the eggless wonder

finding recipes that work really well and do not use or include traditional ingredient conventions has always been of great interest to me. these days with so many different kinds of allergies rampant, people following the latest diet which usually omits some ingredient or groups of them, or even those people, like myself, who have culturally different eating habits, it is useful to have a variety of options from which to choose. it's no fun not to be able to enjoy the same kinds of foods as everyone else.

the other day while going through my things in my cleaning frenzy, i luckily found a whole bunch of missing files. in one of these was this recipe which i used to make [mostly for a friend who is allergic to many things], until i lost it. a fortuitous reunion for me since i am trying to use up excess amounts of flour before passover arrives in 3 weeks.

this is a basic all purpose chocolate cake which surprisingly has no eggs in it and can be made either dairy or parve [non-dairy]. despite being egg-less, it is just as good as a regular chocolate cake. admittedly, the texture is somewhat drier than your standard one but this can be balanced by using a moist frosting. sometimes i will use a plain strong coffee solution and, with a large pastry brush, moisten each of the two cakes prior to icing them. it is great for a birthday cake or just an everyday one. it makes terrific cupcakes, too, which can be brought to work for that single serving .... frosted, of course :)

the cake can be made with either cake flour or all purpose, however the cake flour must be sifted first, along with the cocoa. it also uses buttermilk, or soured milk, which you can make yourself. it will not work without this, as the acidity of the liquid is essential to activate the rising agent which, in this case, is baking soda. the cake is successfully made parve by using soymilk and souring it with plain white vinegar.

baker beware: for those of you who do not follow recipes, i suggest you give in and do it the way i show here. baking is an exact science. you need the buttermilk or soured [soy] milk and you need the baking soda [not powder] for the necessary leavening reaction to take place, both while mixing the batter and baking it. remember: sift, sift, sift — this ensures there are no small lumps which always seem present in both cake flour and cocoa.

eggless all purpose chocolate cake

ingredients:

1 2/3 c. cake flour or all purpose
1 c. sugar
1 tsp baking SODA
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp cocoa powder (dark is better)

1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. buttermilk or soured milk*
3 1/2 - 4 tbsp prune baking paste or applesauce**
2 tsp vanilla extract

*to make soured milk/soymilk: measure 1 c of the liquid and add 1 tbsp white vinegar. stir and wait about 10 minutes until it sets; it will become thicker. do not skip doing this.

**this is optional but highly recommended. i have found it helps to add extra moisture content due to the absence of the egg. the prune baking paste goes extremely well with chocolate and is not noticeable.

method:

preheat oven to 350F.

butter or grease two 8 inch round cake pans (if you go larger, it will not work). you can make cupcakes too but remember to cook them for less time. test after 12 - 15 minutes.

measure out the flour and then sift it to remove any small lumps. this is required if you are using cake flour. i usually aerate the cake flour with a whisk before measuring. you do not need to sift first to measure out the flour as in other recipes.

sift the cocoa into the flour and then add the other ingredients. if you can, use the dark dutch processed cocoa or something like valrhona. it makes a big difference colour wise and taste wise.

mix them together well. you can resift everything at this point if you think there are any lumps.

mix together the wet ingredients: the oil, buttermilk or soured milk, applesauce or prune baking paste and the vanilla extract.

add this to the dry ingredients and mix well. you can do this by hand or with a beater. make sure there are no dry spots in the batter. it must be completely smooth.

divide these equally into the two pans. it will not look like there is enough but there is.

bake the cakes for only 20 minutes. do NOT open the oven before or they may fall. test after 20 minutes, you may need to bake a few minutes longer.

let them cool for 5 minutes in the pan. remove them to a rack and cool them completely.

they can be iced with your favourite frosting or served with confectioners sugar dusted over them, or even better — whipped cream.

enjoy!

a favourite flatbread

one of my favourite flatbreads has to be naan. there's good reason why this bread is always the most ordered item in many a restaurant. with its smoky flavour only a tandoor oven can achieve, this bread is generously brushed with rich clarified butter [ghee]. i mean, who can resist? since i obviously don't have a tandoor oven, i either have to settle for take-out or the at-home version. of course, if you must have one, you can always build one yourself as did this guy in england! quite amazing. [look here, too].

having tried countless recipes over several years, i think the following one from m. jaffrey [a recipe she got from someone else] is pretty decent for a "made-at-home" kind. what's even better is that it's quickly cooked on the stovetop in a very hot pan, cast iron if possible. this particular recipe uses a combination of baking powder and baking soda instead of the traditional yeast. the dough will last at least 24 hours refrigerated with no significant deterioration in flavour or texture. i don't suggest letting it go beyond that as the baking powder just doesn't hold up for that long [this comes from experimentation]. another good thing about them is that they can be cooked and refrigerated until needed; a reheating in the oven well-covered in tin foil or a quick zap in the microwave brings them back to life. of course, freshly made is always best.

the dough, once formed will feel silky soft and is extremely supple. if you have prior bread making experience, you'll see it is a bit different in that it is a tacky dough. don't be tempted to add more than the called for amount of flour or you'll end up with a heavy end result.

