Treats that wake the senses

BASYA LAYE

Washington, D.C.-area pastry chef Paula Shoyer’s follow up to her successful 2010 dessert cookbook, The Kosher Baker: Over 160 Dairy-free Recipes from Traditional to Trendy (Brandeis), is the just-published The Holiday Kosher Baker: Traditional and Contemporary Holiday Desserts (Sterling, 2013). It contains more than 100 recipes, many of them parve (non-dairy) and at least 45 that are Passover friendly.

Trained in Paris, Shoyer received her pastry diploma from the Ritz Escoffier Ecole de Gastronomie Française and has been steadily traversing the globe doing in-person baking demonstrations and radio and TV segments since her first book’s release. This new book expands the kosher baking repertoire and is a welcome addition to the genre. “The Holiday Kosher Baker will become, I hope, your new holiday baking manifesto,” Shoyer writes in the introduction. “It is designed to fit the way you think about holiday desserts…. This is a new era for Jewish bakers to showcase – at home – the same desserts they see in the mainstream.”

Separated into chapters with Jewish holiday headings, including Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, Chanukah, Purim, Passover and Shavuot, Shoyer’s Holiday Kosher Baker also includes recommendations of what to bring to shared community events, such as a shivah after a death and a brit after the birth of a baby boy. A mother of four, Shoyer even includes suggested desserts to bring for a mother of a new baby versus the guests at a brit – a mother of a newborn, for example, might only be able to manage a treat that doesn’t have to be cut and can be consumed one-handed, such as babka bites, pignons or rugelach. In the introduction, Shoyer writes that she intentionally included recipes that are “gluten-free, vegan, nut-free and low in sugar,” so that “there’s something for everyone,” and she took readers’ comments into consideration when deciding to include dairy recipes this time around (prominently featured in the section devoted to the dairy-heavy holiday of Shavuot).

As with other holidays, for Chanukah, it’s traditional to serve desserts that connect to the themes of the celebration – typically, we make foods that incorporate ingredients like oil, commemorating the oil that lasted eight days instead of one after the Maccabee rebellion saw success and the Temple was rededicated. More often than not, the oily treats are potato latkes, but may include sufganiyot or buñuelos, depending on your point of origin.

In honor of those usual suspects (and in honor my heritage and the merging of Chanukah and American Thanksgiving this year), I set out to make pumpkin doughnuts – because who doesn’t want to eat pumpkin doughnuts?!

Full disclosure: I set out to make pumpkin doughnuts, but I tiredly failed to add the margarine to the dough before letting it rise and so had to throw out the dough. All of it. In the interest of time, it was the Almond Olive Oil Cake that won out for being economical and (very) efficient, i.e. one-bowl, no rising, and I’m not sorry it did. This cake is a perfect compliment to the tradition of “oily” foods, but oily it is not. And, it is versatile enough to provide some sweet comfort in difficult times and a celebratory and satisfying treat in happy ones. Also, it’s pretty.

A small but not insignificant substitution made was using lemon zest in place of orange zest, and it was lovely. Next time, I might pair the finished cake with a dab of orange marmalade or lemon preserves on top. The cake is aromatic and delicately moist. (And I can attest that it goes very well with a cup of coffee.) The only time-consuming step is grinding the nuts, but only because it takes a moment to wash the blender after use!

Because I think they will be delicious (don’t forget the margarine!), I have also included the recipe for pumpkin doughnuts below.

ALMOND AND OLIVE OIL CAKE
The use of olive oil in cakes dates back farther than the Chanukah story itself. Olive oil was used in baked offerings at the Temple. This is a super easy teatime cake that reminds me of simple cakes I have eaten in Italy. If you are feeling decadent, service this with whipped cream.

3/4 cup sliced almonds (with or without skins)
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp orange zest (from one orange)
spray oil containing flour

Preheat oven to 350°F. Trace an eight-inch round pan on parchment paper and cut out with scissors. Grease and flour the pan, press in the parchment circle, and grease and flour the top of the parchment and sides of the pan. Sprinkle and spread the sliced almonds on the bottom of the pan and spread to cover.

In a medium bowl, beat the sugar, eggs and olive oil together until creamy, for about one minute at medium speed. Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, salt, almond extract and orange zest and beat until combined. Pour the mixture over the sliced nuts. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then run a knife around the sides. Turn the cake onto a wire rack and let cool. Serve the cake almond side up. Store it covered at room temperature for up to four days or freeze for up to three months.

PUMPKIN DOUGHNUTS
Pumpkin purée and classic pumpkin pie spices give classic Chanukah doughnuts a
Thanksgiving twist, just in time for Thanksgivukah. Makes 15.

1/4 ounce (1 envelope) dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup plus 1 tsp sugar, divided
2 tbsp light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup soy milk
2 tbsp margarine, at room temperature for at least 15 minutes
1 large egg
1/2 cup pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 to 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
canola oil for frying
1/4 cup (30g) confectioner’s sugar for dusting

In the bowl of an electric mixer or a large mixing bowl, stir together the yeast, warm water and one teaspoon sugar. Let mixture sit about 10 minutes, or until thick.

Add remaining sugar, brown sugar, soy milk, margarine, egg, pumpkin, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and two cups flour. Mix on low speed with a dough hook or by hand with a wooden spoon. Add another cup flour; mix well. Scrape down bowl sides. Add more flour, a tablespoon at a time; mix until dough becomes smooth.

Cover bowl with a clean dish towel; let rise one hour in a warm place.
Punch down the dough by folding it over a few times and reshaping it into a ball. Cover again; let rise 10 minutes.

Dust a cookie sheet with flour. Sprinkle some flour on your work surface. Roll to half-inch thickness. Use a two-and-a-half-inch round cookie cutter or drinking glass to cut out circles; place on the prepared cookie sheet. Re-roll any scraps. Cover doughnuts with the towel; let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.

Heat one-and-a-half inches of oil in a medium saucepan for a few minutes; use a candy thermometer to maintain an oil temperature between 365 and 375 degrees.

Cover a cookie sheet with foil. Place a wire rack on top. Gently slide no more than four doughnuts, top side down, into the oil and fry for one-and-a-half minutes. Turn doughnuts over and cook another one-and-a-half minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, letting excess oil drip off, and place on wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining doughnuts.

Dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve. Store covered at room temperature for up to one day.

Reheat to serve.

Note: if hand mixing, like I did, you will need to gently knead the dough into a smooth ball and then lightly grease the bottom of the bowl before letting it rise. If desired, let it rise using your oven’s bread-proofing setting.

Paula Shoyer is the first cousin once removed of Basya Laye. For more on Shoyer, visit PaulasPastry.com and kosherbaker.blogspot.com.

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