Shabbat Shalom to you all!
March 4th is "Shabbat Across America", and my synagogue is taking part with services and a Shabbat dinner. In the past we've purchased the entire meal already prepared, which can cost up to $25 a person. In an effort to have a more affordable, home-made meal, I volunteered to plan and coordinate cooking the meal in our temple kitchen.
To get all this food ready, members of temple will come in to help prepare the meal on Thursday and Friday.
Our evening will begin with appetizers in the Social Hall:
- Devilled eggs
- Raw vegetables & hummus
- Gefilte fish bites & horseradish
- Deli wrap pinwheels [turkey breast & pastrami rolled up in flour tortillas & sliced]
Services will run about an hour, and then we'll serve dinner:
Challah * (store-bought rolls at each table, and 1 large loaf for the Motzi)
- Roast chicken (purchased from our supermarkets Kosher Appetizing dept.)
- Green salad & dressing
- Noodle kugel
- Carrot & sweet potato tzimmes
- String beans
- Roasted red potatoes
Dessert will be:
- Fresh fruit
- Honey cake *
- Marble cake
- Kichel cookies *
*recipes follow
Challah
I found this recipe on-line. This is half the ingredients, and it made a 30 oz loaf!
2 ¼ tsp yeast, 1.5 tsp sugar, ¾ c warm water
¼ c oil, 2 eggs, ¼ cup sugar, 1.5 tsp salt
4 cups flour - 1 egg for wash
In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and 1.5 tsp sugar in 1-3/4 cups very warm water. Let it sit for 10 minutes so the yeast can start to bubble. Whisk in the oil, then beat in eggs, one at a time, and remaining sugar and salt. Gradually beat in the flour. When the dough holds together, it is ready for kneading. Turn it out onto a floured board and knead for 8-10 minutes; the texture will become smoother.
Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a towel, and let rise 1 hour in a warm place (an oven with the light on is a good place).
Press down dough down in bowl to deflate, cover and then let rise again for another 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into 3 (or 6) equal pieces and roll out into ropes about 14" long for braiding. A 6-braid challah is very impressive looking and actually pretty easy to do - see the video at http://etherwork.net/.... After braiding, tuck the ends under to neaten up the loaf.
Beat the remaining egg and brush it over the braided loaf. Cover with plastic wrap and let the loaf rise in a warm place for one last hour.
15 minutes before the rising is complete, preheat the oven to 375F, brush the loaves with another layer of egg wash and bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden.
Honey Cake
This recipe is tweaked from one I got from a cookbook - more oil to make it moist, and brown sugar to give it great color and more flavor. While this version has no spices, you could add a little cinnamon if you like.
Preheat oven to 325F
Oil a large (9" x 5") loaf pan & line length of pan with a strip of parchment paper that sticks up at the ends (so you can lift the cake out of the pan)
Measure ½ c oil & ½ c honey into a small bowl; add ¼ cup strong hot coffee and stir to dissolve honey.
Into another small bowl, sift 1 ¾ c flour, and mix in 1/8 tsp salt, ¾ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda.
In a large bowl, beat 2 eggs, then beat in ½ c. brown sugar until thick. Mix in honey mixture, then stir in dry ingredients and beat until smooth.
Pour in pan (don't fill pan more than 2/3 full!) and bake for 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, loosen sides and use parchment paper handles to remove. Finish cooling and remove paper.
Kichel (Bow-tie cookies) makes about 70 cookies
Not that hard to make, and the cookies are fantastic -- crisp and sugary. (The full recipe is on-line)
Beat together 5 large eggs, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 2/3 cup vegetable oil, 1 tsp. sugar and 1 tsp salt until well blended, then mix in 2-1/3 cups flour. Beat for 5 minutes.
Scrape down the bowl and let dough rest (covered) for about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 F. and grease 2 cookie sheets (or use parchment paper).
Sprinkle work surface with about 1/2 cup sugar. Remove dough (it will be very sticky) from bowl and place in center of sugar, flatten slightly and sprinkle dough liberally with remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Roll out dough to 1/8" thick - a rectangle about 18 x 12 inches. The sugar keeps the dough from sticking to the pin. (If you don't have that much space, roll out half the dough at a time, using half the sugar.)
Using a pizza cutter or dull knife, cut the dough into strips 3/4" wide and 2" long. Give each strip a twist in the middle to form a bow tie, and place on cookie sheets 1/2" apart.
Bake on middle oven rack for 25-30 minutes until the cookies are hard to the touch on all corners, and golden brown. Crisper is better than too soft! Clean off the cookie sheets between batches; they become covered with carmelized sugar.