A New Idea for Mishloach Manot Stuffers – Chocolate Covered Cookie Dough Balls

Chocolate covered cookie dough balls

Purim’s early this year, so I’m in a mad rush to organize my mishlochei manot and get going on my Purim baking. Last year, I posted lots of recipes that you can use to make some fun, home made goodies to add to your mishlochei manot – check out parts I, II and III (Oznei Haman)… But that’s not enough!! A few months ago, I made these really delish chocolate covered cookie dough balls. Now who doesn’t like cookie dough? Then cover them in chocolate, and what’s not to love?

This recipe ensures that the cookie dough is safe as it’s made without eggs. It can also easily be made parev so it’s a great little addition to your give-aways for the chag.

Chag Purim Sameach!

Ingredients

½ cup butter or margarine

1 cup packed brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons water

1¼ cups flour

1/3 cup parev chocolate chips

350 grams (12 ounces) parev dark/semi-sweet chocolate

How to do it

1. Using an electric mixer, beat margarine and brown sugar on high speed until properly creamed for about 5 minutes (to ensure that there are no gritty bits of sugar left)

2. Add vanilla, salt and water and mix till combined.

3. Add flour and mix till combined.

Dipping the chilled cookie dough balls into the melted chocolate

4. Fold in the chocolate chips by hand. Cover dough and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

5. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. With your (very clean) hands, roll the dough into balls that are about 2 cm/1 inch in diameter, and place them on the baking sheets. Freeze for at least 20 minutes.

6. Melt dark chocolate in a double boiler (bring about 5cm/2 inches of water to the boil in a medium-sized pot. In a smaller pot that can easily fit over the bottom pot, break up the chocolate and melt it over the simmering water, making sure that the top pot does touch the water below. Stir until all melted). Allow the melted chocolate to cool to nearly room temperature.

7. Dip the dough balls. Remove one tray of cookie dough balls from the freezer. One by one, drop each ball into the melted chocolate, using two forks, roll it in the chocolate until it’s completely covered. Remove the ball and place it back on the baking sheet. When you’ve done all the balls, put the tray back in the fridge and repeat the process with the second tray.

8. Chill for at least 20 minutes and store in refrigerator until your serve them or give them as a gift.

A Glogg on my Blog for Purim

Purim: Isn’t that the chag when we’re allowed to get really drunk? Actually, while hitting the bottle is almost as synonymous with Purim as dressing up, this isn’t an excuse to go all out and get blind drunk.

The Talmud tells us that “A person should drink on Purim until the point where they can’t tell the difference between ‘Blessed is Mordechai’ and ‘Cursed is Haman’.” In other words, we are permitted to drink to the point where we can’t intelligently debate which aspect of God’s revelation is greater, because, in fact it’s all the same. And importantly, we should not become so drunk that we forget to perform the mitzvot. So getting sozzled in moderation is key – one guideline is to drink just a little more than one usually does to induce a slightly higher level of blurriness, but no more.

So time to choose your poison, as it were.Purim is clearly the most festive of all chaggim, and our alcohol should fit its level of revelry. In addition, those of us in the Northern hemisphere celebrate Purim during the cold of winter, so what can be more fitting to quaff than a spicy, warm glogg (pronounced, says my friend Ann, “glerg”). So here’s a quick and easy recipe for a core warming libation that will put a smile on everyone’s face, a stagger in their step and a check mark next to the list of mitzvot we must perform on Purim.

Wishing you all a very happy and just slightly inebriated Purim!

PURIM GLOGG

Ingredients

Purim Glogg

750 ml (25 fl oz) dry red wine (1 regular bottle)

½ cup gin or vodka

½ cup raisins (optional)

1/3 cup sugar

Peel of one orange (use a vegetable peeler to remove only the rind of the orange – no white)

2 large cinnamon sticks broken up

2 cardamom pods opened up

6 whole cloves

How to do it

1. In a large pot or saucepan, stir together the wine, vodka/gin, sugar and raisins.

2. Please the orange peel, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom in a spice bag (you can make this using a piece of doubled over cheese cloth, placing the spices in the middle, bringing the corners together and tying it up with a piece of clean string); or you can be lazy and throw it all in the pot and strain the liquid when you are done. Please the spices in the pot and bring the mixture to a simmer, without boiling. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove the spice bag or strain the liquid, and discard the spices.

