Molly Katzen's Cran-Apple Walnut Cake

This is comfort food, a moist unpretentious cake, more like a quick bread.  I'm pretty sure it's in the original Moosewood, but I couldn't find it - voila, someone else had the same problem and when she found it, she posted it on her blog.

Cran-Apple Walnut Cake

1 3/4 cups light brown sugar OR 1 cup honey plus 2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sliced cooking apples
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup fresh, whole raw cranberries

Cream together oil and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Sift together flour and dry ingredients. Add to first mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. Stir in apples, cranberries and nuts.

Bake in a well-greased 9x13 pan at 350 degrees F. for 45 to 50 minutes.

Potato Scallion Fritterra - From Bert Greene

This recipe is from Bert Greene's Greene on Greens.  Funny how you can have a whole cookbook and basically keep it for one recipe.
 Fritterra doesn't seem to mean anything, but I guess the idea is it's between a pancake and a fritter. I prefer these to latkes - they are a good winter side dish or make a light meal if you serve soup + salad.  He relates that he learned the recipe from an Israeli cab driver.  Sounds plausible~


1 bunch scallions, trimmed and chopped into 2" sections

2 Yukon gold potatoes (or russet), large but not huge, boiled.  

2 eggs

1/4 t nutmeg

salt, pepper

1/4 c. bread crumbs (or matzah meal + seasonings)

oil for frying
* you could also add chopped spinach, grated carrot, or any other fresh vegetables that appeal.

1. Boil the potatoes.  It's best do this ahead, so they're easy to peel later.  The skin will just pull off.

2. In a medium microwave-safe bowl, add a little water to the chopped scallions and microwave ~ 2 minutes.

3. Add the potatoes, pulling of the peel, to the scallions.  Use a potato masher, and add the two eggs, seasonings, and breadcrumbs. 

4. Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan.  Drop by large spoonfuls.  Once they've browned, flip them over and flatten them with a spatula.

Red Lentil Curry Soup w Coconut Milk

Red Lentil Soup with Curry and Coconut Milk

Vegetarian Times Issue: January 1, 2002   p.47   — 

I made this when Zach and Becca were here and Becca liked it so well she included it in the recipe sets she gave you all at her bachelor weekend.

It doesn't include vegetable broth like most soups, so is MSG free. (Telma and other Israeli powdered boullion has a lot of MSG)

4 to 6 servings

• 
  
• 
  
• 3 Tbs. vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, chopped (2 cups)
• 1 cup red lentils
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped (1 cup)
• 14-oz. can coconut milk (can be low-fat)
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-inch piece fresh ginger, minced (or pureed from a tube - shortcut!)
• 1 Tbs. curry powder, preferably hot
• 4 c. hot water
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro  (you can buy it crushed in a tube - that works fine) - optional

1. In medium saucepan, heat 2 T oil over medium/high heat. Add onions, and cook, stirring often, until onions start to brown, about 10 minutes. Add 4 cups water, lentils, carrots, coconut milk, 1 tsp. salt and bay leaf. Cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, until lentils are tender, about 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in small skillet, heat remaining 1 T oil over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, curry powder and cilantro. Cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add to soup.
3. Remove bay leaf. Optional: use an immersion blender to puree soup until velvety smooth. Taste, and add a bit more salt if desired. Serve hot.

Nutritional Information

Per serving: Calories: 399, Protein: 14g, Total fat: 26g, Saturated fat: 16g, Carbs: 33g, Cholesterol: mg, Sodium: 33mg, Fiber: 14g, Sugars: g

Pannenkoecken - Dutch Pancakes

When we went biking in Holland, we were really impressed with these large, savory pancakes.  When they served them they looked almost like a pizza, though the dough was more like a crepe.  I've experimented with them and the ones I make are pretty close.  They make a nourishing, light, quick meal.  You need two non-stick large frying pans.

Filling:
a combination of
onion
mushroom
capers
lox or anchovies
fresh spinach, cabbage, leftover cooked potatoes and/or whatever
grated cheese (I usually use cheddar but you could use any, since it sits on top and melts.)

Put about one T of oil in the pan and let it heat while you fine slice an onion. Throw the onion in the pan while you chop mushrooms, add them.  While they are softening and browning, throw in the lox or anchovies.  You can break them up in the pan.  Add a few handfuls of spinach last.

Add some oil to a second pan and add half the ingredients.  (If some people want them without fish or dislike one or another ingredient, you can plan for that.)  If your stove top is electric, you can turn it off and the ingredients will keep cooking.

Batter:
1 or 2 eggs
1 c. milk (skim is fine)
1 1/4 c. flour (mix of regular and wholewheat)
salt/pepper

Whisk the two eggs in a bowl.  Add the milk.  Whisk in the flours - the batter will be lumpy.  It should be thin enough to pour easily, so add more liquid if needed.

