I’ve been doing a fair amount of baking/pastry over the last few weeks, especially because I screwed up and got a double egg delivery a few weeks ago. Some things have been more successful than others! Here’s a sampling of what I’ve pulled off, and some of what has epically failed…
Frituras
One night I was just yenning for some junk food, and wanted to cook something up that was easy. About a year ago I bought Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers: Unique recipes and stories from the times of the Crypto-Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, by Genie Milgrom, but I hadn’t had a chance to experiment with it much until quarantine. I found this recipe, which looked easy, quick, and yummy, if better suited to Chanukah than the end of Passover.
The batter was a bit strange to work with, and the temperature of the oil really changed the end product, but they were yummy and fun. The batter puffed up a lot in the hot oil, because of the level of baking powder, but they turned crispy on the outside and foamy on the inside as they cooled. I strongly recommend eating them with other people, as you don’t want to eat the whole batch yourself, you’ll feel ill, and they won’t be good if they’re not fresh.
[Milgrom, Genie. (2019) Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers: Unique recipes and stories from the times of the Crypto-Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. Jerusalem: Gefen Press, p. 109]
Ingredients
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk, or coconut milk for pareve
2 teaspoons baking powder
Olive oil or Canola oil for frying [I used rapeseed oil, and it was fine]
Directions
Mix all ingredients well and drop into hot oil by the spoonful. Fry until golden brown and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar or honey if desired. [I used confectioners’ sugar, but I think honey would be delicious.]
Îles Flottantes
My friend F recommended I try my hand at these, when she heard I had an abundance of eggs. I admit I was nervous, because I had never made anything so technical before. I only occasionally make meringue and I had never made a crème anglaise before. But it wasn’t really so hard in the end! I took my time, and the thing that needed the most care was keeping the poaching liquid at a low temperature. I took my time and enjoyed myself thoroughly!
You may recognise these from a technical challenge set by Mary on the Great British Bake Off (Baking Show in America). I used the Bake Off recipe, in fact! First I warmed milk, cream, and vanilla over a low heat on the stove. I whipped 6 egg whites to stiff peaks, and then added sugar by the spoonful, whipping the egg whites back to stiff peaks each time. I formed cannelles of the meringue mixture using wet tablespoons (this skill improved over time), and poached them gently in the milk mixture. If I didn’t watch carefully, and the mixture got too warm, the cannelles would blow up and then collapse. The cannelles cooled on a rack to room temperature. Then, to make the crème anglaise, I whisked the egg yolks with sugar until they turned pale (workout for the day!), and then tempered and blended in the milk mixture. My eggs were very deep orange, so my crème anglaise came out quite dark. I floated the cannelles on the mixture. I didn’t make the spun sugar mostly because I didn’t have time– it was getting late and I wanted to eat! But I think I’d like to experiment with that in the future.
Aranygaluska
My friend E sent me a recipe for Hungarian Aranygaluska, which are evidently her favourite dessert. I was really excited about making them. Unfortunately, my yeast turned out to be out of date, and the little luscious dumplings I was supposed to get turned into dense, heavy bricks. But my friend V has kindly gifted me some more flour, and my friend K is bringing me some fresh yeast, and so I hope to give these another try in the next week or two!
This Isolation Life 