https://www.couldntbeparve.com Mon, 21 Nov 2016 23:23:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2014/12/12/secret-restaurant-recipes-from-the-worlds-top-kosher-restaurants/ Fri, 12 Dec 2014 14:00:40 +0000 http://www.couldntbeparve.com/?p=3656 Secret Restaurant Recipes – From the World’s Top Kosher Restaurants by Leah Shapira and Victoria Dwek is the perfect cookbook for reading on a lazy Saturday afternoon. It is a collection of recipes from Kosher restaurants from around the world. It is fun to read through and imagine eating at all these great places. Plus the pictures are amazing! But even better, the recipes make some of the restaurants’ best dishes possible to make at home! Many of the recipes push the envelope in terms of creativity and ingredients, and I can’t wait to try some of the amazing recipes like Smoked Short Rib Tacos, Deviled Kale Salad, and Chinese Style Glazed Corned Beef. I seriously love this book, and I know I am not alone. Last week it was the number one Kosher cookbook on Amazon and the number three cookbook overall. I was sent a review copy of this book but I would never recommend a book I wouldn’t want to buy myself so of course I had to try some of the recipes. Since most of the desserts contain non dairy creamer (which I don’t use) I decided to test some of the savory recipes instead, and I have to say we all thought they were delicious. The portabella soup was such a hit with my seven year old he told me “I’m going to fall out of my chair this soup is so good.” I even took a short cut and used purchased vegetable broth and it was still amazing. I can’t wait to make more of the recipes. If you are looking for a great Chanukah gift for someone who loves food, this is the perfect thing. Disclamer: I received a free copy of this cookbook for review but all the opinions above are entirely mine. Photos from Secret Restaurant Recipes by Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek Reprinted with permission from the copyright holders: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications http://www.artscroll.com/Books/srrh.html]]> https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2012/11/15/a-better-pie-crust/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2012/11/15/a-better-pie-crust/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:48:31 +0000 http://www.couldntbeparve.com/?p=2368 cherry pie at the peak of the season, pies don’t tend to be the first thing I think to make when faced with all that fresh fruit. I don’t know why, I should make more fruit pies, but I just tend not to. My five year old son, who mostly only eats desserts I make, pointed out to me recently that he has never had apple pie in his life. Apple tarts and apple marshmallows, sure, but never apple pie. Clearly I am failing in my patriotic duty. That being said, even though the rest of the year I tend to make everything but pie, for Thanksgiving I never make anything else. My offers to make other desserts for Thanksgiving are always met with outrage by family who want all the classic pies instead. So every year, no matter how many people are coming, we have no less than three pies. One pumpkin, one pecan and one fruit based pie. (I guess this year I could make that pie apple, just to make my son happy.)

For the last several years I have been using the same pie crust recipe, a parve adaptation of Mark Bittman’s sweet tart crust. Because it is a tart crust it is a bit less flakey than a traditional pie crust, but the addition of the egg gives it a flavor boost which is needed when working with margarine rather than butter. Back when I started making this crust there were not anywhere near as many options for dairy-free fats as there are now so margarine was it. This year I decided that instead of just using the same crust recipe using buttery sicks for the margarine because that is what I have always used I was going to do a scientific comparison of two different recipes and a whole collection of different pareve fats. I tested crusts using Earth Balance buttery sticks, Earth Balance organic whipped buttery spread, spectrum organic shortening and coconut oil. I tried all the fats in the recipe with egg and in a more standard shortening pie crust recipe without egg. Since people rave about the texture of shortening pie crusts I expected those to be the best texture-wise and I added a bit of butter flavor to them to make them more flavorful (since all margarine consists of is shortening, water and butter flavor and that is what I have been using for crusts for years.) I baked all the crusts with a standard pumpkin pie filling so that a difference in fillings wouldn’t affect the results.

