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Posts Tagged ‘Apples’

Mini Apple and Honey Tarts and a Rosh Hashanah Blog Party

Posted in Dessert, Giveaways, Holiday, Seasonal, Super-Easy, Traditional, tagged , , , , , on September 2, 2012 | 71 Comments »

Giveaway Closed!

It’s hard to believe that this entire party was conceptualized and came to this point in such a short time! About a week and a half ago, on Twitter, my friend Jessie (who happens to be one of my food photography heroes!) and I were talking about the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah, and how we should do something fun to celebrate the occasion on our blogs. I don’t think at that point that we imagined that it would be this big or popular, but here’s the scoop:

What: A Rosh Hashanah Blog Party

When: Right now!

Where: here, and a whole bunch of awesome blogs. Scroll down past the recipe for the list!

What else: Lots! Firstly, the event is hosted by myself and Jessie and sponsored by Kitchen Aid. We hope to have more Holiday Blog Parties in the future, so if you’re a Jewish blogger and interested in joining, email holidayblogparties@gmail.com. (You don’t have to be a food blogger to join, just willing to post a holiday themed recipe!)

To kick off the celebration, Levana Kirschenbaum is giving away a copy of her fabulous new book, The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen to three lucky winners. Limit one entry per reader per blog so click over to the other participating blogs below for your chance at additional entries! Giveaway ends 5 am eastern time on September 11th, 2012.
To Enter the Giveaway: Leave a comment on this post telling me what you will be cooking this year for Rosh Hashanah.
Prize is sponsored by Levana and available to readers from all blogs participating in the Rosh Hashanah Blog Party. Prize can only be shipped within the US.

If you want to learn more about Rosh Hashanah, click here to read about it on Aish.

______________________________________________________

Now, about the recipe that is special enough for a party like this… Well, for starters, my father tasted it and proclaimed that it’s the best dessert I ever made. Now, that would be an impressive statement at any time, but considering how many desserts I make, that’s extra impressive.

Wanna know what I didn’t tell him? That this was one of the easiest desserts I ever made. I had originally planned to make this just for Rosh Hashanah (after my initial test batch recently.) Then my family fought over the last crumb, and I knew this would be more than a once a year treat.

Mini Apples and Honey Tarts:

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons butter or margarine

3 Tablespoons honey

10 large puff pastry squares

2-3 apples, peeled and sliced very thin

optional raw or demerara sugar, for topping

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a cookie sheet and set aside.

In a small pot, melt together the butter or margarine and honey. Set aside to cool slightly.

Brush a puff pastry square with the honey mixture, then top with thin slices of apple. Fold over the corners to form a square over the apples. Brush the entire top with more of the honey mixture. If desired, top it with sugar. Repeat with remaining squares.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven and serve warm.

Enjoy.

Wait! There’s more! Here’s a list of Jewish bloggers celebrating with Rosh Hashanah themed recipes. You do not want to miss these. I am drooling just reading the list. Click on the links below to see the recipes, and tell them Miriam sent you! (Also, remember that you can enter to win the cookbook once per blog, so click on over to the following for more chances at winning!)

Challah and Bread:

