creative jewish mom

Pretty DIY Cookies Gift Box

Purim is the holiday that entails giving food baskets or gifts that are food oriented to friends, neighbors teachers and those to whom we want to express appreciation. So, this year my daughter who is the resident baker in our home, did not have time to actually bake, but rather she assembled these gorgeous cookies from store bought items. Quite gorgeous and a great way to make jsut a few of these (she made four) in a relatively short amount of time. Keep on reading for a brief description of what she did to make this work of edible art!

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!

How To Sprout Mung Beans And Use Them In A Colorful Salad!

We are all relieved to say goodbye to 2020, though the silver lining is that is gave many of us the chance to try some new things, and for me one of those things is sprouting! Now that I've got a bit of experience under my belt, I just had to share with you our new family favorite, sprouted mung beans! They are packed with nutrients, truly delicious, and so simple to sprout that they've become a weekly staple in our home. They can be eaten raw, or cooked, though we enjoy them the most in a colorful mixed vegetable salad, perhaps with a bit of quinoa added! And to my great surprise, when I shared this salad with a few neighbors they (and their kids, gasp!) loved it so much they have jumped on the sprouting wagon as well! So get some mung beans and lets get started. One important note: sprouting in general can lead to growth of non-desirable bacteria, so if you are pregnant, or have health issues do cook the sprouts and/or sprout mostly in the fridge, which I'll mention below. Okay, ready?

DIY: Miniature Candy Apples Are Perfectly Adorable

I now present you dear readers with just about the simplest and most adorable way to decorate a cake, cupcakes, a dessert plate: mini candy apples made from toffee candies with clove stems! And of course you can use this same idea to make mini candy lemons, oranges and grapes. It is true I am the kind of mom who shudders at the thought of buying candy, but of course the candy thing is way beyond my control and the dreaded stuff does make its way into our house, and especially those little colorful gummy toffee candies as those are very often thrown from the balcony of the synagogue (at the groom, called the chatan) on the shabbat before a wedding. And yes, you'd better believe it, my kids are there front and center to scoop up as much as they can. The good news as that I can now tell the kids I need those toffees to make some adorable little candy apples, ah yes and one could even make a bunch and freeze them!

Oh, and just by the way, this was not my idea, though the clove stem was actually, it was directly inspired by the amazing candy filled cornucopia that I've featured on Craft Schooling Sunday, here, for two years in a row, because I just couldn't resist.

Ready to learn how to make these? I'm sure you'll be nabbing toffees from your loved ones too, as you should if you really love them, right?

Cinnamon Roll Cake Pops For The Dessert Bar Are Perfect In A Pinch!

Okay dear readers, I'm off sugar and flour entirely so I'm trying to post this fantastic idea for making cinnamon roll cake pops that look like lollipops without really looking too closely at the photos, and with the idea that while certainly I'm not encouraging folks to eat un-healthfully, sometimes you've just gotta bake that cake or make that special dessert for your child's birthday, a special event in school or important family occasion. If you're like me, and you're trying to mend your ways in the sugar department it may just be advisable to skip the baking and just assemble something from bakery bought items........and that is where this cinnamon roll cake pop idea really shines!

Of course if you love to bake, and especially if you can whip up a healthier version of cinnamon rolls using say spelt, why then go for it! The cinnamon rolls shown here were home baked by a friend of mine, and I just loved the idea so much I had to share it. Keep reading to find out how she made the display stand, an important part of the whole presentation!

Homemade Almond Milk Tastes SO Much Better

 Yes, indeed dear readers, there is no comparison between store bought almond milk and homemade almond milk, well at least not the various brands of almond milk i have tried. I have been making my own almond milk on and off for about five years, and lately for the last three or so months. You see I am eating a 90% plant based diet, and almond milk is my whitener of choice for that morning cup of coffee. Of course, coconut milk is also totally delicious, but quite high in fat, so not an option at the moment......sigh. What about soy milk you ask? Again, I have yet to taste a store bought processed milk alternative that I like, except for that coconut milk, the kind that comes in a carton and is from Thailand. So almond milk it is!

And those jars in the background? Why yes, I have also started to make lacto-fermented pickled vegetables as part of our diet as well, and have some jars pickling as I write this......

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.

Simple Vegetables With Cream Cheese Appetizer

I have a really simple idea for creating a great looking platter of fresh veggie appetizers or finger food for a buffet: cream cheese topped whole veggies with a touch of whimsy, and placed on a mirrored tray, or even just a round mirror, which is what was used here. The vegetables are lined up like little soldiers and with relatively minimal effort you can create something that looks quite elegant. Gotta love the minimal effort part right? Oh and of course you don't have to use cream cheese, just as long as whatever you'd like to use can be piped in a pastry bag.....like  possibly whipped cooked egg yolks, chopped liver, and  certainly there are many spreads, dips and relishes that might have the right consistency, any ideas? (I was thinking it would be great to try with hummous.)

And do take the time to make those carrot flowers, a great little vegetable carving trick everyone should know! I'll try to do a little tutorial for that, in the mean time check out my carrot hearts tutorial.

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.

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!