Microwave Apple Crisp

ALWAYS MY FAVORITE AND GO-TO RECIPE

Quick and easy--6 servings

Apple Crisp
6 cups peeled, cored and sliced cooking apples
1 T lemon juice, optional

Topping
6 T butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup flour
1 t. cinnamon

Place apples in 8 baking dish. Sprinkle with lemon juice.  Milk butter in small mixing bowl at High power 1-1-1/2 minutes

Stir in remaining ingredients til crumbly.  Sprinkle over apples evenly; press down lightly.  Microwave at  HIGH for 16 minutes,  turning once if the microwave doesn't rotate.  Bake til apples are tender. Serve warm, cold, plain or topped with whipped cream.

Often I at least half again the topping and put it all on

Melt-in-your-mouth Poppy Seed Cookies

Melt-in-your-Mouth Poppy Seed Cookies
When you think of “bubbie’s” recipe or a caterer’s famed thin mun cookies, this is the one that comes to mind. Infinitely pure of taste, these light and thin, easy-to-roll cookies, are a lovely way to celebrate those simple moments.

Melt-in-your-Mouth Poppy Seed Cookies
When you think of “bubbie’s” recipe or a caterer’s famed thin mun cookies, this is the one that comes to mind. Infinitely pure of taste, these light and thin, easy-to-roll cookies, are a lovely way to celebrate those simple moments.

3/4 cup canola oil
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon pure orange oil, optionmal
3 1/4 cups, approximately, all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium-sized bowl, briskly whisk together the oil and sugar. Whisk in the eggs vigorously, and then the vanilla and orange oil, mixing until well blended. Fold in flour, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds.

Cover dough with a tea towel and let rest five to ten minutes. Working with a third of the dough at a time on a very well-floured board, roll out dough as thin as possible, between 1/16 and 1/8 inch. Make sure your rolling pin is well-dusted with flour — a heavy pin covered with a pastry or rolling pin stocking is ideal. Cut into two-inch rounds.

Bake until tops are lightly golden, 12–15 minutes.

70–90 cookies.

VARIATION

Lightly brush each cookie with oil and sprinkle with sugar before baking

best slow cooker beef stew

Best Slow Cooker Beef Stew

From scratch thick and hearty Slow Cooker Beef Stew. A recipe you will make over and over.

Equipment

• Slow Cooker Size: 6-quart or larger

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. stew meat or 2 pounds any lean roast cut into 1-inch squares
• ½ cup flour
• 2 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• cooking oil, about 2 tablespoons
• 28 oz. beef broth (2 14 oz. cans)
• 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 1½ pounds red potatoes quartered or diced cut into inch pieces
• 1 lb. bag baby carrots
• 1 white onion, diced
• 2 cups frozen peas optional

Instructions

• Add the potatoes, carrots and onions to the slow cooker.
• Combine flour, salt, pepper, onion powder, and thyme in a big ziplock bag. Shake, then add the stew meat.
• Shake to coat the pieces evenly. (or this can be done in a large bowl)
• Brown the meat in the cooking oil on all sides, you don't need to cook the meat through. You may need to cook the meat in batches.
• De-glaze the pan with the beef broth. Add the tomato paste, scrape up any brown bits of meat and flour into the sauce. The sauce will thicken and will only take a few minutes.
• Add the meat and sauce to the slow cooker.
• Stir.
• Cook on low for 7 to 8 hours.
• Add peas at the end of cooking time. Put the lid back on and cook for 15 more minutes to thaw the peas. If the stew thickens too much after being stirred, add water.

Shredded Dough Apple Cherry

More of a pastry than a pie or tart, this treat impresses everyone and stays fresh for days (refrigerated). You can use prepared pie pastry and make this all butter or all vegetable based fat, depending on your preference. This is a lovely fall dessert, perfect for Rosh Hashanah or Succoth. This recipe is a variation on the Plum Tart in my cookbook, The New Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking, River Heart Press 2017.