Turn the burners back on to medium and quickly pour half the batter in each pan.  Spread the batter as best you can to cover the whole surface - you need to do this quickly, like when you made crepes at The High Point.  Let the pancakes set.  Sprinkle grated cheese on top of each and turn off the burner.  Let them set a few minutes.  Then loosen one with a large spatula.  Once it's completely loosened from the pan, flip it over on the second pancake, so the browned side is on top.  If you want to keep their ingredients separate, you could just flip half of each pancake and serve two half-circles.

Feeds 2-3 people.

Double Mushroom Barley Soup

Here's my favorite Double Mushroom Barley Soup. I use both dried mushrooms along with fresh, and it makes a rich, hearty, full-bodied soup. It's a meal in itself if you're inclined.

1 oz. pkg dried mushrooms (pictured)* -these are Porcini
1 T. olive oil
8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1/2 lb carrots, sliced
4 ribs celery, chopped
3 T vegetable boullion powder (I like the Israeli versions, one pictured. While chicken "flavored", they are actually vegetarian.)
1 cup barley
8 cups water
Pepper, salt, tamari sauce if desired, to taste.
Parsley for garnish

Soak the dried mushrooms in water about 1/2 hour. In a large soup pot, saute the onion, fresh mushrooms, and celery. Microwave the carrots until soft, a minute or two. Slice in small chunks and run through the food processor until finely chopped. Add to the sauteing vegetables. Slice the soaked dried mushrooms into small pieces - they will be spongey. Add to the soup pot along with 8 c. water, 3 T. bullion, 1 c barley, salt and pepper. Since the boullion is high in sodium, I don't add much salt, but be generous with the pepper. Bring to a low boil, turn on lowest setting, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. The barley will thicken the soup. The dark mushrooms, carrot, and celery give the soup a nice color palate - mushroom/barley is fairly gray looking by itself.
This soup freezes well. It's a great gift or bring along.
* Dried mushrooms are often found in the ethnic aisle of the grocery store, in the Kosher section. They hail from eastern Europe, as do most American Jews, but this dish is not uniquely Jewish. It's just that most groceries no longer have a "Polish" or "Lithuanian" section


PS I have checked a few supermarkets and cannot find the dark dried mushrooms. I checked in with the distributer, Kirsch Mushrooms, and they don't know which stores their products wind up in. However, you can buy a pound from them directly for $42.80, shipping included. Just mail them a check to 751 Drake Street, Bronx, NY 10474.
The little containers are about $2.95 for 1/2 oz. so this is the equivalent of 32 individual containers! (And way cheaper if you don't mind a lifetime supply - 32 containers would be $94, + 32 plastic containers biting the dust.)

Chocolate Stuffed Prunes

My grandmother, Nana, who was Ida Hertz, wasn't a cozy lady.  But she did send us a tin of hamantaschen each year, and they were terrific.  I also have a strong memory of her sending my dad a box of chocolate stuffed prunes for Purim.  I saw her just a few times a year, and never really spent any time with her, so I have no idea what this was about, nor did I ever have chocolate stuffed prunes at any other time.  Why did I recall this 50 years later?  Food memories are like that.  That's why I'm doing this blog!

2 bags of prune, as moist as you can find
4 oz bittersweet baking chocolate bar, or any chocolate you fancy

I experimented.  They are easy, and delicious.

With a knife or kitchen scissors, half the prunes (one bag) lengthwise.  Flatten them out and lay them on a cookie sheet.  Take a bar of bittersweet baking chocolate, or any kind of chocolate you like, and break it into pieces placing a chunk on each prune.  Put it in a slow oven, about 300 degrees, for just five minutes.  Snip up the prunes from the other bag while the chocolate is melting.  Take out the baking tin of prunes and place another prune on top of the chocolate, to make a prune chocolate sandwich!

Set the cookie tin the the refridge so the chocolate hardens.

Goal in the future is for them to be a little more regular and pretty.

PS From Laurie Hertz - who grew up in St. Paul and saw Nana every week.
Sorry.  Not to be overly critical but you've got it wrong.  The coolest part of the prunes (I remember chocolate covered prunes) was that she put them in those little white candy wrappers and then in an old (Fanny Farmer?) candy box.  She must've have saved every candy box she ever received.  And every candy wrapper.  I don't think you could just go out and buy them in those days. I think they might have had a piece of cherry on each one.  

Update in 2023: I baked Zeke Hausmann a batch of almondhornchen (I posted the recipe) and I had a lot of leftover melted chocolate so I dipped prunes. Neil liked those the best!

Fritzie Platkin's Cinnamon Coffee Cake Bundt

There were only a few bakeries in Fargo, and the Jewish women rarely purchased anything at them.  They were great bakers.  This was a cake my mother baked regularly, a favorite of my dad's.  I'd never actually made it before now (2010) but seeing and tasting it really brought my mom back.  I can see her wearing a cobbler apron, facing her ancient MixMaster on the counter, adding ingredients, concentrating on the procedures at hand.

