My Honey Cake for Rosh Hashana

I was not sure if this year I will prepare a honey cake, so I rather left everything for the last hours before the Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. As for the meals we were invited to friends in both days, the chances to use my recipe from the previous years was minimal. However, as usually happens, my friend where we were invited for the second evening had too much on her sleeves and asked to bring some honey cake. With only a couple of hours left, I tried to be as fast as possible, but also to bring something new to the table. I wanted something new, with a traditional twist, and spicy - but not cinnamon kind of spicy. 

So, here we go, for a recipe which can be easily done any time during the autumn winter months too, served with in the company of a big mug of chocolate or jasmin tea. Not too sweet, not too moist, aromated and fresh for almost 5 more days after baking - if you hide it well from hungry intruders. 

Ingredients

- 1 cup unsweetened/Turkish coffee

- 3 cups flour

- 15 gr. baking powder

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 1 cup honey

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 3 medium-sized eggs, beaten

- 1/2 teaspoon star anise, powder

- 2 tablespoon cocoa dissolved in 1 cup warm water

Directions

Preheat the oven at 250, at least 10 minutes before starting the baking. Add baking paper to the pan. Add the ingredients, one by one, and mix well until blending. Pour the content into the baking pan(s). Leave it in the oven for at least 1 hour.

Preparation time

20 minutes

Baking time

1h-1h.20

Serves

2 batches of tasty honey cake, enough for at two slices for each of the 10 hungry people.

Bon Appétit! and Shana Tova!

Rosh Hashana menu in the making: Muffin carrot recipe

Guess who is, again and again, late with the preparation of the Rosh Hashana menu? Yes, you guessed right, it's me. But, trying to keep up with the various pans and measures, I am also doing my best to take notes and take pictures and when one delicious meal is in the oven, to update the blog, one post at a time.

The muffin carrot recipe has a lot of qualities, besides being easy to make - preparation time 15 minutes, cooking, around 20 minutes at 200C - it also combines a lot of flavours, like cinnamon, carrot and sweet maple syrup (I used the Lyle's Golden Syrup).

The ingredients are the following:

- 200 gr. floor

- 150 gr. brown sugar

- 2 big carrots finely grated

- 2 big eggs

- 50 gr. cooking oil

- 100 gr. Lyle's Golden Syrup

- 1 tablespoon cinnamon

- 1 tablespoon baking powder

- 100 gr. veggie margarine, melted

Mix well the carrots with floor, eggs and baking powder. Add the oil, cinnamon, sugar and veggie margarine. Mix till all the ingredients are heterogeneous.

Pour the composition in the muffin-form and get ready for a moderately sweet treat.
It serves 12.

Get ready, more to come in the next 24 hours! 

Spicy carrots

Carrots are not my favorite vegetables and the repeated warnings of my mother - z''l-  that if I don't eat too many of them I will wear glasses - that turned into reality at a certain moment - did not change my mind. I cannot stand the taste of them, especially when consumed raw. Instead, I prefer the neutral taste of the boiled ones in soups or sautés, or some unusual sour-sweet combinations of some Moroccan salads.

With some vegetarian guests invited for Rosh Hashana I did not have too many choices but to try to do something new that may include the detested carrots. Out of my mind, I set up the following recipe, that looks very good in picture and is moderately tasty when fresh from the frying pan.

I peeled and sliced the carrots.

In the pan, I added 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil with 1 tea spoon of za'atar spice - a post dedicated to spices soon, and let them fry for 7 minutes. I added the carrots and turned them from one side to the other every 5 minutes. At a temperature of 150C, the carrots were ready in around 20 minutes, a little bit fried and with enough spices to eliminate any trace of original taste. I would like to add the next time some garlic too. If you are a real gourmet, be so creative and add a drop of honey. 

Bon Appetit!