Pastry2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
3/4 cup unsalted butter 
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (or butter) 
1/2 cup ice water 
3/4 teaspoon salt 
1 tablespoon sugar

Filling 6 cups peeled apple wedges
1 ½ cups pitted sour or sweet cherries (canned or frozen)
3/4 cup sugar 
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice 
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon 
1 tablespoons flour 
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Finishing Touches
Confectioners’ sugar

Generously spray a 9 or 10 inch quiche pan with removable bottom (you may also use a large pie pan or a tart pan — similar to a quiche pan but not as deep).

Place the flour in a large bowl. Cut or rub the butter and shortening into the flour until you have a somewhat even mixture of flour covered fat resembling a coarse meal. Make a well in the center and add most of the water. Stir with a fork or fingers to dissolve salt and sugar. Stir dough lightly with a fork to combine dry and liquid ingredients. Use hands when dough gets too hard to mix and combine to make a rough mass. If dough seems too dry, add remaining water. Knead very gently for a few seconds to smooth out dough. Divide dough in half and wrap both halves in plastic wrap. Place one in the fridge for an hour or two and one in the freezer. Chill at least one hour or overnight before using.

Prepare apples and place in a large bowl. Add in the cherries, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, flour and cornstarch.

Remove dough from fridge and on a lightly floured work surface, roll the pastry to fit pan bottom and sides. Fill the pastry shell with the fruit filling.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Remove reserved dough from freezer. Using a metal hand grater, shred up dough, as you would cheese. If dough is too cold to work with, allow it to warm about 10–15 minutes. Arrange shredded dough over fruit. Place quiche dish on a baking sheet (this will catch drippings).

Bake 15 minutes at 400 F. Reduce heat to 350 F. and bake until juices begin to come through top and side surface and dough on top is lightly browned, another 25–30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool well.

Before serving, dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Serves 8–10

Spiralized Mini Potato Kugels

From The Newish Jewish Cookbook, Marcy Goldman

Spiralized potatoes make for exceptional kugel and these golden, crown-like kugels are good for the crown of the year (Rosh Hashanah) or Shabbat. If you don’t have a spiralizer, use an inexpensive hand shredder (the kind that makes tendrils of carrots as a garnish). Similar to a potato or carrot peeler, a hand shredder makes nice strands of potatoes or you can also, if you have it, use the special shredding blade on your food processor. I prefer red-skinned potatoes for this dish.

Olive oil
6 medium potatoes, peeled
3 eggs
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ cup minced scallions or chives
½ cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400 F. Generously brush the insides of silicone muffin cups with olive oil. In each muffin well, place (cut out to fit) a ‘collar” of parchment paper to make a conical form. Brush inside of this collar with some olive oil. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place muffin pan on it. 

Spiralize or otherwise shred the potatoes. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, salt, pepper, onion powder, scallions and oil. Fold in the spiralized potatoes and mix very well to coat potatoes with other ingredients. Fill each muffin cup about half full with the potato mixture so that it’s within ½ inch of the parchment paper collar.

Bake until crisped and brown, 45–55 minutes. Gently unmold kugels from the muffin mold and remove parchment paper collars to serve. Use a knife to separate sides if kugels stick. These can be made ahead and refrigerated or frozen and reheated in a 225 F oven until serving time.

Makes 12

Sticky Pomegranate Chicken

From Marcy Goldman’s The Newish Jewish Cookbook, River Heart Press 2019

Ah the flavors of the old testament as expressed by honey and pomegranate syrup and pomegranate spiral. This is a totally satisfying and exotic spin on ‘sticky chickie’. This recipe calls for legs but you can also use chicken breasts, cut in quarters for this delicious dish. Pomegranate molasses is available in Middle Eastern or gourmet food stores or from Amazon 

1/4 cup pomegranate molasses or balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons light olive oil
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 lbs. chicken legs
2 red onions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup pomegranate spirals
Cilantro, minced

In a medium bowl, mix the pomegranate molasses with the oil, tomato paste, honey and cinnamon. Add the chicken and onions and marinate in the fridge 30 minutes or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet or roasting pan with foil. Place the chicken pieces on it and bake 35–45 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Transfer to a serving dish and spoon pan juices over chicken. Garnish with minced cilantro and scatter on pomegranate seeds on top. Serve with a kugel, rice or potatoes dusted with sumac on the side.

