Easy Breads For Rosh Hashana

 One of the highlights of Rosh Hashana, starting next week is the bread. Challah is always a great accompaniment to a holiday dinner. A homemad e loaf even more so. Best of all the dough can also be used for babka too.

Claire Saffitz ,a chef, food writer and You Tube personality wrote about this versatile dough in today's New York Times Food section. Challah is the perfect bread because it's easy to make for beginner bakers as well as being perfect for sweet and savory dishes. It makes for an excellent French toast while being perfect for sandwiches or accompanying soups and salads. How to make a  memorable loaf? Keep Chef Saffitz 's  hints sin mind when creating it. Start with a sponge. You have to mix a lot of yeast into the dough because of the recipe's high sugar low moisture make up. Mix a small amount of flour with water and a small amount of yeast to create a sponge.as it sits the yeasts feed on the starches in the flour and multiply. Thsi makes the mixture active and bubbly, removing the need to add more yeast to the dough. Another important tip - find ingreddient balance. You need to put eleven grams of salt in the dough. This may sound exccessive but it brings out the flavor and strenghtens the gluten network. Then there's the olive oil. There should be one third cup f it.It keeps the bread Pareve as well as giving it a silky feel.It will need a lot of kneading to give it good crust and crumb. How do you know when enough kneading is enough? The window pane test. Take a small ball of dough and stretch it out. The dough iis thoroughly kneaded if you can see light coming through it , 

Of course it's the braid that makes challah what it is. Basically it can be turned into any shape you want. The traditional braid is the most used and the simplest. a pretty one is a smaller braid tucked in a larger one. You can also wrap it around itself to form a circle. This would be a lovely one for any raisin laced challah.Once you perfect a simple braid you can try a French braid . Keep in mind that a light texture is essential for a good challah. Once you've conquored it, then move on to simple sandwich loaves and soudough.Ms. Saffiitz also includes a  cinnamonbabka recipe , redolent with the spice and zinged up with orange zest. The dough is a basic challah one but.a mix of cinnamon, brown sugar orange zest and almond flour. also add a generous pinch - about one hlf teaspoon of Diamond Crystal salt to it . Break up any lumps of brown sugar with your fingertips. Reserve about a quarter of the cup of the mixture to sprinkle over the loaf. The dough is then divided into two pieces. One  rolled out and the cinnamon mix is spread out on one piece while the other is put in the fridge. Chill both babkas in the fridge for anywhere from four to twelve hours. THey're then proofed, washe d in egg and then baked in a 350 degree oven for fortyfive minutes. They're then cooled for ten.

Observe the holiday with good food. This includes a good challah or babka with the meal. They are perfect breads to make for this holiday dinner.

The Perfect Chocolate Babka

Babka has always been the domain  of bubbies and Jewish bakeries. That's all changing  thanks to a new generation of hip home bakers discovering it. The recipe has been somewhat tweaked but the end result is the same. Chewy buttery sweet slices that always satisfy,

Melissa  Clark wrote about it in yesterday's New York Times  A Good Appetite column along with a scrumptious recipe. Babkas are experiencing a kind of renaissance right now. The trendy Sadelle's Bakery in Manhattan's Soho offers one studded with homemade chocolate cookies while competitor Breads Bakery stuffs theirs with Nutella. Other bakeries such as Bklyn Larder fills theirs with a rich ganache and Baz Bagel turns theirs into the ultimate comfort food - babka bread pudding. The cake becomes even more decadent in the Jerusalem cookbook by Yotam Ottolonghi and Sami Tamimi.It's renamed the chocolate krantz cake and is loaded with pecans. This has spawned a variety of variations. such as one filled with chocolate and raspberry jam and another soaked in honey syrup. New York's Lower East Side Russ & Daughters, originally a fish and savory shop, uses and bakes the original recipe . Theirs, according to fourth generation owner Joshua Ross Tupper advises babka is a nice balance of not too sweet cake and rich chocolate filling,It's also one the of the few traditional babkas sold and it's shipped all over the country. Ms. Clark is the rebel baker, using a rich chocolate butter cream filling in hers.

Home bakers be warned. Babka requires time and some expertise.It is working with yeast which can be tricky and time consuming. One can take all day or even longer (!) to make due to refrigerating the dough between steps. Doing this  does make it easier to manipulate  and a longer proofing period does give it a richer, more complex taste.It is easier to freeze than other breads so home chefs can make two loaves, one for now, the other for later. It is a rich buttery dough with a recipe requiring ten tablespoons of butter. and four large eggs.. The dough is transferred to buttered bowls which add to the flavor  as it bounces in and out of the fridge/Ms Clark's frosting filling also has a stick of unsalted butter along with 3/4 of a cup of heavy cream.If this isn't enough , there is over the top cocoa streusel topping. This is more butter (but only four and a half tablespoons this time) blended with cocoa , sugar and flour, It creates giant , luscious crumbs mixed in with dark chocolate chips. Home bakers can top their babkas with brown sugar streusel on top. The same goes for the filling.any sweet goo,according to Ms. Clark is acceptable. Try, jam, dulce de leche, Nutella or hot fudge sauce.