All the tasters agreed that there were two clear winners – the Sweet Tart Crust and the Flaky Pie Crust – and we liked both equally well. The first was the adaptation of Mark Bittman’s recipe that I have been using for years made with the Earth Balance Buttery Sticks. The egg yolk gives it a nice richness but it is still flakey enough to be satisfying as a pie crust. The second was the egg free crust made with the spectrum organic shortening and butter flavor. It was flakey with a good texture and has the added advantage being vegan because it doesn’t have eggs. That being said, I imagine that flavor would be a bit flat without the butter flavoring so if you don’t want to get butter flavoring I would recommend using the recipe with margarine and egg instead. Like all crusts, it is important not to overwork the dough with either of these recipes or it will get tough. I was surprised that we didn’t like the coconut oil crust better. I have used it before in tart crusts with great success but it comes out harder and a bit crunchier than was pleasing for a pie where the crust might be a bit thicker. I will still be using coconut oil for thin tart crusts but will stick to one of these two recipes for pie. Both of these recipes make enough for a single 9-inch deep dish pie. Double the recipe if making a double crusted pie. Making all these crusts has inspired me to make more pies, so it just may be that pies start showing up around here more often.]]> https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2012/11/15/a-better-pie-crust/feed/ 17 https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/11/09/heavenly-bakers-baby-chocolate/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/11/09/heavenly-bakers-baby-chocolate/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:48:00 +0000 http://69.89.31.192/~couldntb/2009/11/heavenly-bakers-baby-chocolate-oblivions/ Heavenly Cake Baker recipe, Baby Chocolate Oblivions. The recipe called for the cakes to be baked in silicone cupcake pans, so I decided to use silicone rose pans about the same size and was thrilled with how they turned out. I ended up improvising for some of the baking directions because I don’t have a parve roasting pan or turkey baster (shocking, I know). It certainly did not make sense to buy them just for this recipe, since I do not envision I will be doing a lot of parve roasting in the future, so I just made due with what I had. The cakes turned out just fine in spite of the changes. I placed the 6 cup mold (for half a recipe) in a 9 x 13 baking pan without a rack (because my rack was too big) and poured the water for the water bath in there. I made a foil pan to place on top during baking, and when the cakes were done I carefully lifted the pan out of the water bath and placed it on the rack. I was worried they would break from all the shifting, but the cakes seemed to hold together just fine. The cake was delicious. It had a dense creamy texture that was like a cross between a cake and a truffle. I served it with a simple raspberry sauce to offset the richness. The cake reminded me of the cake that my family used to get for every birthday. A co-worker of my mom’s use to sell a similar flourless chocolate truffle cake and we would order them for every birthday and celebration. We called it “Nancy’s cake” and would savor it in small slices. In retrospect it might be a bit strange that I requested this cake as an eight year old instead of something with piles of brightly colored buttercream, but it was my absolute favorite. Unfortunately Nancy moved away after only a few years, taking her recipe with her and leaving us to fend for ourselves when it came to birthday cakes. I have made many flourless chocolate cakes over the years (it wouldn’t be Passover without them) and this cake comes closest to that creamy texture I remember loving about Nancy’s cakes. The cake has only four ingredients, chocolate, sugar, eggs and butter (for which I substituted margarine) so it is critical to use good quality chocolate for this recipe. My only complaint about this recipe is that it is so rich the individual cakes were too big for a single serving. I served them to a group of great dessert eaters, the kind of people who don’t turn down a rich dessert, especially one made of chocolate, and most people couldn’t finish much more than half. I might try making them in mini muffin tins next time, or as a larger cake that I could cut smaller servings from. ]]> https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/11/09/heavenly-bakers-baby-chocolate/feed/ 8 https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/11/02/heavenly-bakers-pumpkin-cake/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/11/02/heavenly-bakers-pumpkin-cake/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:47:00 +0000 http://69.89.31.192/~couldntb/2009/11/heavenly-bakers-pumpkin-cake/ Heavenly Cake Bakers. We are going to be baking through Rose Levy Beranbaum’s new book Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. As an avid baker I knew that there was a serious gap in my baking library since I didn’t own a book by the esteemed Rose Beranbaum, so joining this group gave me the excuse I needed ask Amazon to send the beautiful book my way (so dangerous to have the Amazon app on my phone, it makes it too easy). This book is amazing! Every recipe looks outstanding and the pictures are unbelievably beautiful. I can’t wait to try them all! Having never seen the book before signing up, I didn’t realize quite the challenge it will be to make many of the recipes parve without using unnatural ingredients, but I am planning on doing the best I can. I can’t post the recipes in their entirety but will be posting the substitutions I used to make it parve, and am always happy to answer any questions. Because of a variety of other baking commitments this week (not to mention all the other things in life that fill the day) I didn’t have time to make the complicated Burnt Orange Buttercream that accompanies the pumpkin cake, but I was so excited about the bake along that I wanted to at least make the cake so I could get started. I will step up and make the recipes in all their complicated glory in the future, but I just couldn’t wait to start. Also, I love pumpkin and it is already November and I haven’t made one pumpkin dessert yet this year so it is high time. Well I am glad that I made this cake. The original cake was parve, so it required no tinkering on my part. (The buttercream, however, is a whole different story). In the interest of pawning the cake off on the people I work with, I baked cupcakes with half the recipe instead of making a single bundt cake. I absolutely loved them! The texture is light and lovely, and the pumpkin flavor shines with the warmth of the spices. In trying to keep with the original flavors I glazed them with an orange glaze and loved the combination of pumpkin and orange. I am sure that with the buttercream they would have been out of this world, but even without they sure were a tasty way to start November. To see what all the other Heavenly Cake Bakers have made this week click on the widget in the sidebar.]]