This makes a very large, rich, moist cake.  It's quite similar to the Moosewood Cardamom Coffee Cake, so you could, in addition to the cinnamon, add cardamom.  It's also well-known as a Hungarian Sour Cream Coffee Cake.  Whatever you call it, it's wonderful.

I have baked this since for a kiddush for my mom’s late Tishri yahrtseit, and pretty sure I baked one for Nomi and Micah’s L’chayim Engagement havdalah.

She made it in a bundt pan.*  Bundts were all the rage in the 60's and '70's.  (footnote below).

Take out butter to soften.
Preheat oven to 375°
Spray a large bundt  or 10" tube pan with oil

¾ c butter (!) = 1.5 sticks
1½ c sugar

3 eggs
3 c. cake flour

¾  t salt
1½ t. baking soda
1½ t baking powder
12 oz sour cream (non-fat or low-fat is fine) - [they come in 8 or 16 oz containers]
¾ t almond extract or vanilla

Nut Mixture:
¾ c. chopped walnuts
¾ c. sugar
1½ t cinnamon

In large bowl (or mix master), cream the butter with an electric mixer.  Add the sugar and eggs and cream very well.

In another large bowl mix the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder, or just mix it into the mix master bowl in you are using a stationary mixer.  Alternate adding the sour cream + extract and the dry ingredients.  (I have no idea why this recipe calls for cake flour, but no arguing with a recipe.)

In a big plastic container with a lid, like a deli container, add the walnut/sugar/cinnamon, put the top on securely, and shake. (This is where you'd add the same amount of cardamom to be Moosewoody.)  A double size hummus container was perfect!

Add 1/3 of the batter to the oiled pan - this is best done by using a spatula and dropping it in rather than pouring, since the batter is very thick.  Add half the cinnamon mixture, spreading it evenly. Add the second 1/3 of the batter, top with the remainder of the nut mixture, and finish it off with the last third of the batter.

Bake at 375 about 50-55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool.  To take the cake out of the tube pan, gently cut around the perimeter of the pan to loosen the sides and around the tube.  I now use a non-stick tube pan, so it means using a plastic spatula/knife.
Pull the cake and tube out and set it on your tray.  Gently scrape the bottom of the cake to loosen it from the bottom and also loosen the cake from the tube itself.  You can then either lift the cake up and pull out the pan,  or invert the cake onto a second plate, pull out the tube, and tip it back on the tray so the rounded side is face-up.

This cake is truly worthy of a nice footed cake server.  It makes about 24 slices, plus some pretty spectacular crumbs.

Nordic Ware's Founders

All it took was $500 and a good idea back in 1946, when Dave and his wife Dotty, started a business venture in the basement of their home, and from that point on, the company 's first bakeware products took-off. The Rosette Iron, Ebelskiver Pan, Krumkake Iron and Platte Panna Pan, became the first products, as well as the ethnic specialties in which the foundation was laid for the newborn company.

In 1948, the Dave and Dotty purchased Northland Aluminum Products, combining their own line of aluminum products with Northland's, and began producing bakeware and household items under the Nordic Ware trademark. Dave was an entrepreneur at best, and often was heard to say, "If you can sell it, you can usually make it."

The Bundt Pan

In 1950, the landmark pan was introduced, after the Minneapolis Chapter of the Hadassah Society asked Dave and Dotty to produce a kuglehof pan, similar to the one the society's president had received from her grandmother in Germany. Dave produced the pan from cast aluminum for the Hadassah Society and a few for the Nordic Ware trademark, which he sold to department stores using the name, bund pan. (The word bund means a gathering-thus a bund cake, with its characteristic fluting, was a cake suitable for a gathering or party.) Nordic Ware created the pan and filed for a trademark to protect its creation, renaming the pan the Bundt pan.

Ella Helfrich, in 1966, used a Bundt pan for her winning recipe of Tunnel of Fudge Cake, in the 17th Pillsbury Bake-off. Following the contest, Pillsbury was overwhelmed with more than 200,000 requests from people that wanted to purchase a winning Bundt pan. In 1971, Pillsbury launched a line of Bundt cake mixes, licensing the name from Nordic Ware that continued the nationwide quest for Bundt pans. Now, Nordic Ware markets its own line of Gourmet Bundt® Cake Mixes.

"Today, there are nearly 60 million Bundt pans in kitchen's across America," Nordic Ware President David (Dave & Dotty's son). said. "Almost a Bundt pan in every pantry." The Bundt pan has continued its growth in popularity. It has been a guest on TV cooking shows, featured in an array of magazines and also used by some of the world's famous bakers. It is likely the most popular baking mold in the world.