Tag Archives: Rosh Hashana

Natty’s Glazed Honey Chiffon Cake

12 Sep

Honey glazed chiffon cake

Last year at this time I came across a wonderful website from Australia called the Monday Morning Cooking Club. They have a lot of great recipes on their website and have also published a cookbook, The Feast Goes On, available through Amazon.

One of their signature recipes is this delicious Glazed Honey Chiffon Cake. It’s lighter than the usual Rosh Hashanah honey cake because it uses tea instead of coffee as the liquid and calls for whipping the egg whites.

The club ladies gave me permission to use the recipe (I adapted it slightly to meet American standards and terms) and this photo of Natanya, one of their members.

Ingredients:

CAKE
6  eggs, separated
175 g (⅔ cup) superfine sugar
275 g (¾ cup) honey
¾ cup light olive or grapeseed oil
¼ cup strong black tea
1½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
2¼ tsp. baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda

GLAZE

80 g (½ cup) confectioners’ sugar
½ lemon, juiced (or 2 Tbs. lemon juice)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. You will need an angel cake (tube) pan that is not non-stick and has a removable base. Do not grease it.

Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly add half the sugar and continue whisking until the egg whites are stiff but not dry.

In a separate bowl, beat the yolks and the remaining sugar until light and pale. Add the oil and keep beating for a couple of minutes until well combined.

Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix the honey into the hot tea. Add these to the egg yolks, alternating wet and dry, beating gently until fully combined.

Gently fold the egg whites into the flour mixture with a metal spoon, until just mixed through.

Pour the mixture into the cake pan and bake for 50 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 320 degrees and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

After removing the cake from the oven, immediately invert it to cool by balancing the middle funnel onto a bottle neck. The cake will be dangling upside down. (If your tube pan has feet, or if the funnel is higher than the sides of the pan, you don’t have to use a bottle.)

When completely cool, run a knife around the outside of the cake and the funnel. Lift the base out of the pan, then use the knife to ease the cake off the base.

To make the glaze, add the lemon juice (a few drops at a time) to the confectioners’ sugar until you have a thick, smooth paste. Pour over the cooled cake.

Serves about 12

Advertisement

Tags: , , ,

Sweet Rice with Carrots and Nuts

9 Sep

Sweet rice with carrots and nutsIf you’re looking for something new for your Rosh Hashanah feast, consider this tasty dish.This comes from The New Persian Kitchen by Louisa Shafia. It’s the first recipe I made from the book.

The full recipe makes a lot of rice, so it can probably be halved if you’re serving just a few people.

Carrots are very traditional for Rosh Hashanah among Ashkenazi Jews (of Central European ancestry) because the Yiddish word for carrots, mehren,  sounds like mehr, the Yiddish word for more, and so it represents a wish for an increase in blessings in the coming year. And the honey, of course, represents a wish for a sweet year to come.

Ingredients:

2 cups white basmati rice, soaked in cold water for 1 hour
3 cups water
Sea salt
2 Tbs. butter or refined coconut oil, at room temperature
3 Tbs. refined coconut oil
1 yellow onion, finely diced
2 scant cups grated carrots (2 large or 3 medium)
½ cup slivered or coarsely chopped almonds, toasted
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cardamom
¼ tsp. ground turmeric
½ cup pistachios, coarsely chopped, plus 1 Tbs. for garnish
Grated zest of 1 orange (about 1 Tbs.)
¼ cup honey
½ tsp. saffron, ground and steeped in 1 Tbs. hot water

Directions:

Drain the rice and rinse under cold water until the water runs clear. In a large saucepan, combine the water and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Add the rice, return to a boil, then turn down the heat to its lowest setting. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the rice rest for 5 minutes, then dot with the 2 Tbs. butter or coconut oil and fluff with a fork. The rice should be dry and fluffy.

While the rice cooks, heat a skillet over medium heat and sauté the onion in the 3 Tbs. coconut oil for about 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Add the carrots, almonds, cinnaomon, cardamom and turmeric, and cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes, until the carrots are tender.

Add ½ cup pistachios, the orange zest and the honey and cook for about 2 minutes, until heated through. Season with salt to taste.

Scoop the rice into a large bowl. Add the carrot mixture and drizzle in the saffron. Mix gently and season with more salt if needed. Garnish with the remaining pistachios.

Serves 12

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,