Hanukkah

Adapted from “Cooking Jewish” by Judy Bart Kancigor

3 packages dry active yeast
1/2 cup warm water
Scant 1 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cups oil
1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
6 to 8 cups all-purpose flour 
Canola or corn oil for frying
Jam (any flavor)
Powdered sugar

1. In a large (at least 6-quart) bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Let sit 5 to 10 minutes until bubbly. Add scant cup warm water, salt, oil, sugar, and eggs. Add 3 cups of flour and mix. Knead in remaining flour gradually in the bowl until dough is spongy and elastic, but still feels a bit tacky (not stiff). Remove dough and oil sides of bowl (no need to wash it), coat dough with oil and return to bowl. Loosely cover with plastic wrap.

2. Preheat oven to 200°; turn oven off. Let dough rise in oven for 2 hours or until it nearly reaches top of bowl. Roll out on floured board to 1/4 inch thick. Cut with 3-inch biscuit cutter (or glass) into rounds. Let rounds rise on cookie sheet 30 minutes.

3. Heat oil in electric fry pan to 365°. Dip fingers in flour. Lift each round of dough, hold with two hands, and with two middle fingers stretch the middle of the round quite thin. This will be the depression for the jam. Quickly drop each round into hot oil, depression side down, and cover until golden brown (not dark). Quickly turn them, cover and fry until other side is golden brown. Drain doughnuts on both sides on paper towels. Fill holes with jam; dust with powdered sugar. Best if eaten warm. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen

In a jam? Try this recipe for Hanukkah doughnuts.

The Orange County Register/Fullerton News Tribune
November 29, 2007

by Judy Bart Kancigor

An old joke goes like this: The Jewish holidays are always either early or late. They’re never on time!

Hanukkah sneaks up on us early this year. We’ll begin lighting candles at sundown on December 4, so prepare for an oil crisis, and I’m not referring to the price of gas. Who knew when Judah Maccabee's tiny flask of oil miraculously burned for eight days that for thousands of years Jewish families would celebrate by frying!

While Jews of Eastern Europe descent eat mountains of latkes (potato pancakes), the Hanukkah treat in Israel is sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts).

Fullerton's Pnina Shichor, a former teacher and proprietor of Bound to Travel on Euclid, has been making them for years.

"When my children were young," she recalled, "my cousin, Esther Schechter, and I would do Hanukkah at Rolling Hills Elementary School. We'd tell the story, sing songs, and teach the children to make sufganiyot."

When the Shichors were considering transferring daughter Nomi to Jewish day school, Nomi said, "But, Mom, if I go there, who will do Hanukkah for our class?"

Pnina's mother-in-law, Malka Suranyi, brought the recipe from Budapest where the family survived under Nazi rule. Luckily an uncle owned an exclusive men's clothing store, which the Nazis wanted, so they kept the workers alive. After the war the Communists took over, and Pnina's husband, David, professor of criminal justice at Cal State San Bernardino, was barely 16 when the Jewish Agency smuggled him and other children out of Hungary.

From Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family (Workman) by Judy Bart Kancigor
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I don’t often adapt recipes from novels, but Sharon Boorstin’s fun romp Cookin’ for Love sent me straight to the kitchen. Heroine Miriam’s thoughts seldom stray from food, and when she awakens from a dream about Grandma’s latkes to find her Malaysian cleaver-toting captor frying curried onions, it’s an “aha” moment of the kitchen kind. Cashews! Ginger! This is a latke with pizzazz! Makes 16 latkes

1/2 cup chopped unsalted cashews or peanuts
1/4 cup chopped mint or flat-leaf parsley, or a combination
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped jalapeño pepper, seeded and deveined
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons kosher (coarse) salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 large eggs, beaten
2 large baking potatoes (12 ounces each), cut into wedges
1 medium-size onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil, for frying
Minty Cucumber Yogurt Sauce (recipe below)

1. Combine the cashews, mint, bell pepper, jalapeño, ginger, salt, curry powder, and eggs in a large bowl, and mix well. Set it aside.

2. Shred the potatoes and onion together in a food processor fitted with the shredding disk. Squeeze the potato/onion mixture between several changes of paper towels to release as much liquid as possible. Add the potato/onion mixture to the egg mixture, and combine well. Stir in the flour.

From Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family (Workman) by Judy Bart Kancigor
Order on amazon

From Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family (Workman) by Judy Bart Kancigor
Order on amazon

Serves 12.

6 navel oranges, sliced in half crosswise
Mama Hinda’s Sweet Potato Casserole filling (recipe below)

FOR THE TOPPINGS
Mini marshmallows and/or Maraschino cherries
Chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted
Colored sprinkles, and assorted edible decorations (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Scoop the flesh out of each orange half (reserve it for another use, such as in a fruit salad). A serrated grapefruit spoon is perfect for this purpose. Make sure each orange half can stand up straight. If any are wobbly, cut a thin slice off the bottom.

