Supper Club V: Dessert
After overwhelming my guest's defenses with a wall of meat, it was time for dessert. I like dessert so much that we had two of them.
The first was an old family recipe, or at least our best approximation thereof. As my paternal grandfather's sister Eleanor nears ninety years of age she has more or less retired from the kitchen, but when I was a kid she was a fantastic cook, almost on par with my mother. One of the best meals I've had in my entire life was the lamb chops she made when we visited her in Fort Lauderdale when I was in high school. During the winter she would occasionally make "care packages" for my father full of knishes and desserts. One of those desserts was a traditional Jewish dessert called Mondel bread (or choose your own spelling). It is similar in shape to biscotti, but as made by Aunt Eleanor, those with weak jaws needed to dip it in tea to consume it, but it was still delicious.
Fortunately, at some point in the past Aunt Eleanor had sent my mother the recipe. She graciously scanned it and sent it along, and that's when I found out that we actually had two different mondel bread recipes. Neither of us had any idea which one she actually used, and as Aunt Eleanor doesn't do email and has been deaf since she was a little girl, I couldn't call her up and ask her on short notice to find out which was the correct one. Therefore, I picked a recipe at random and hoped for the best:
Aunt Eleanor's Mondel Bread (Type I)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp lemon zest
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat oil, sugar and eggs well, until sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Batter will be very thick and heavy.
4. Oil cookie sheet really well.
5. Form into two loaves the length of the cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. Take out of oven and cut into slices.
8. Return to oven and bake another 10 to 15 minutes.
The recipe originally called for raisins, but it also says they are optional and I could never remember having a batch with raisins, so I omitted them. It also didn't specify the type of nuts, but underneath my Aunt has written "better use walnuts" so I didn't argue with her.
This was ridiculously easy to make. I put it together on Wednesday night and sealed the results in a zip lock bag until it was time to serve. It was well received, although we did have some leftovers because everybody was pretty full by this point. Unlike the Mondel bread of my youth, the resulting dessert was not as hard as a rock. It was light and delicious, and I'll definitely be making it again. However, I may try the other recipe first to see if it's more like what I remember.
The second dessert was also a family recipe. This one is a cake my mother has made for holidays in the past. Neither I nor my sister had ever made it before.
Honey Cake
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dash of ground cloves
1 cup honey
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup chopped nuts (we used pecans)
2 tbsp cherry or almond liqueur (we used amaretto)
confectioner's sugar
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs and gradually beat in sugar and oil until smooth (egg mixture).
3. In a second bowl, mix or sift all dry ingredients together until well blended (dry mixture).
4. Mix honey and water together (liquid mixture).
5. Alternate adding some of the liquid mixture and the dry mixture to the egg mixture, combining well after each addition. Repeat until all everything has been added in.
6. Stir in the nuts and liqueur.
7. Turn into a well greased and floured bundt pan.
8. Bake for about one hour or until a tester comes out clean.
9. Before serving, dust with confectioner's sugar through a wire strainer.
tigerlily_blue baked this Friday night. We used amaretto because I didn't like the idea of having an entire bottle of cherry liqueur around for years (I've still got grappa from 2009) and I know Mom will drink the amaretto when she comes to visit. Ok, so probably she'll drink it the next 20 times she comes to visit, but the point is that somebody will consume it someday, unlike the grappa.
Anyway, we brought out both desserts at the same time and people went to town. Again, we had a few leftovers, but that was because people were full, not because the dessert was a failure.
Last post next: drinks and assorted details.
The first was an old family recipe, or at least our best approximation thereof. As my paternal grandfather's sister Eleanor nears ninety years of age she has more or less retired from the kitchen, but when I was a kid she was a fantastic cook, almost on par with my mother. One of the best meals I've had in my entire life was the lamb chops she made when we visited her in Fort Lauderdale when I was in high school. During the winter she would occasionally make "care packages" for my father full of knishes and desserts. One of those desserts was a traditional Jewish dessert called Mondel bread (or choose your own spelling). It is similar in shape to biscotti, but as made by Aunt Eleanor, those with weak jaws needed to dip it in tea to consume it, but it was still delicious.
Fortunately, at some point in the past Aunt Eleanor had sent my mother the recipe. She graciously scanned it and sent it along, and that's when I found out that we actually had two different mondel bread recipes. Neither of us had any idea which one she actually used, and as Aunt Eleanor doesn't do email and has been deaf since she was a little girl, I couldn't call her up and ask her on short notice to find out which was the correct one. Therefore, I picked a recipe at random and hoped for the best:
Aunt Eleanor's Mondel Bread (Type I)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp lemon zest
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat oil, sugar and eggs well, until sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Batter will be very thick and heavy.
4. Oil cookie sheet really well.
5. Form into two loaves the length of the cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. Take out of oven and cut into slices.
8. Return to oven and bake another 10 to 15 minutes.
The recipe originally called for raisins, but it also says they are optional and I could never remember having a batch with raisins, so I omitted them. It also didn't specify the type of nuts, but underneath my Aunt has written "better use walnuts" so I didn't argue with her.
This was ridiculously easy to make. I put it together on Wednesday night and sealed the results in a zip lock bag until it was time to serve. It was well received, although we did have some leftovers because everybody was pretty full by this point. Unlike the Mondel bread of my youth, the resulting dessert was not as hard as a rock. It was light and delicious, and I'll definitely be making it again. However, I may try the other recipe first to see if it's more like what I remember.
The second dessert was also a family recipe. This one is a cake my mother has made for holidays in the past. Neither I nor my sister had ever made it before.
Honey Cake
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dash of ground cloves
1 cup honey
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup chopped nuts (we used pecans)
2 tbsp cherry or almond liqueur (we used amaretto)
confectioner's sugar
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs and gradually beat in sugar and oil until smooth (egg mixture).
3. In a second bowl, mix or sift all dry ingredients together until well blended (dry mixture).
4. Mix honey and water together (liquid mixture).
5. Alternate adding some of the liquid mixture and the dry mixture to the egg mixture, combining well after each addition. Repeat until all everything has been added in.
6. Stir in the nuts and liqueur.
7. Turn into a well greased and floured bundt pan.
8. Bake for about one hour or until a tester comes out clean.
9. Before serving, dust with confectioner's sugar through a wire strainer.
tigerlily_blue baked this Friday night. We used amaretto because I didn't like the idea of having an entire bottle of cherry liqueur around for years (I've still got grappa from 2009) and I know Mom will drink the amaretto when she comes to visit. Ok, so probably she'll drink it the next 20 times she comes to visit, but the point is that somebody will consume it someday, unlike the grappa.
Anyway, we brought out both desserts at the same time and people went to town. Again, we had a few leftovers, but that was because people were full, not because the dessert was a failure.
Last post next: drinks and assorted details.