naan bread नान نان

ingredients:

scant 5 c. all purpose flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp yogurt
1 c. milk
1 c. water
1 egg
1 tbsp butter, melted
vegetable oil

kalonji ["onion" (nigella)] seeds
sesame seeds
extra melted butter
salt, if using unsalted butter

method:

mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. set aside.

in another bowl, mix the sugar and yogurt well with a whisk.

add the milk and water.

add 2 c. of flour and beat well until smooth. do not undermix as you want to develop the gluten at this point.

add the egg and mix well.

add the melted butter and blend.

add another 2 c. of flour and mix very well.

finally add the final cup of flour in three additions. you may not need all of them.

knead the dough well for about 5 minutes until it is completely smooth. the dough feels really nice at this point! take note that the dough is somewhat "tacky" and not like a regular bread dough. do not go beyond the 5 cups of flour.

scale the dough into 8 equal portions.

take a pyrex and place a very thin layer of oil on the bottom of it. shape the dough into hockey puck shapes and place them in the pyrex. turn them over so that both sides are coated with oil. do not skip this step or a skin will form.

i tend to make half right away and then the other half the next day. i like to place them in an oiled ziploc type bag and store them in the fridge overnight.

let the dough rest for a minimum of 1 hour before shaping.

to shape the naan, take one of the pieces of dough out and place it on your work surface. do not flour the surface. the oil will prevent the dough from sticking.

with both hands, hold the dough and gently stretch it out lengthwise. then at one end, elongate it so that it is wider on one end. this will give the traditional shape of the naan (sort of like a teardrop). pull it so that it is quite thin, approximately 10 to 12 inches. just make sure it will fit into your frypan!!

once well stretched, brush the top with melted butter.

heat up your [cast iron] skillet over medium heat. do not oil it. make sure it is well heated before you add the naan or it won't cook properly. the pan should be hot.

melt some extra butter and set it aside with a brush.

sprinkle the elongated bread with both the sesame and nigella seeds (kalonji). i sprinkle salt on top, too but that is optional; i find it tastes better lightly salted. i also like to take my hand and press down on them to make sure everything sticks. i suggest doing this or the seeds will fall off when you transfer the naan.

place the naan by lifting both ends into the fry pan and let it cook until you see bubbles form on top of the bread. it will seem weird as these bubbles form like when you blow bubbles with chewing gum. the surface of the naan will also change colour and start to look cooked. once you have these, take a spatula and flip the bread over; it should be browned by now. cook on the other side for about 2 minutes or so. both sides should be lightly browned.

if you want to see what the real deal looks like in terms of bubbles when made at the proper high temperature in a tandoor, look here.

you can brush melted butter on top either during the cooking or afterwards.

wrap the naan in tin foil while you cook the rest.

enjoy!

love, hate and the holidays

it is always at this time of the year that i start to feel tremendously stressed out. really, i shouldn't but it just inevitably happens, whether i like it or not.

there is much to look forward to — the winter is almost over [if you can believe it's now almost -40C with the wind factored into the temperature] and spring is just around the corner. they've even now moved the changing of the "spring forward" time to this weekend. that's a double-edged sword since it means that all my electronics are going the majorly [insert bad word here ending in -ed] up and i will have to RESET everything again come april when we normally do it since some of them are auto-configured to change in april. i guess the silver lining is that we have an extra hour of daylight, three weeks early. however......

that means one hour less in my already stressed out state concerning something i have to complete in less than 4 weeks time. for those of you who aren't jewish, or who are and don't observe our meshuggeneh rules, this translates into a thorough spring cleaning. this isn't your normal spring cleaning though. it means going through every single thing you own and checking for any remnants of forbidden foods or articles which are to be "disowned" for the holiday of passover.

despite what i am saying, i really like this holiday for a few reasons. it's the time of year to get together with family and friends, the time to honour our history and repeat ancient traditions celebrating freedom from oppression and slavery, and the time for purging.

it is at this time that i get to go through all my things and discard all the crap i don't really need or want and have been clinging on to for dear life for no good reason. [ok, i'm a bit of a (still reforming) packrat .... i gave up keeping elastic bands and twist ties a few years ago. enough said]. for the past few years, i've gotten a lot better at letting go and not been tempted to run out in the middle of the night and reclaim what i've trashed.

along with this purging comes my not so favourite part — washing and scrubbing every wall, window and area of floor, cleaning out every closet, every drawer, and every nook and cranny. this is later compounded by removing all the foods i cannot have during the holiday and storing them away so that they can be ritually sold [to disown them] and later rebought.

it is during these four weeks, from the holiday of purim that just passed, until a few days before the eve of passover, that many jews worldwide will try to use up tons of foods we can't consume during the 8 days of this ancient celebration. once the "forbidden" food is totally removed a day or two before the commencement (erev pessah), another crazy fit of cleaning happens with scouring the fridge, oven and stove, scrubbing the floors, usually a la cinderella on hands and knees, and covering the counters and finally cleaning the sink in a special way to make it "kosher" for the holiday. it's only once this final step of cleaning the sink and not being able to use it for 24 hours that i know that i've almost finished.