Marlene of The Jewish Hostess made Apple Challah
Amanda of The Challah Blog made Pomegranate Challah
Shelly of The Kosher Home made Apple, Honey and Pomegranate Challah!
Sides, Salads and Starters:
Sarah of Food, Words, Photos made Tzimmes (Rosh Hashanah Carrots)
Tali of More Quiche, Please made Roasted Beets and Butternut Squash
Roberta and Lois of Kosher Eye made Simanim Salad
Chanie of Busy In Brooklyn made Pomegranate Coleslaw
Rivki of Life in the Married Lane made Super Salad
Hannah of Cooking Manager made Beets Marinated with Ginger and Garlic
Sina of The Kosher Spoon made Pomegranate, Almond and Raisin Couscous
Hindy of Confident Cook-Hesitant Baker made Warm Roasted Beets with Farro
Sarah of Kosher Street made Sweet Potato Apple Tzimmes
Main Dishes:
Jessie of Taste made Smoked Salmon
Samantha of The Little Ferraro Kitchen made Chicken with Dates
Michele of Kosher Treif Cooking made Coconut Chicken Strips with two dipping sauces
Melinda of Kitchen Tested made Key Lime Glazed Duck
Stephanie and Jessica of The Kosher Foodies made Chicken Braised in Pomegranate
Liz of The Lemon Bowl made Beef Brisket
Estee of Anyone Interested? made Easy Breazy 5 Minute Brisket
Desserts and Drinks:
Miriam of Overtime Cook made Mini Apples and Honey Tarts
Laura of Pragmatic Attic made Fresh Ginger Honey Cake
Susan of The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen made Honey Caramel Apple Galette
Amy of What Jew Wanna Eat made an Apple and Honey Cocktail
Nick of The Baking Process made Apple and Date Honey Squares
Lisa of The Monday Morning Cooking Club made Honey Chiffon Cake and Traditional Honey Cake
Leah of Cook Kosher made Pomegranate Ice Cream
Overwhelmed? I know I am! Rosh Hashanah menu planning just got a whole lot easier, huh? Thanks for partaking in our party folks, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway! -Miriam

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Passover Apple Crumb Kugel

Posted in Appetizers, Passover, Seasonal, Sides, Super-Easy, Traditional, tagged , , on April 5, 2012 | 11 Comments »

I’m exhausted right now. Want to know why? Here’s a partial list: Doughless potato knishes, cabbage kugel, chocolate chip cookies, crispy shallot breaded chicken, marinated almond crusted chicken, butternut squash kugel, and of course, apple kugel. All for passover. All made after I got home from work the last two nights. I am a little breathless thinking about the multitudes of food I still need to cook, but I had to stop and post my apple kugel recipe.

I searched and searched every corner of the internet for a proper Apple Crumb Kugel for Passover, and came up empty. I am sure one exists, but I couldn’t find it. And so I set out to make up my own recipe. I am not simply happy with this recipe, I am thrilled. It’s delicious, and has an amazing texture you don’t often find in Passover food.

I’m going to stop my exhausted rambling now, and post the recipe. I’d love to sit and shmooze, but I have food in the oven and eyelids to prop open. I hope you make this super easy kugel. And I hope you love it, just like I do.

Passover Apple Crumb Kugel:

Ingredients:

For filling:

3 apples, peeled and thinly sliced

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 Tablespoons sugar

For crumbs:

1 1/2 cups crushed lady fingers

1/2 cup ground almonds

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder, optional but recommended

1 egg

1/2 cup oil

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9×13 baking pan and set aside.

To prepare filling: Place thinly sliced apples in a bowl, toss with lemon juice (immediately to prevent browning) and sugar. Set aside.

To prepare crumbs: Mix together the lady finger crumbs, ground almonds, sugar and baking powder (if using) in a large bowl. Add the egg and oil and stir with your fingers until coarse crumbs are formed.

Place a little less than half of the crumbs on the bottom of the prepared baking pan. Spread the apple filling evenly over the crumbs. Pour remaining crumbs over the apples, spread in an even layer to ensure all apples are covered.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, until golden brown on the top.

Note: the kugel was very thin when made as directed above. Next time I make it (there will definitely be a next time!) I will probably try baking it in a 10 inch round pan to make a slightly higher kugel.

Enjoy!

This will probably be my last post before Passover starts, so a happy Passover (and a chag Kosher v’sameach) too all my Jewish friends and readers! I do hope to post another recipe (or two!) early next week, so stay tuned for some more Passover ideas. As always, thanks for coming by! -Miriam

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Apple Cherry Layered Crumb Cake (Kugel)

Posted in Dessert, Fruit, Sides, Traditional, tagged on October 15, 2011 | 12 Comments »

Remember the Kugel Quandary I had recently? Well, in case you were not yet confused about kugel, here we go.

Honestly, I am highly uncertain about posting this recipe as a kugel. It’s a cake, really. But when it comes down to it, a sweet kugel (such as this one) is really nothing but a great excuse to eat dessert halfway through your meal. And how can anyone not like that?