Serves 4

Laura Bush's Texas Governor's Mansion Cowboy Cookies

Kitty Buchan made these for marissa's boys to have in their lunches. They are excellent!  and huge.  She did not add coconut but they were still amazing.

Ingredients

Prep:

25 mins

Bake:

17 mins to 20 mins at 350°

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 1 ½ cups packed light-brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups sweetened flake coconut
• 2 cups chopped pecans (8 ounces)

• Step 1
  Heat oven to 350 degree F. 

• Step 1
  Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in bowl. 

• Step 1
  In 8-quart bowl, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 1 minute. Gradually beat in sugars to combine, 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla. 

• Step 1
  Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans. 

• Step 1
  For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. 

• Step 1
  Bake in 350 degree F oven 17 to 20 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. Remove cookies to rack to cool. 

Commercial Style Challah MG

Sometimes you want a challah like your favorite Jewish bakery makes it: a little denser, a little more yellow, a touch more sweet, with a darker crust and great toasting abilities. This is that bread – but made by you.  I make this and slice the entire bread for the freezer, simply to be used as toasting or sandwich bread. It makes two smaller challah breads or one medium challah and a few rolls. This is a great bread dough to prepare in a bread machine on Dough cycle.

Dough
1 1/2 cups warm water
5 teaspoons dry yeast
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 yolk
¼ teaspoon egg yellow food coloring (in paste, not liquid)  *
1/3 cup oil
6-8 cups bread flour

Egg wash1 egg
Sesame seeds for sprinkling

* The use of  egg-yellow food colouring is an old trick from commercial bakeries. I am not sure they still use it but it makes for that somewhat more deeply yellow crumb. You can omit it but it’s fun to try.
Line a doubled up baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a mixer bowl, stir yeast and water together and let stand a few minutes. Then add in a cup of the flour and stir. Then add in remaining ingredients, holding back about one third of the flour so that you mix everything well. Then, using dough hook, knead on slow speed, add in more flour as required, to make a soft dough,  knead 8-10 minutes, until dough is soft but elastic. Dough will be more yellow than your usual challah but that is the commercial appeal (and the cheat bakeries used to use to make bread seem richer and more egg laden)

Gather dough together in mixer and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Cover entire mixer with a huge plastic bag and let dough rise 45-60 minutes or until almost doubled in size. (A cool rise is fine too).

Gentle deflate dough and turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide in two (one part is 2/3’s the dough, the rest, save for 3-5 challah rolls or make two smaller braids). Let rest 10 minutes and then form the larger portion into two or three ropes and braid. Make rolls of the remaining dough (this is what I do but feel free to make two smaller loaves instead). Place on the prepared baking sheet.

Spray the loaf with non-stick cooking spray and cover loosely with a large plastic bag. Let rise until almost doubled and then glaze with egg wash. Sprinkle on sesame seeds.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Place in oven, immediately lowering temperature to 350 F. Bake until done, about 35-45 minutes. Cool well before serving.

Makes 2 medium breads or one larger bread and a few rolls

Best Ever Deep Dish Apple Cake MG

From The New Best of Betterbaking.com, Marcy Goldman

One of the best apples cakes…..ever! Don’t skimp on the apples and don’t use Granny Smith.

Apple Filling

18–24 large McIntosh apples, peeled, cored and quartered
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

Batter1 cup canola oil
2 ½ cups sugar
5 eggs
4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9 by 13 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.

Prepare the apples and place in a large bowl. Toss with the sugar and cinnamon and set aside. In a large bowl, hand mix the oil and sugar; then add eggs and vanilla. Fold in flour, baking powder and salt to make a very gloppy, thick batter. It is pretty thick but not firm.

Place apples in the baking dish. They should totally cover the baking dish quite generously- and almost overflow it if not really…overflow it! If you find you need more –now is the time to do it.

Pour batter evenly over apples — or as best you can — depositing batter over the top of the apples. Shuffle pan a few times. Place on baking sheet and bake 60–90 minutes (it varies, depending on how juicy apples are) or until cake is set up and slightly browned on top. Cool well before serving.