3. Serve in a punch bowl or in a metal bowl that you can keep warm over a flame.

Serves about 8. Warning: This drink packs a punch!

Mishloach Manot Goodies for Purim – Part 3 – Oznei Haman

As promised, here’s my recipe for the queen of the moshlochei manot – oznei haman, which I grew up calling “homan taschen”. I’m still not sure why the Hebrew version calls this little Purim cookie Haman’s Ears while the Yiddish version refers to Haman’s hat. Either way, these are the star of the Purim eating show.

Growing up in South Africa, we used to get these huge oznei haman that were made with a plain yeast dough filled with either a white cheese mixture or poppy seeds – this article in Ha’aretz describes them perfectly, but unfortunately no recipe. When I made aliyah, I did not recognize what passes for oznei haman in Israel. Here, they are very dry, very hard cookies, and are filled with a range of fillings, from jam to chocolate, to dates, to halva and of course, poppy seeds. I never warmed to these unpalatable dry oznei haman. Then I found this recipe on a website years ago. I would like to give the website credit, but my print out doesn’t show the URL, so I thank the anonymous baker, wherever she is, who put this wonderful recipe out there and changed my attitude toward oznei haman.

Oznei Haman

The beauty of this recipe is its soft and silky dough. The reason for this wonderful texture is that it’s made using cream cheese. So it does render these oznei haman dairy, but I think it’s worth it. I doubt they’ll last till dinner anyway! [Purim 2013 update: This year I made the day using Tofutti cream cheese instead of dairy cream chees, and margarine instead of butter. It worked really well, but I did add a little more flour so the dough wasn't too delicate - about an extra half cup]

For the filling, I use a combination of white and milk chocolate spreads – I prefer the Elite spreads, as they taste great and have a good texture. I have also used Dulce De Leche as a filling, but only the Dulcor brand, as it’s thick enough to withstand the heat of the oven without running out. And of course you can use jam. My daughter came up with the idea to add sprinkles, so I made a few with only white chocolate and sprinkles, and they look very festive. These also freeze well for around a week, so you can get them done and frozen and ready for Purim without being stressed.

OZNEI HAMAN WITH CREAM CHEESE DOUGH

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter/margarine softened

90 g (3 oz) cream cheese (Use Tofutti cream cheese for parev oznei haman)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

2½ – 3 cups flour

¼ teaspoon salt

Fillings of your choice.

Wrap the dough and refrigerate

How to do it

1. In your mixer, cream the sugar and the butter/margarine and then add the cream cheese and mix well till fluffy. Add the vanilla and the egg and beat well. On slow speed, add the flour and salt and mix well. The dough will be quite sticky. Pat it out onto a large piece of plastic wrap so it’s about 3 cm (1 inch) deep, wrap it and refrigerate it for about 1 hour. This will cool and set the dough and make it easier to handle.

2. Pre-heat your oven to 190°C (375°F).

Roll out dough and cut circles

3. Flour a clean surface and flour a rolling pin and take a chunk of the dough and begin rolling it out to about 3-4mm (1/8 inch) thickness, making sure not to roll the dough too thin. The dough is quite soft, so after each couple of rolls, lift it, flour the surface and turn it over to ensure it doesn’t stick. Cut 6 cm (2½ inch) rounds with a cutter.

First make one pinch to start the triangle

4. Spoon about ½ teaspoon of filling onto each round and pinch three corners to shape the triangle. Make sure that you only leave a very small opening as during the baking, the dough will relax and open more. Make sure the corners are pinched closed well. (I do reuse the leftover bits of dough – the dough is soft enough that it doesn’t matter and doesn’t toughen up when worked on more than once).