To avoid confusion, I am going to call this a cake, going forward. Call it a sailboat if you want. The important thing is that you make it and thoroughly enjoy it.

Now, a little  bit of background on this cake. A number of years ago, just before a holiday, my father came down with a nasty infection and had to be hospitalized. My entire family was upset about spending a holiday without him. I had prepared a batch of this cake, and though it was the least I could do, I sent half of it along for him to eat while he was there. When the holiday was over, I went to visit my father in the hospital, and he informed me that this cake gave him a taste of home, even in a gloomy hospital setting. “This cake,” he explained, “was my Happy Holiday.” (For my Hebrew-speaking readers, he said, “it was my Simchas Yom Tov.”) Since then, this cake has been known in my house as Happy Holiday Cake. (Or, for the sake of accuracy, Simchas Yom Tov Kugel.)

Is it really that good, you ask yourself? Make it and see for yourself. And if you are concerned that a cake that can be responsible for a holiday’s worth of happiness is difficult to make, think again. This is wondrously simple.

Apple Cherry Layered Crumb Cake:

Adapted from Kosher By Design Entertains

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup canola (or vegetable) oil

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

3 large apples

cinnamon

1 can cherry pie filling

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.

Mix together flour, sugar, vanilla, oil, egg and baking powder until coarse crumbs form. (I use a mixer for a seriously easy experience, but you don’t need to use one.)

Peel and dice apples. Spread 1/3 of the crumb mixture on the bottom of the prepared baking pan. Arrange apples on top of the crumbs. Spread another third of the crumbs over the apple mixture. Pour the cherry pie filling over the crumbs in the pan. This can be a bit tricky, as the filling is sticky and slightly hard to spread. I find that it spreads best when placed in small globs across the pan, then gently spread over the entire thing. Spread remaining crumbs over the cherry pie filling.

Note that none of the crumb layers will be very thick.

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

Enjoy!

 

Linking this to Sweets for a Saturday, Apple Blog Hop

 

 

 

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Puff Pastry Apple Pie Cups with Crumb Topping

Posted in Dessert, Fruit, Seasonal, Super-Easy, tagged , , , on September 27, 2011 | 12 Comments »

Lets try a little pop quiz, shall we?

1) Are you one of those people who is terrified of making real old fashioned pie crust?

2) Do you simply not have time to make a pie crust, roll it out, and prepare a proper pie?

3) Do you have an over-abundance of delicious fresh apples this fall, and need a great way to use some?

4) Do you enjoy simple, easy and seasonal desserts?

If you answered yes to one of more of the above questions, you will love this recipe. It’s as simple as buying some puff pastry, peeling and dicing some apples, and making a simple crumb topping. Really, it’s that simple. Besides, who doesn’t love single serve desserts?

Puff Pastry Apple Pie Cups with Crumb Topping

Ingredients:

4-6 apples (I used 6 small, for larger apples use 4 or 5)

2 pinches ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp-1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp brown sugar

12 large puff pastry squares

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine (separated)

2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Peel and finely dice apples. Place in bowl. Toss with nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon juice and brown sugar until evenly coated. Set aside.

Cut 1 tablespoon (1/8 stick) of the butter/margarine and use it to grease the muffin pan well. Place one puff pastry square neatly inside each cup. (Note: I forgot to get large puff pastry squares, so I used 2 small ones. It didn’t look quite as gorgeous but otherwise it was fine.)

Prepare crumbs: mix together sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon until all ingredients are fully incorporated and crumbs are formed. I used an electric mixer for this part, but you can use some elbow grease instead. ;)

Assemble cups: fill puff pastry cup to the top with apples. Sprinkle a generous helping of crumbs on top. Repeat with remaining cups.

Bake at 350 for 23-28 minutes.

These are best served warm. With some ice cream, I suspect. :)

Enjoy!

Just look at the deliciousness oozing out of these!

*Wishing all of my Jewish readers a Shana Tova!*

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