We Have a Winner!

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Congratulations to Dorit Amster whose winning entry Comfort Food Cook-Off Cook logo by Eve Foxcontained the secret to her grandmother's most powerful medicine - rugalach!

Dorit, once I get your mailing address, there is a mac n' cheese cookbook coming your way :)

A huge thank you to all who participated -- your wonderful recipes, photos and stories have been an inspiration!

If you have not had a chance to read it already, here is Dorit's winning entry once more.

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Edna's Rugalach from Dorit Amster at Pretty Baking in Israel

There are so many variations of this wondeful pastry from the dough and to the filling. I grew up on my grandmother Tova's rugelach. Back in Poland her family had a bakery. It was the village bakery and both gentiles and jews purchased the warm pastries and shabbat challas from them.

I grew up in her kitchen. It was the happiest room in my grandparents house. Yiddish mingling with Hebrew. Chicken soup on the stove and rugalach in the oven. My grandmother had the oldest oven in the world, we begged her to replace it. She would refuse. Finally she let us buy her a new one. Well, not even a new one. My sister replaced hers with a new one and gave her the old one. Till today my grandmother doesn't understand why she replaced it. If I was sad, if I was sick - her best "medicine" was rugalach. Ha!! And you thought chicken soup was the jewish penicillin! Trust me - Its my grandmother's Rugalach!! I miss those days!

Everytime I try to get a recipe from her it sounds like: flour, sugar, a few eggs, some milk....Go try to make a cake from such a recipe. As the daughter of a baker I guess she inherited the "feel". This is something I will never have. I need an exact recipe - from there I can fool around with the ingredients and/ or quantities.But her rugelach were from yeast dough. There were times that I refused food in an act of a teenage rebellion. But I never refused her rugalach.

Hers were always the same. Filled with raisins, sugar and cinnamon. My rugalach are made with chocolate filling, as my children are chocoholics and both despise rasins (probably because I mentioned that they are good for them, LOL)
Edna's Rugalach from Dorit at Pretty Baking in Israel blog
Dough:
• 500 grams flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp. fast acting yeast
• 100 grams butter, room temp.
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp. grated orange or lemon peel

Filling:
• 100 grams butter
• 4 Tbsp. cocoa, best quality
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
Melt together.

Directions
1. Knead all dough ingredients till dough is soft and pliable.
2. Cover with towel in warm place and let double in size.
3. Punch to let out air and knead again.
4. Roll into circle approx 1/2 cm thick.
5. Spread filling and cut into triangles and roll each triangle from the wide part.
6. Let stand for 20-25 minutes.
7. Spread egg yolk and bake at 170C for 25 minutes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulation Dorit, your grandma's rugalach are wonderful, and I enjoyed how you told your family story as well. I tried to picture in my mind the bakery and also Tova's kitchen as you were describing.

Thanks Eve for this very nice event; I was delighted to participate and to see all the beautiful contributions!

Núria said...

Congratulations Dorit! Great job and great story!!!

Eve, it's been great participating, thanks for all your efforts in getting these recipes and stories togueter. It's a lovely event!!!

Thursday, January 31, 2008

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Dorit Amster whose winning entry Comfort Food Cook-Off Cook logo by Eve Foxcontained the secret to her grandmother's most powerful medicine - rugalach!

Dorit, once I get your mailing address, there is a mac n' cheese cookbook coming your way :)

A huge thank you to all who participated -- your wonderful recipes, photos and stories have been an inspiration!

If you have not had a chance to read it already, here is Dorit's winning entry once more.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Edna's Rugalach from Dorit Amster at Pretty Baking in Israel

There are so many variations of this wondeful pastry from the dough and to the filling. I grew up on my grandmother Tova's rugelach. Back in Poland her family had a bakery. It was the village bakery and both gentiles and jews purchased the warm pastries and shabbat challas from them.

I grew up in her kitchen. It was the happiest room in my grandparents house. Yiddish mingling with Hebrew. Chicken soup on the stove and rugalach in the oven. My grandmother had the oldest oven in the world, we begged her to replace it. She would refuse. Finally she let us buy her a new one. Well, not even a new one. My sister replaced hers with a new one and gave her the old one. Till today my grandmother doesn't understand why she replaced it. If I was sad, if I was sick - her best "medicine" was rugalach. Ha!! And you thought chicken soup was the jewish penicillin! Trust me - Its my grandmother's Rugalach!! I miss those days!

Everytime I try to get a recipe from her it sounds like: flour, sugar, a few eggs, some milk....Go try to make a cake from such a recipe. As the daughter of a baker I guess she inherited the "feel". This is something I will never have. I need an exact recipe - from there I can fool around with the ingredients and/ or quantities.But her rugelach were from yeast dough. There were times that I refused food in an act of a teenage rebellion. But I never refused her rugalach.

Hers were always the same. Filled with raisins, sugar and cinnamon. My rugalach are made with chocolate filling, as my children are chocoholics and both despise rasins (probably because I mentioned that they are good for them, LOL)
Edna's Rugalach from Dorit at Pretty Baking in Israel blog
Dough:
• 500 grams flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp. fast acting yeast
• 100 grams butter, room temp.
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp. grated orange or lemon peel

Filling:
• 100 grams butter
• 4 Tbsp. cocoa, best quality
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
Melt together.

Directions
1. Knead all dough ingredients till dough is soft and pliable.
2. Cover with towel in warm place and let double in size.
3. Punch to let out air and knead again.
4. Roll into circle approx 1/2 cm thick.
5. Spread filling and cut into triangles and roll each triangle from the wide part.
6. Let stand for 20-25 minutes.
7. Spread egg yolk and bake at 170C for 25 minutes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulation Dorit, your grandma's rugalach are wonderful, and I enjoyed how you told your family story as well. I tried to picture in my mind the bakery and also Tova's kitchen as you were describing.

Thanks Eve for this very nice event; I was delighted to participate and to see all the beautiful contributions!

Núria said...

Congratulations Dorit! Great job and great story!!!

Eve, it's been great participating, thanks for all your efforts in getting these recipes and stories togueter. It's a lovely event!!!