Then pinch the other two corners, covering most of the filling

5. Bake for 7-10 minutes, until the edges start getting lightly browned, turning the tray around in the middle if your oven doesn’t bake evenly. Cool completely before storing to ensure the chocolate or other filling hardens a little.

Makes about 75

Mishloach Manot Goodies for Purim – Part 2

South African Crunchie Bars Dressed Up for Purim

As promised,here’s another recipe for another sweet goody that can go in your mishloach manot basket. Ask a South African about “crunchies” and they’ll probably ask you which ones you’re talking about. There’s the store bought, very delicious Cadbury’s milk chocolate covered honeycomb bar. The other “crunchie” you’ll find all over South Africa is a oatmeal, brown sugar bar that’s rich and rustic in  taste, and is very easy to make.

This one’s another one that can be made parev, using margarine instead of butter. The ingredients are as simple as it gets, and the taste is wonderful, and not overly sweet. If this one’s not sweet enough for you, you can add another half a cup of brown sugar. I like it especially because it’s not cloyingly sweet.

SOUTH AFRICAN CRUNCHIE BARS

Ingredients

1¼ cup butter/margarine

1 tablespoon golden syrup or honey (you can buy golden syrup in specialty food stores in Israel such as Meatland in Ra’anana)

2 cups oats (I use the quick cooking oats, but you can also use regular)

1 cup flour

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

How to make it

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F)

2. Mix the flour, oats and coconut in a bowl.

3. Cut the butter into pieces and melt over medium heat in a saucepan. When the butter has melted, add the syrup/honey and brown sugar and heat till it just starts bubbling. Then add the baking soda, stir through and remove from heat.

4. Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir together making sure all the dry ingredients are covered with the butter mixture.

5. Line a medium-sized baking pan with baking paper and spray with non-stick spray. Press the mixture into the pan with a spoon or the bottom of a metal measuring cup, spreading it evening across the base of the pan.

6. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 160°C (300°F) for another 5-10 minutes or until golden brown, making sure not to burn the top.

7. Remove from the oven, allow to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and cut into bars – makes about 48 bars. Cool completely before eating otherwise the bars will crumble.

Mishloach Manot Goodies for Purim – Part 1

Purim seems to creep up on us so quickly and while there are no special foods that need to be prepared for the traditional Purim seudah, we do need to busy ourselves with moshlochei manot. The Purim mitzvah of sending moshloachei manot (literally meaning ”the sending of portions”) is a beautiful one, requiring us to send two items of food, each requiring a different blessing, to at least one person on the day of Purim. The reasons for this are to ensure that everyone has sufficient food for the Purim feast as well as to counteract Haman’s accusation that the Jews are a divided and scattered people.

Everyone wants to make their mishlochei manot a little special. I believe that there’s nothing more unique than adding some of your own home made goodies to the basket. This is part one of a series of recipes for yummy goodies you can add to your mishloachei manot. I will post my recipe for Oznei Haman in this series…

To ensure that your baked goodies don’t mess the rest of your offerings, take cellophane paper and cut small squares that are about three times the size of each bar or cookie, and wrap each one by twisting the sides together like a candy wrapper. This will make them look really pretty and will stop crumbs and goo from falling all over.

My first recipe is for a really delicious Peanut Butter Bar that tastes a lot like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I’ve had this recipe for years, and resurrected it when my son complained that you can’t get Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in Israel. This reminded me of the recipe, which I dug up from my recipe archives. The advantages of this bar is that it can easily be made parev, there’s no cooking required, and everyone loves them. I had to work very quickly to get a picture taken because before I looked around, they had been devoured.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE BARS

Ingredients

¾ cup butter/margarine

2 cups petit beurre or Graham Cracker crumbs

340 g (12 oz) peanut butter

100 g (1 cup) powdered sugar

340 g (12 oz) semi sweet chocolate broken into pieces

How to do it

1. Soften the peanut butter in a microwave (optional but recommended) on medium heat for about 20-30 seconds, making sure not to melt it. Melt the butter/margarine and mix with the cookie crumbs, powdered sugar and the peanut butter. Spread the mixture evenly into an ungreased medium sized pan lined with baking paper, making sure the top is smooth and compacted. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

2. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler (I take a medium-sized pot with about 2 cm of boiling water at the bottom, over medium heat on the stove, and place a smaller pot with the chocolate in in on top. Preferably use a saucepan, as it’s easier to use with its long handle. Do not let the top pot touch the water.). Keep stirring the chocolate over the water until it’s all melted. Spread evenly over the base. Refrigerate until the chocolate has set.

