Unless COVID-19 has totally passed you by, you've probably tried Dalgona coffee. Made famous by a bunch of copycat TikTok videos like this one , the idea is that with just three simple (and pareve!) ingredients, you can whip up a delightfully foamy coffee base: 2 tablespoons each of instant coffee, sugar, and water. You whip the base until it's firm, which is magic in itself. Then you gently stir the base into milk so you don't lose the foam and you have a nice cool coffee drink you can serve over ice cubes.   Voila!  Dalgona coffee! It got its name because the whipped texture of the base reminded people of dalgona, a sugary sponge toffee (honeycomb toffee to some) that's apparently popular in Korea (probably identical to the Canadian variety I've made often). I first succumbed

I don't know what I did right, and I certainly don't want to ask too many questions for fear of jinxing it, but the truth is... shhh... my family LOVES beans. And that has made refried beans (or, as the people who invented them call them, frijoles refritos ) one of our go-to favourites for after-school eating, especially in chilly weather, that both warms them up and tides them over until suppertime. The truth is that refritos are sometimes good enough to make converts even of devout non bean lovers.  Try it and see, even if other bean recipes haven’t gone over as well.  The long cooking time gives the beans a magical “powdery” texture that isn’t really beany at all (at least, in our opinion here!). These refried beans are basically a one-ingredient, one-pan recipe.   I strongly recommend a

Cream cheese can be a hit or miss affair here in Israel.  Sure, some brands are okay for eating, but where the native product fails is usually when it comes to baked goods that call for genuine cream cheese, as I discovered at Shavuos a couple of years ago.  It's too thin, too gummy, too shiny, whatever.  It's just... WRONG. In case you’re wondering, sour cream is called “krem gevina shamenet,” and as you can see, there are lots of flavour choices… …but none of them are anything I’d want to bake into a cheesecake. But then this year, I found out I could make my own.  And not only does it taste great, it works perfectly in recipes! I won't bother calling it a RECIPE, because it's too easy to be a recipe!  It only works if you're in Israel, simply because you can’t get Israeli dairy products here.  Then again, if you're outside of Israel, you can probably just buy Philly.  The truth is, you can buy Philly here in a lot of places as well, as...

If you didn’t know any better – like I didn’t when we first came here – you’d probably assume, with good reason, that both of these tins contained condensed milk: But that’s where you’d be wrong.  Sure, at least at first glance, the Hebrew text is exactly the same: חלב מרוכז וממותק / chalav merukaz umemutak / concentrated sweetened milk.  But the English is different, and therein lies the key difference between the two – the one on the right is FAKE. Here are the ingredients of the real thing (on the left): Milk (55%), sugar (45%).  That’s it.  Pure and simple. Now, here are the ingredients

Sick of pareve desserts for yom tov?  Ready for something a little less ho-hum?  I love my classic Second Helpings cookbook honey cake to death and look forward to it almost all year (it has a cup of sugar, 1 1/4 cups of honey, and a cup of coffee – what’s NOT to love????).  But sometimes… you just want something creamy.  Usually, my grandmother’s Neapolitan Cake fits the bill very, very nicely, and I totally recommend it if you haven’t tried it already. Usually, a few of our Rosh Hashanah meals are dairy, because especially when it’s bumped right up against Shabbos like it is this year, it’s just TOO MUCH MEAT.  The fact that we can have dairy desserts is a totally wonderful bonus.  While there are a couple of specialized ingredients in this dish (kadaif noodles – see below; rose water) but beyond that, this super-special Israeli dairy dessert is also super-easy to throw together. Here’s a dessert that was new to me before we came to Israel which...

Most of the baking I do is pareve, and usually, I don’t mind.  But sometimes, I come across a baking or bread idea that absolutely must use dairy.  Must must must.  No substitutions.  Naomi Rivka is taking a baking course right now and she bakes a lot of dairy.  She’ll bring home the recipe and excitedly ask, “Can we make this for Shabbos?”  And I look at the kilo of butter or whatever in the ingredients and say, “Not this week, we’re having fleishiks…”  She keeps saying we can use margarine instead, and my standard line for this is: “Margarine is NOT pareve butter.” I think you’ll agree.  Margarine can be USEFUL in kosher baking, but it most definitely isn’t butter.  And when what you want is the flavour of butter – there’s nothing like it in the world – then what you need to start with is… butter. Like croissants.  I read about making croissants years and years ago.  You take a super-thin layer of butter, sandwich it b...

When I first found out that Judaism had a holiday specifically for celebrating dairy foods, my first thought wasn't cheesecake.  My first thought was... gulab jamun. What the heck are gulab jamun??? If you love Indian food as much as I do, you probably already know. I grew up eating a lot of Indian food, and once I started keeping kosher, I missed it most of all.  More than Chinese, Thai, or KFC put together. (Maybe not more than real dim sum!) When I was a toddler, my father flew to India with an Indian friend and had the time of his life.  He came back with a pair of lovely white linen "day pyjamas" that he'd save for special occasions, a love of delicate nose piercings and an insatiable appetite for Indian food. (For some weird reason, my father hated ear piercings for girls but told me as I grew up that it would be just fine if I got my nose pierced.  And indeed, he didn't flinch when I eventually got one.) Ah, but Indian food.  For...

Do you have a problem with ice cubes? Come on, hands up.  I know I do.  Working in one of the World’s Tiniest Kitchens, I appreciate any solution that saves space, time, money, and hassle.  And living in Israel, I need – desperately! – to stay cool all summer long.  Oh, yeah, and if I can spend less than ten bucks, all the better. Last summer, I bought these silicone freezer pop molds for my husband.  Back in Toronto, he had a brand of storebought freezable juice pops that were 100% juice that he loved as a refreshing summertime treat.  Here, everything is made with a ton of sugar, so I thought he could use these to make his own. Aren’t they pretty? (If you click the pics, you’ll be taken to the best-rated freezer pop molds I could find on Amazon – I bought mine locally.) Weirdly, and to my great sadness, my husband didn’t take to them.  So they’ve mostly sat empty and unused for the last year.  But when the weather here start...