Chocolate babka is making a big comeback. Make it to enjoy its' lush buttery chocolate flavor.It may be intense to make but a dream to eat.

Nouvelle Jewish Cuisine

Can traditional dishes and ingredients be turned into haute cuisine?Yes,.and it's happening with the richly historical Jewish cuisine.Foods that great grandparents brought from Eastern Europe are now being reconstructed into artesenal dishes .They may be all fancied up but their core remains the same : homey ingredients being made into earthy, flavorful main meals and desserts. It was explored in today's New York Times Dining section.Dining regular ,Julia Moskin, wrote about this as she also visited some famous New York Jewish delis.Many young cooks are embracing schmaltz and liver ,turning them into hipsters must haves.Gefilte fish restaurants along with bagel shops ,are becoming on trend again. Yet these are not your great granddad's white fish and bagels.The fish is being made into chowder while the bagel makers are employing traditional baking methods to produce artesenal products.The results are delicious foods that embrace past centuries of Jewish cuisines.Smoked whitefish ,a staple in many homes ,is now being paired with creme fraiche and capers in a salad.Trout is also added to it ,to giving the variation of a chill. Salade Nicoise more oomph.Bagels are being and rolled and boiled before baking, giving us a crunchier, much more flavorful bagel.Onion ones have chopped onions as well as scallions put into the dough as opposed to having them sprinkled on the roll's surface. This renewed interest in Kosher cuisine is actually saving some dishes such as babka and borscht from extinction first.Babka, a sweet chocolate laced bread , is being reconfigured into bread pudding.A new generation is starting to appreciate it's, rich cocoa flavor and density.All beef hot-dogs and pastrami are also getting a revival as well.With this, comes a renewed interest in famed family owned eateries.The very well known Russ And Daughters is popular again .The restaurant is now owned by the fourth generation of the family.Where Joel Russ first had his pushcart of smoked herring, his great grandkids, John Russ Tepper and Niki Russ Federmanare running the deli he built there in 1904. Homemade soda, a hallmark of any Jewish restaurant, is remade into a ginger soda with hints of lemon and lime.Matzoh is roasted with butter and salt for a crackly yet creamy treat.Jewish bakeries are also cropping up again and with them comes sinful butter cookies and strudel,yeast raised coffee cakes and sour breads.Pumpernickel bread is being baked in the traditional method , first wrapped in a thin layer of dough before hitting the oven. The cuisine of the Eastern European Jews has always been a rich and flavorful one. Thanks to some clever modern twists it's also trendy too. Foods once long forgotten or simply ignored are finding their way back to tables. they represent both the past and future of Kosher cooking and baking.

Junior's Home Cooking At Your House

Junior's Restaurant is one of New York's and Brooklyn's best known landmarks/ The restaurant started , over sixty years ago is famed for its' variety of creamy home made cheese cakes and home made comfort foods. Now it's come out with a cookbook, perfect for the restaurant's fans as well as those who appreciate a good old fashioned dish/

The aithors are Alan Rosen, the grandson of the founder Harry Rosen and the third generation of owners and Beth Allen who has written two other cookbooks on Juniors. Those solely concentrated on cheesecakes and desserts. This has the whole menu, from appetizers to breads, from main meals to salads and sweets. The dishes are varied from sophisticated Asian chicken salad to the comfort food homeyness of meat loaf and veal cutlet Parmigiana. What I love about this book is that it even has the recipes for holiday meals like roasted turkey and honey glazed hams. The sides are oozing with pure flavor and comfort, like the creamed spinach and mashed candy sweet potatoes.

Of course Junior's is known for its' cheesecake and treats. Mr.Rosen and Ms.Allen don;t disappoint here. There are truly delicious recipes for a cheesecake tart and Little Fellas, mini cheesecakes with a butter cream / cream cheese frosting. Cupcakes steal the show too, especially the recipes for gluten free peanut butter ones and s'mores, chocolate cupcakes with a marshmallow filling and frosting. Pies are another big deal.Junior's has Key Lime meringue , cherry crumb and chocolate cream. All three would make a nice ending to any holiday dinner. There is also a chocolate babka loaf, a wonderful addition to any weekend brunch.

Junior's Home Cooking is like bringing the famed eatery home. The recipes  are the restaurant's best dishes and desserts that anyone could easily make.It's great for fans and foodies.