This is a sweet casserole usually served at Yom Kippur, but it is delicious anytime. It is a sweet noodle yummy dish. Try it!
- 1/2 pound wide kosher egg noodles
- 1/2 stick butter, melted
- 1 pound cottage cheese (4%)
- 2 cups sour cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 6 eggs, well beaten
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Boil the noodles in salted water for only 4 minutes. Strain the noodles.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the remaining ingredients until smooth, add the rasins at the end and pour into a greased (buttered) 9 x 13 baking dish.
Kugel Topping
- 2 cups cornflakes, coarsely chopped
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Stir together the cornflakes, sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the noodles. Dot the butter over the top. Bake for about 1 hour until golden brown.
Let stand a good 5 minutes before serving.
Blackberry-Blue Plum Crumb Tart
We live in an area where all the fruit you can imagine is grown here-cherries, peaches, apricots, pears, apples, grapes (table and wine), plums, raspberries, blackberries, figs, and on and on. Lucky us.
This is a wonderful tasting and not difficult tart to make. Simply ensure that the plums you use are firm, not soft. If they are on the soft side, the tart will not set properly.
- 3/4 cups unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
- 1/3 cups hazelnuts
- 1 1/2 cups plus 1 tbsp. sifted flour
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 4 medium blue plums, firm
- 1 half-pint blackberries
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp. almond flavouring
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup milk
- pinch of grated nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9″ springform pan and set aside. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and bake until they become fragrant (8-10 minutes). Rub the nuts in a clean towel to remove the skins. Let cool and pulse in a food processor until medium fine in texture.
Transfer the nuts now to a mixer with a paddle attachment. Sift the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt and mix until combined. Add the butter and mix until the crumbs begins to stick together (2-3 minutes). Press 3 cups of the crumbs in the bottom of the pan and up the sides about 1 1/2 inches to form the tart crust. Reserve the remaining crumbs for later. Bake the tart shell in the oven for about 18-20 minutes and set aside.
Slice the plums in half and remove the pits. Slice the plums into eighths. Scatter 3/4 cup of the berries and the sliced plums onto the cooled crust and set aside.
Whisk together 1 tbsp. of the flour and 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar, almond flavouring, egg, egg yolk, cream and milk together until well blended. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg and mix together. Pour this over the fruit, top with the remaining crumb topping and bake in the oven for about 45-55 minutes, until golden and custard has set.
Garnish with the remaining berries and let rest for about 25 minutes. Serve this warm or room temperature with, of course, whipped cream or a wonderfully decadent vanilla ice cream.
Puerto Rican Flan
This makes a nice light dessert (is there really such a thing?)
- 3/4 cup shredded coconut
- 1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 4 large egg yolks, also at room temperature
- pinch of salt
- 2 tsp. white rum
- 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups canned coconut milk, scalded
Heat oven to 450 degrees. In a nonstick frypan toast the shredded coconut until golden in colour. This takes about 4 minutes. Set aside.
Reduce the temperataure to 300 degrees.
Prepare 4 custard cups with buttering the sides. In a small saucepan, bring 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup water to a boil. Cook over medium heat WITHOUT stirring until colour is dark brown. This will take about 10 minutes. Immediately pour 1 tbsp. of the caramel into each dish, coating the bottom. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, salt, rum and vanilla. Slowly whisk in the scalded milk. Strain the mixture into each of the dishes. Put the dishes in a deep sided pan and fill with boiling water about halfway up the sides of the dishes.
Bake about 50 minutes in the oven. Remove from the water bath and cool thoroughly. To unmold, run a knife around the edges and turn out on plates. Garnish with whipping cream and sprinkle with the toasted coconut and serve to 4 adoring guests.
Yum!
Starting Ahead of Baking Time
With so much over-whelming news about the east coast weather and on the west coast…two earthquakes in three days…I decidedI needed a pick-me-up. I made the dough for my cheese shortbread and put it in the freezer and I now have the Gumdrop Christmas Cake in the oven.
The dishwasher is going and when my cake comes out of the oven, I will make lunch and then clean my oven. Next week it will be running for hours on end and it needs to be sparkling clean before we start.
THEN I have to make a list of things to be done in order be ready for the dinner next Saturday. This may sound crazy, but when I do this (for me it works), I don’t have any last minute panics. Things like cleaning the silverware, lining up what we are serving, making sure the grocery list is completed, table setting ideas…..
Darn good thing I did…the dessert I am making will take about three days prepping. Day 1 I will make the pound cake and then on day 2, I will make the pumpkin/rum/lime custard….did I get your attention?
Day 3 – I will complete the dessert. The dessert is a pumpkin-rum trifle and is truly amazing. It is one of those recipes that says to you “damn I can do this”. I did.
Wow! I may have to have a martini later….haha
We did a ton of shopping last weekend but it had to cover the baking we do on November 11th.
Flapper Pie With Swiss Merginue
You will never want to lose this one. The secret is the swiss merginue.
- 2 1/2 cups graham crumbs
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup melted butter, not margarine
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
- pinch of salt
- 2 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, mix the crumbs, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon until well blended. Press into a nine inch pie plate. Bake for about seven minutes and remove from the oven. Now, here is where the wonderful smells take over the kitchen.
In a heavy saucepan mix the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and salt and very slowly, while still whisking, add the milk. Continue until the mixture comes to a boil and becomes thick and smooth. Remove from the stove and pour into the pie shell.
Raise the oven temperature to 375 degrees and start on the meringue.
Swiss Mergingue
- 7 large egg whites (using the 3 whites from above will help)
- 3/4 cups sugar
- pinch of salt
To make the meringue, combine the ingredients in a heat proof bowl and set bowl in a pan of simmering water. Beat the mixture until warm and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and whip into stiff peaks.
Mound this high over the pie and with a flat edged spatula make peaks in the whites, making sure it touches all the edges of the pie. Set in the oven and, watching carefully, bake for approximately eight minutes until lightly golden.
When cooled down, enjoy! This is beyond fabulous. Oh yeah, the cinnamon is the added secret…trust me.
Belem Custard Tarts
This quickly became my #1 choice for holiday baking. (Actually tasting one tart did it). The picture is BEFORE the sugar topping. Read this through.
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 eggs
- 2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed
- 2 cups half and half cream
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp. cornstarch
- 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
- 2 tsp. clear vanilla
- 1 whole nutmeg
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. You will need a mini (24) tart pan. Starting from the rolled out pastry, cut into 24 equal circles. Flatten each circle with a rolling pin to make 3 inch circles. Grease every cup and carefully fit the pastry in.
Whisk the eggs, cream, sugar and cornstarch in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water. With a wooden spoon, stir until it is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat. Whisk in the butter and vanilla. Strain into a clean bowl making sure to set a piece of wax paper directly ON the surface top of the custard. Chill completely.
Spoon an equal amount of custard into each shell. Grate the nutmeg lightly over the tarts. Bake for roughly 15-20 minutes until the pastry is a light golden colour. Now broil for two minutes until the tops get browned. Be very careful not to burn. Cool for 5 minutes and carefully transfer to a rack.
You are able to do the recipe twice as far as the filling goes. You will definitely need both sheets of pastry. There will be enough to spare to make about 5-7 more tarts.
Now, when we were in Portugal, in Belem, these are a most famous pastry and the line ups outside the store attest to this. What I found was they add a ‘creme brulee’ topping. So – sprinkle sugar on top of the baked tart and, using your baking torch, melt the sugar so you get a light crust on top. Better yet, have these warm. OMG! OMG! are they ever good.
Absolutely a fabulous item to put on the trays or just for your holiday celebrations.