     How hangry do you and your kids get in the morning?  (Or afternoon, depending on how late you've slept in and/or procrastinated.) Around here, the answer is... VERY. These quick, easy, eggy muffins are exactly what you need:  the cure for Hangry.  Shh… don’t tell anybody: they’re basically little mini-quiches, just without a crust. These are sometimes called "scrambled egg muffins."  But on most sites, you'll find them chock-full of some type of meat that just won't work in a kosher kitchen.  Pork, ham and bacon are all super-popular at breakfast time, apparently. Even if you could use some kosher kind of meat, you'd miss out on all the cheesy goodness of these delighful, bite-sized breakfast treats.  So why bother?  Just toss in lots of veggies and you'll never miss the bacon, I promise. Make your life super-easy and prepare these in reusable silicone muffin cups.  I didn’t used to like the idea...

It’s sort of like alchemy, really… you take oats, which is essentially horse food, and you turn it into pure, hearty breakfast yumminess. If you’re thinking of starting to make your own granola, this is one of those “old favourite” recipes you’ll want to keep handy. This picture here of the ingredients highlights the truly “no-frills” alchemy of this recipe:  crafting a premium product out of all these yellow-label groceries.  (the brown sugar and a couple of other things that aren’t packed in yellow were left out of the photo) I’ve made this granola many, many times now.  I’m still searching for a source of milk powder (skim or otherwise) in Israel, because now I miss it… a lot.  Plus, storebought granola is pretty expensive here, while oats are relatively cheap. I was surprised the first few times that I liked it so much; I’m not a huge granola fan.  Before I made this, I tried the Artisan Bread in Five Granola (the granola is meant to be used to...

And no, they’re not both cheesecakes… although one is; a special all-Israeli cheesecake for which you can find the recipe a bit further down.  And okay, both are dairy-based; sorry to anyone who can’t have dairy at this very milky time of year… (In fact, since I started to write this, my husband decided to make a classic North American lemony cheesecake, deapite my predictions of doom that it wouldn’t work with Israeli cheese… so we may end up with three cakes.) With all of my dooming and glooming about baking in Israel, I was happy to receive a recipe from my ulpan teacher on Sunday night which she guaranteed would work with Israeli ingredients – given that she’s never baked it anywhere else.  I figure as an old dog making aliyah, it’s time for a new trick… with cheesecake. Except, except, except… her cheesecake doesn’t have a crust.  Heresy!  I couldn’t bake a crustless cheesecake.  Honestly, I was about to pour it into the pan (#26, according to her ...

  Hmm… maybe I’ve got time to make this before we go?!?!?!? Three ingredients (two if you omit sugar, which sounds like a good plan)! Three minutes (not counting thaw time)! No kneading! (Apparently) not too sweet! … Holy Oh-Em-Jee, everybody – it’s ICE CREAM BREAD. Ice. Cream. Bread. Step the First.  You thaw the ice cream. Step the Second.  You stir in self-rising flour.  Okay, this isn’t exactly ONE ingredient, and I normally consider it an abomination, but I happen to have TWO bags of the stuff here that Ted bought by accident. Step the Third.  Bake. Step the Fourth.  Indulge. The “secret recipe” is more of a ratio than anything else: 1 cup full-fat ice cream : 3/4 cup self-rising flour Bake at 350° for 25-45 minutes (depending on how big a batch) until toothpick comes out clean. This version recommends Triple Brownie ice cream, 1 cup : 3/4 cup and bakes for 25-30 minutes.  This version use...

Here it is… the Buttermilk-Parmesan Herb Bread from Shavuos! Shaped and resting … Risen nicely – thanks to the scorching hot day…     Baked and delicious! With all that milk and cheese, the crust was much softer than I usually like, but the bread makes up for it (yes, there are still leftovers) by being extremely flavourful and tender.  Mmm, indeed!

All-dairy Shavuos means Buttermilk-Parmesan Herb Bread!!! (adapted from Artisan Bread in Five, of course!) The herbs above are golden oregano, sage, thyme and (hard to see) chives. The chives made a huge mess when I tried to purée them in the small chopper. I really should have just chopped them by hand… :-( Anyway, here’s the basic formula I’m using: Herbs, above, puréed with a bit of oil 1755g (13 cups) a.p. flour 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast 1 1/2 tablespoons salt 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar 2 cups lukewarm water 2 cups buttermilk (subbed 2 cups milk w/2 Tbsp vinegar added, let rest 5 minutes) 1 cup parmesan cheese Mix, rest, shape, bake.

Today’s my sister’s big 30th birthday, but we celebrated on Sunday.  In lieu of CAKE (so cliché!), I made two desserts: Tiramisu (recipe here ) and Chocolate molten cakes (recipe here ) The tiramisu was perfect – we’ve made it many times before.  She asked if it was “real” tiramisu; apparently, she’s had the “not real” (surreal?  unreal?) kind before.  This is as real as I can get it; there are now several brands of kosher mascarpone available.  That’s the special cheese you need to make the creamy layers.  Kosher lady fingers have been around forever. As for the molten cakes, they were a bit TOO molten.  The recipe says to keep them in the fridge and then bake them (at 450) for 6 (?) minutes before serving.  I baked them exactly as long as it says to, plus an extra couple of minutes, plus a couple of minutes to firm up in the individual dishes, and they were still soggy.  Soggy but amazingly DELICOUS, like the best, gooiest brownie...