3. Using a sharp, heavy knife dipped in boiling water, carefully cut bars. (You can cut the bars before the chocolate is hard, but this results in messy bars. The extra effort to cut the hardened chocolate is worthwhile as the bars look much nicer.)

This should yield 48-64 bars depending on how small you cut them.

Pre-Purim Food for Thought from The Jewish Hostess

Purim is not far off so it’s time to think about decorations for the one Jewish holiday where entertaining isn’t only about food! Fortunately, Marlene Mamiye, The Jewish Hostess, is always on hand with wonderful ideas. She has kindly let me post her latest Purim post on my blog. If you live in Israel, you may not be able to get hold of everything you see here, but you will definitely be inspired. So get your decorator on, and check out Marlene’s Purim decorating tips and ideas. Thanks, Marlene, and Chag Purim Sameach!!

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Hi! My name is Marlene Mamiye from The Jewish Hostess and I would like to share with you a little about my Purim table setting preparations from last year’s holiday to save you from being a last minute hostess like me!

It was Thursday morning when I realized that I was so busy blogging about how everyone ELSE should be inspired for Purim, I couldn’t believe that I had no table setting,or menu plan of my own .

Here’s when a kid with a driver’s licence will come in handy.

I always say that secret to a pretty table setting is to LAYER, LAYER, LAYER!

So, one of my kids waited in the car while I ran in to Lana’s fabric on Kings Highway to buy Zebra polyester fabric -$5.99 a yard cut into 54 inch squares- cost about $25.

I placed the 2 squares as diamonds side by side on top of my white cotton hemstitch tablecloth.

While on her way to Starbucks another of of my kids ran and bought me a pack of white paper napkins that look just like linen. $10.99.

She also bought grey luncheon napkins that we decided to fold over the white large paper napkins $4.99.

I also bought a silver chain trim from the fabric store to use as napkin rings. $3.99 a yard. Pretty- no? cost about $15.

(You can also use this napkin idea for your Passover seder.)

(Send me pics if you come up with any cool ideas!!!!)

This is how the back of the napkin should tie:

These sterling ice coffee glasses given to us a wedding gift by Aunt Sydelle and uncle Mosie in the 80′s. About 15 years later I realized that they were still sitting in the closet needing a good polish, so I decided to turn them into vases, and I haven’t stopped using them since! My daughter ran out and bought me the dendrobium orchids from the corner flower kiosk up the block, and I stuck these exotic masks that I ordered from from AnytimeCostumes for about $10 each into the “vases”.

So many of my goblets have broken over the years that I had to alternate clear goblets from Target with my pretty new blue goblets given to me as a Rosh Hashanah gift from my new “consuegra”- (Syrian word for my daughter’s mother-in-law.)

Lunch was not bad if I don’t say so myself.

Since the Purim Seuda is traditionally a meat one,

We had grilled chicken with kalamata olives and tomatoes on salad,

grilled minute steak roast,

wild rice with spinach and sauteed red peppers, plain white rice (for the kids),home made za’ata challah rolls filled with sliced turkey,

(let me know if you want any recipes……)

mini lahamageen,

mini kibbe, tehine, mini baked sweet potatoes,

pareve kibbe neye,

whole wheat mazor’s dough with meat hammentashen filling,

fried chicken (for the kids), and my sister Jeanette brought chicken tacos that got wiped out.

I hope that I have given you some Purim table and menu inspiration!

Trust me it will keep them coming back for more!

Please check out my site The Jewish Hostess for more table decor ideas and great kosher recipes!