Serves 12–16. Can be made ahead 2–3 days, but does not freeze well.

Cumb Toped Sweet New Year's Challah MG

This is a totally unique and majestic sweet challah that’s as lovely in the traditional round form or as a long braid. The crumb-topping is a nice change from sesame seeds and signals ahead this is going to be sweet and special! You can use raisins or dried cranberries to make this Rosh Hashanah perfect! This is a perfect occasion to use a bread machine to make the dough, or your reliable stand mixer.

1 1/2 cups warm water
5 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs
4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
6–8 cups unbleached bread flour
1 ½ cup dried cranberries or plumped, dried raisins
Egg wash, for glazing

Crumb Topping1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup unsalted margarine or butter

In a large mixing bowl, briskly whisk together the water and yeast. Add in two cups of the flour, and then briskly stir in the sugar, honey, oil, eggs, vanilla, salt and most of the remaining flour. Mix to combine about one minute and then cover the mixture and let it sit for 12 minutes. (This helps the flour get absorbed and when you start kneading you will have to use less flour overall and get a more moist and silky challah)

Resume kneading on slowest speed of mixer to form smooth but resilient dough, adding in additional flour, as well as the cranberries or raisins, at this point, as required, 6–8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Place in a lightly greased bowl and place this in a plastic bag, spray the top of the dough with non-stick cooking spray and seal loosely. Let rise until doubled, about 45 to 60 minutes.

Prepare the Crumb Topping by placing the flour and sugar in a medium bowl and blending to combine. Cut in the margarine or butter to making a crumbly mixture.

Once the dough has risen, gently deflate it onto a floured work surface.

For a traditional log braid (you will bake on the baking sheet), divide the dough in 3 strands about 10–12 inches long. Braid and then place the braid, making the two ends touch, to form a circle in the prepared pan. Pinch ends together to seal. For baking in the round, make the same braid but place it in the prepared spring-form pan and make the ends touch each other and pinch to seal. Brush the egg wash on the bread and then gently place the crumble topping on top. Let rise again, until almost doubled, 40–55 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake 40–45 minutes until well browned and a thermometer (I like this one ) registers 375 F inside temperature. If the top surface of the bread starts browning too quickly (and bread interior is not done), cover lightly with a sheet of foil to protect top crust, lower the temperature 25 degrees and bake it a little longer.

Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing and cooling on a rack. Serve with honey and apples.

Makes one large challah

Hot and Sweet Spiced Peach Cobbler MG

Hot and Sweet Spiced Peach Cobbler  

I love this updated classic cobbler with a touch of spice and from habanero pepper and cinnamon. Just taste test your peaches before baking with them. If they don’t taste good snacking on, then they’re not great for baking either. I used California peaches for this recipe and they were fabulous! I don’t peel my peaches btw but you can if you prefer. This is a wonderfully unexpected slice of heaven - sassy with heat and sweetness. Wear latex gloves to handle the pepper.

Hot and Sweet Spiced Peach Cobbler

Fruit Filling
9 large peaches, pitted and cut in thin wedges
1/2 habanero pepper (seeds removed) or 1 tablespoon finely minced hot pepper
4 tablespoons white sugar
4 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons arrowroot or cornstarch
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch salt

Batter
½ cup, or more, heavy cream mixed with 1 tbsp. lemon juice *
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
3/8 teaspoon salt

* You can also use buttermilk but this lemon juice/cream hack makes a wonderful top crust

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9 by 13 inch pan or 3 quart casserole with non-stick cooking spray. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Fopr the fruit filling, place the prepared fruit in a large bowl.  Add in the minced hot pepper, white sugar, brown sugar, arrowroot, vanilla, cinnamon, salt toss to coat the fruit evenly. Place in the casserole or pan.

For the batter, mix lemon juice with the cream and set aside. In a mixer bowl, blend the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir in the cream. Fold in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to make a thick batter.

Spread or drop the batter in dollops on the fruit. Bake until the top crust is golden brown all over and the fruit is bubbling through, 35-40 minutes.

Serves 6-8