Chocolate sandwich

I decided to take advantage of the long weekend and bake something (also wake up without alarm clock, make plans and promptly forget them, spend an entire day in pyjamas). This recipe,  from the Passover chapter of Florence Greenberg’s Jewish Cookery looked interesting and challenging (my relationship with things contains whisked egg whites being somewhat troubled). I have never eaten anything like this before  and  imagined it to be a bit like a giant macaroon. (The title should be a clue to keep an open mind. Would it be a cake? A cookie? A chocolate sandwich what?) I had no qualms about pulling my food processor out to whisk the eggs as the book itself features an advert for the Sunbeam Mixmaster.

Stuffed Monkey

A recipe which has intrigued me for a while, combining as it does many of my favourite things to bake with – cinnamon, ground almonds, candied peel. It kept catching my eye in the index of Florence Greenberg’s Jewish Cookery Book:

Recipe

Results
A marvel! Truly one of the most delicious, most interesting things I have ever baked. The outer layer was crisp on top, and then fudge-y, like a brownie. The filling was light, flavoursome and almost creamy, with the right amount of chewy pieces of peel. This is a rich cake, as you can see from the relatively small proportion of flour to butter and sugar, however, it is also wonderfully satisfying and stayed fresh for 2 weeks in a tin.

I have since read variations of this which include making mini ones using a shallow bun tray and using raisins instead of candied peel.

Monkey’d by Elly

Cinnamon Balls

Inspired by Foodista’s recent newsletter about Passover cookery, I decided that, as promised, now was a suitable time to try Florence Greenberg’s cinnamon balls. I’ve never had cinnamon balls before, but love all the ingredients and was optimistic about the outcome.

Recipe
Ground almonds 6oz
Castor sugar ½lb
Cinnamon 1 tablespoon
Whites of 3 eggs

Butter cakes

One of the many things I love about Florence Greenberg’s Jewish Cookery Book (first published in the 1940s, although I have the 6th edition from 1958), is the number of excellent baking recipes which require only simple ingredients, combined in appropriate proportions. I like a shmancy cupcake, as much as the next person who likes shmancy cupcakes, but it’s very satisfying to bake something good and easy and cheap, which relies on wit and not flash. Unfortunately this recipe isn’t quite that.

Cheese and walnut squares

In my neverending quest to find new ways to eat potatoes, I decided to try these potato scone-pancake hybrid from Florence Greenberg’s Jewish Cookery Book (6th Edition, 1958)

Recipe
Cooked potato 1lb
Grated cheese 3 oz
Salt and cayenne
Walnuts 2 oz
Milk ½ teacup
One egg

Hungarian Onion Soup

Sorry this is being posted late! Events ran away from me towards the end of last week.

As promised, another soup, and one you could conjure from store cupboard ingredients, (if you own a store cupboard, I took these items from my spice shelf, carb-drawer and the fruit bowl).  I’m interested to see if it’s edible exactly as written or if these seven ingredients actually don’t magickallye combine into a tasty meal.(This recipe is from Florence Greenberg’s Jewish Cookery Book, 6th edition, 1958).

Clarifying and Rendering Fat

The first time I bought some lard to make the pastry for chicken and leek pie, a horrified thrill ran through me. Lard! I was actually buying lard and I was going to cook and eat it too! Though really,  I shouldn’t have a problem with it – sometimes I eat Bacon Frazzles and heaven knows what they contain.

So here, by request, is how to clarify fat and as a bonus, how to render it! Both methods are from Florence Greenberg’s Jewish Cookery Book, (1947). I have never done this – if you have, or if you go on to do so, let us know! NB. I have no idea how long fat processed according to either method can be stored and used safely. Caveat culinator (or something)!

Classification of Soups

At the beginning of last year a regular reader requested some soup recipes and we… didn’t exactly respond satisfactorily.  So, as the weather is currently fairly horrible and many of us are a bit skint after the holidays, it’s definitely time to honour this. I’ll post a soup recipe every week in January but first some fundamentals, from the Jewish Cookery  Book by Florence Greenberg (first published in 1947):

Classification of Soups
Soups can be divided into four classes.

1. Clear Soup or Consomme
Clarified meat stock, garnished according to fancy.

2. Purees
The solid material is rubbed through a sieve, reheated with the liquor, and a little flour or cornflour added.

3. Thickened Soups
Made of meat, fish, or vegetable stock and thickened with some cereal, such as flour, cornflour or arrowroot, or, in the case of fish or vegetable stock, a liaison of eggs and milk.

4. Broths
These contain meat, vegetables, and cereals, but no additional thickening. They can be garnished with vegetables, rice, barley, etc.

Date Spread

About a year ago I set myself the challenge of having a sandwich with a filling from a vintage cookbook every day for lunch for a week, and as with most challenges proudly declaimed in the internet, it was only half completed. (OK, I managed three days out of  five. See results here.)  I did at the time however, have my eye caught by one of the sweet fillings listed in the Jewish Cookery Book by Florence Greenberg (1947),  date spread.

Now I have a mixed relationship with dried dates – I love them pulverised, for example, as the filling to a date slice, but hate them whole, finding the skin weirdly plastic-y and the inside too sticky. (On a similar note, I recommend you never voluntarily eat a sugar-preserved kumquat. They taste like the bastard child of marmalade and Lego.)

Butterscotch cookies

There has been a small amount of golden syrup crystallising in a jar at the back of my carb drawer for about a year now and this recipe seemed like a great way to use it up.   I’ve actually had the jar for so long that the ‘best before date’ has rubbed off the lid.  This recipe is from Florence Greenberg’s Jewish Cookery Book (6th edition, 1958).