> https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/11/02/heavenly-bakers-pumpkin-cake/feed/ 5 https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/09/13/whole-wheat-zucchini-muffins/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/09/13/whole-wheat-zucchini-muffins/#comments Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:41:00 +0000 http://69.89.31.192/~couldntb/2009/09/whole-wheat-zucchini-muffins/
My roommate in college had an awesome recipe for zucchini bread from her mom that has always been my go to recipe, but for some reason I decided to try a different recipe this time. That was not a good choice on my part. The recipe I tried, from King Arthur Flour, wasn’t bad but it lacked the balance I like in my zucchini bread. It was too sweet to my taste and I though that the molasses flavor overpowered the other flavors in the muffins. However, I used all white whole wheat flour and the muffins were still nice and light. No one could tell that they were whole wheat, which I guess is a plus in some contexts. I still have a zucchini left in the refrigerator so maybe I will try the other recipe later this week for comparison.]]> https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/09/13/whole-wheat-zucchini-muffins/feed/ 4 https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/09/07/no-knead-challah/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/09/07/no-knead-challah/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:32:00 +0000 http://69.89.31.192/~couldntb/2009/09/no-knead-challah/ no-knead bread had been so successful I was eager to try the King Arthur Flour version of no-knead challah. The recipe is based on the original bread recipe but they adapted it to include eggs and honey and make it more challah-like. The dough was incredibly easy to put together and it rose happily overnight in the fridge just like the recipe promised. Unfortunately the dough was quite sticky to work with, I needed a lot of extra flour to roll it out in order to braid it. If making this recipe I recommend making a pull-apart challah with it. Just break of egg sized pieces, roughly roll them into balls and place them in a greased cake pan barely touching. I didn’t think the finished bread tasted all that challah-like. It was delicious, don’t get me wrong, but is was a bit too soft and didn’t quite have the right chewiness for challah. I am definitely saving the recipe because I think it would make killer monkey bread or a base for cinnamon buns or even french toast. For challah, though, I am going to stick to my old recipe for no-knead challah which is only slightly more work and can also be left in the fridge overnight before braiding and baking. It is also posted here if you want more ideas for toppings/additions. The one other advantage the King Arthur recipe has over my other one is that it can be made up to 4 days in advance, so if thursday nights are crazy then it might be a better choice.]]> https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/09/07/no-knead-challah/feed/ 3 https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/09/04/i-finally-jumped-on-bandwagon/ Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:36:00 +0000 http://69.89.31.192/~couldntb/2009/09/i-finally-jumped-on-the-bandwagon/ this article. I can’t wait to try other variations.]]> https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/09/01/return-to-real-life/ Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:30:00 +0000 http://69.89.31.192/~couldntb/2009/09/a-return-to-real-life/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/08/20/off-on-vacation/ Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:14:00 +0000 http://69.89.31.192/~couldntb/2009/08/off-on-vacation/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/08/09/unfortunate-evening/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/08/09/unfortunate-evening/#comments Sun, 09 Aug 2009 03:37:00 +0000 http://69.89.31.192/~couldntb/2009/08/an-unfortunate-evening/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/08/09/unfortunate-evening/feed/ 1 https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/08/03/week-of-chocolate/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/08/03/week-of-chocolate/#comments Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:36:00 +0000 http://69.89.31.192/~couldntb/2009/08/a-week-of-chocolate/ One of my goals is to develop non-dairy truffles that are as luscious and delicious to eat as dairy ones, and I figured that I should understand the underlying principles of chocolate confectionary before messing with recipes to remove the dairy. I made one non-dairy attempt at cherry truffles one evening last week and they came out much better than any I had made in the past so I have high hopes for future experimentation. Since I spent the week literally covered in chocolate I though I would post some pictures of the finished products. The lighting wasn’t great so it was hard to get good pictures, but these at least give a feel for what we made. ]]> https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/08/03/week-of-chocolate/feed/ 1 https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/07/20/exciting-day/ https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/07/20/exciting-day/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:31:00 +0000 http://69.89.31.192/~couldntb/2009/07/an-exciting-day/ Today was a very exciting day for me because my toddler helped me cook for the first time. He asked for pancakes for breakfast and then helped me make them. I have been eagerly waiting until he was old enough to cook with me and am very excited about baking and cooking with him now that he is interested.]]> https://www.couldntbeparve.com/2009/07/20/exciting-day/feed/ 2