is it at this point that all the dishes and kitchen equipment for the holiday finally are taken out. this is the fun part, in a way. you get to see all the things used only at this time of the year and for 8 days only. it's these pots and pans and special china that hold tons of memories, sometimes memories that are only jarred by seeing these objects tucked away from year to year, taken out for those few days.

did i say i still have to cook because i can't make any food until i've completely changed the kitchen over??

in the end, it's a lot of work. it's actually tremendous work and i've not mentioned a lot of other things that go into it, like shopping for the food, making menus, cooking the foods, entertaining guests, etc. so, if you're following my blog, excuse the delays in postings. i have tons of things to talk about, recipes to post, and information to relay. unfortunately, time is short and i'm busy beyond belief. this doesn't mean i won't be posting things. i will be but just not as often as i have been doing for the past few months.

stay tuned for more.

travados — burekas for purim

first things first, it seems blogger decided my blog was akin to a can of:

well blogger, you're the turkey. how it was decided that my blog was a spammer blog is beyond me. i will say that posting has been an ordeal and i was actually locked out of "publishing" any posts until i was approved by blogger staff that my blog wasn't an infidel. i got some freaky red and yellow message telling me i was blocked and locked. on top of it, leaving messages on other friends' blogs has been impossible because the verifications were not showing up. well, after a few choice four letter expletives, things seemed fixed for the moment.

this post, therefore, is two days late. for those of you who celebrated purim, i hope you had an wonderful holiday and ate well.

i will also add for those of you celebrating the festival of holi that it came to my attention that this holiday and the jewish one of purim fall on the same date every year as both are calculated through the lunar calendar. for you who celebrate/d, a joyful holi wished your way.

we now return to regular programming.

these are a different kind of bureka that is made for the holiday of purim. they are called burekas de muez in ladino or travados. they are small pastries filled with a nut mixture which are baked and then, like many sephardic pastries, dipped in a sugar syrup. they are very much like the pastry called ma'amoul which is also made for the holiday, the only difference being that the ma'moul are not dipped in syrup and have a different shape. sometimes travados are dredged in icing sugar, too. they can have a filling which has finely chopped dried fruit. often the filling mixture is mixed with a bit of jam or marmelade.

i decided to try a different recipe for them this year and while they turned out very good, i found the dough a little tricky to work with. in the end, they worked fine and taste great. they often taste better the day after making them.

travados בורקסים טרבדוס
nut filled burekas

note before starting: this isn't really a beginner's recipe. if you don't have patience then i'd say forgo it :) it also helps to have an extra pair of hands to make things advance faster.

makes about 3 - 3 1/2 dozen

ingredients:

1 1/4 c margarine or butter [2 1/2 sticks]
3 tbsp sugar

4 c AP flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

1/2 c water

1 1/2 c walnut pieces
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 c water
1 c sugar
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp orange flower water, optional
2 tbsp lemon juice

1 egg yolk + 2 tsp water [optional]

method:

make the filling:

grind 1 cup of the walnuts with the sugar and cinnamon in a food processor until well ground but not powdery. remove to a bowl. coarsely grind the rest of the walnuts and mix with the first batch. set the filling aside.

make the dough:

cream margarine or butter with the 3 tbsp sugar.

in a bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder.

add the vanilla or almond extract and blend. add the flour in 4 additions and mix well after each.

divide the dough into 4 quarters.

on a very well floured board, roll out the dough between an 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. cut out rounds which are about 3 inches wide. i used a drinking cup to do this.

remove the excess dough and fill each round with a generous tsp or so of the nut mixture. be careful to make sure it stays in the center.

regather the dough (scraps) and repeat until all the dough is used.

preheat the oven to 350F.

using the help of a butter knife, fold half the round over to meet the edge facing you. press down to seal. you may want to use a bit of water but it's not necessary.

the dough may crack but that's okay. it will meld together in the oven. gently press the dough where cracks have formed.

very carefully transfer the pastries to a baking sheet. they won't expand too much when baking.

brush them with the egg yolk and water mixture before baking, if wanted. they work fine without the glaze but it looks much nicer after they are baked.

bake them for about 20 minutes.

now is a second tricky part. do not touch them until they are cooled as they tend to break while hot/warm. they will be fine when completely cooled.

once they are all cooled, make your syrup. take the water and sugar and honey and put in a small pot. bring to a boil and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring. the mixture needs to be thin when finished. do not overcook it. now add the lemon juice and the orange flower water if using.

dip each travado in the syrup and let it sit for about 15 seconds making sure it's submerged. use a fork to remove it and place it on a rack to dry.

make sure to put some paper under the cookie rack to catch the syrup to make clean up easier.

let the cookies air dry. you can skip the dipping and just roll them in icing sugar or sprinkle with some after they have dried.

enjoy!