keep an eye on that fish so that it doesn't burn or dry out. That is it!

Hot Pepper Relish: Fresh And Delicious (Very Hot Or Not!)

Many of the cuisines from countries in the Middle East and Mediterranean include spicy food, so it is no surprise that here in Israel, schoog, or hot pepper relish, is a staple amongst those with Sephardic or Yemenite heritage. My husband's family hails from Morocco, so I have also learned to prepare hot peppers to his liking, and as my children have grown older, I have also started to make some or our favorite Moroccan dishes just a bit on the spicy side.

This hot pepper relish is a great way to become familiar with the delicious side of something that uses hot peppers, and you can choose to make it fairly mild or very hot, you decide! My kids love it, and now no shabbos table is complete without this tasty relish, which is especially delicious when eaten with techina and or course a nice selection of Moroccan salads.

You'll Need:

• 1 cup chopped fresh coriander
• 1 head of garlic- peel the cloves
• 1 cup chopped hot green peppers, for a hot relish, for a milder relish go with 1/2 cup
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp salt

Preparation:

In a food processor, chop the garlic, and then add the coriander and the olive oil. Stir if necessary to that coriander gets chopped. Add the hot peppers and the salt and continue to pulse until a not too watery yet finely chopped consistency is reached. You can always a some more olive oil if needed.

That is it, enjoy! Oh, and yes this does not make a huge quantity, I usually make a batch at least twice this big, but for starters keep these amounts to try out this new taste.

Mini Kugel Platter Is Perfect For Receiving Guests!

Last week a neighbor's son got engaged, so I had to send a little congratulatory something over to her house on Friday.....but what? At first I was going to send a challah, but then I realized that with all the excitement going on, it is better to send food that can actually be eaten by hungry family members on the spot. And so this mini kugel platter was born. The salads and egg were actually an after thought, but really pulled the whole thing together and I felt like quite the balabusta! And to make the story even better, it turns out that my friend has some guests in her home and she was wondering around the kitchen trying to figure out what she could serve them when my platter arrived!

The other great thing about this platter is that you can put it together ahead of time and have it ready to serve when guests arrive!

 

You'll Need:

• mini kugels made in a muffin tin using my vegetable kugel recipe
• hard boiled eggs
• chopped olive salad, or the salad of your choice, recipe coming soon
• jullianed kohlrabi/carrot/red pepper salad, dressed with vinegar salt and pepper
  
  

Will fill in more details on Sunday, gotta run the last shabbat of the year is coming!

Easy To Braid Round Challahs For Rosh HaShana!

With Rosh HaShana just a week away, now is a great time to bake traditional round braided challahs for the holiday, with raisins of course! Thanks to some readers who left comments on my post showing how to braid these beauties, I realized that I ought to share some photos I took last year just before the holiday!

This technique is so simple and while the braid can split a bit in the middle during baking, as you can see in the challah above, it is still lovely and retains its round and full shape quite nicely.

Check out my post how to braid a round challah for rosh hashana, and you're all set. And this might sound funny, but you can certainly practice with knee socks or knee highs to get the braiding down before you start with the real thing!

And no, my house does not exactly look like this at the moment, as I'm very busy preparing not only my own container garden, but a garden with actual dirt that I'm in the middle of designing for the New Year. This year we are entering a year called "shmittah" which has specific laws regarding gardening in the land of Israel, more on that later! Happy baking!