3. Spoon the sweet potato filling into the scooped-out orange halves. Top with marshmallows, cherries, and nuts, as desired. Arrange the filled orange cups in an ungreased baking pan and bake until the filling is hot and the marshmallows are melted and golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.

4. Top with sprinkles if using, and serve.

Mama Hinda’s Sweet Potato Casserole filling:

Source: Adapted from "Chocolate Holidays" by Alice Medrich
Yield: 1 large basket or 3 small baskets

3 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
3 or more cups thin pretzel sticks, salted or unsalted

1.Line 2-quart bowl with plastic wrap. (Or lay out wax paper for small nests.) Heat water in bottom of double boiler to simmer.

2.Melt chocolate in top of double boiler over barely simmering water or in microwave on medium (50 percent) power. Cool to lukewarm. In medium bowl, pour most of chocolate over pretzels. Use rubber spatula to turn pretzels gently in chocolate until they are lightly coated, adding as much of chocolate as necessary. (It’s OK if some of pretzel shows through chocolate.)

3.For large basket or nest, scrape pretzels into prepared bowl. Arrange sticky pretzels against sides of container to resemble basket or nest. (Shape small nests on sheets of wax paper.)

4. Refrigerate to set chocolate. To unmold large basket, lift plastic liner from container and peel away from pretzels. Fill with Chocolate Latkes or chocolate Hanukkah gelt (coins).

Source: "Chocolate Holidays" by Alice Medrich
Yield: 2 dozen 2 1/4-inch cookies

4 large egg whites
3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
3 1/2 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Scant 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Position racks in upper and lower thirds of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or foil. Put some water in skillet and bring to low simmer.

2.Combine all ingredients in large heatproof mixing bowl, preferably stainless steel (ingredients heat up faster in stainless steel than in glass). Set bowl in skillet of barely simmering water and stir mixture, scraping bottom to prevent burning, until sticky and hot to touch.

3. Scoop rounded tablespoons of mixture about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie slightly with fingers to resemble miniature potato pancakes.

4. Bake until cookies feel dry on surface and edges and protruding coconut shreds are dark golden brown (despite chocolate color) and interior still looks like melted chocolate, 13 to 15 minutes. Rotate sheets from front to bake and upper to lower about halfway through. Slide parchment paper onto cooling rack. Cool cookies completely before removing from parchment. The cookies are most delicious on day they are baked – the exterior is crisp and chewy and interior soft and moist. Cookies may be stored, airtight, 4 to 5 days.

Source: “Chocolate Holidays" by Alice Medrich
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

15 ounces ricotta cheese
3 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

For frying: Vegetable oil
3/4 cup warm honey

1. Mix ricotta and eggs with fork. Add flour and mix just until incorporated. Add butter, orange zest, salt and chocolate, and stir just until thoroughly combined. Batter may be prepared to this point, covered and refrigerated up to 2 days in advance.

2.In wide skillet, heat 1/2 inch oil over medium heat until few drops of batter sizzle vigorously when added to pan. Carefully add rounded tablespoonfuls of batter to hot oil. Do not crowd fritters; they need space to fry properly and to turn. Fry until brown on one side, then turn and fry other side until brown. Transfer fritters to warm platter with fork or tongs (see cook’s note). Repeat until all batter is fried. Serve drizzled with warm honey, or pass honey separately.

Note: Fry fritters up to 2 hours in advance of serving and serve at room temperature, or fry and serve hot or warm. Do not keep fritters in warm oven for long or they will dry and toughen. Just before serving time, or up to 2 hours before, place small ovenproof platter lined with several layers of paper towel or cloth napkin in 200-degree oven.

Source: "Chocolate Holidays" by Alice Medrich
Yield: 6 (3-blintz) servings

For crepes:
3 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

For frying: Butter or oil

For sauce:
7 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup milk, plus extra if needed
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For assembly: 3 large ripe bananas
For frying: Butter
Optional for serving: Sour cream

Procedure:
1. Prepare crepes: Combine eggs, flour, salt, milk and melted butter in blender or food processor. Pulse just until blended. Chill 1 hour or up to 1 day.

2. Heat 6-inch frying pan over medium-high heat. Brush lightly with butter. Pour in 2 tablespoons crepe batter and tilt pan immediately to coat entire surface evenly. When crepe is uniformly translucent and surface no longer looks wet, 45 seconds to 1 minute, loosen edges with spatula and invert pan over piece of wax paper. Repeat with remaining batter, buttering pan as necessary. Use crepes immediately, or stack between sheets of wax paper, cover airtight, and refrigerate up to 2 days.

3.Prepare sauce: Mix chocolate, milk, sugar and vanilla in top of double boiler over barely simmering water. Or microwave on medium (50 percent) power, about 2 minutes. Stir frequently until smooth, adding milk as necessary. Use warm sauce immediately or set aside and use cool. Sauce keeps several days in refrigerator. Warm gently before use.