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Posts Tagged ‘walnuts’

choc full of goodies; health-food cookies

30 May

 

While on a mission to bake some filling and healthy snacks for my 12 year old son to take to school, I’ve made an awesome discovery.  You see, I got distracted while making these cookies and it wasn’t until they were baked that I realized that I had left out the sugar – with delicious results.  These cookies are so full of everything good, that the omission of sugar turned it into a salty, savory confection instead of a sweet one.  The recipe is from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts, where she writes that she made these cookies for a health-food store in Miami Beach until the demand become more than she could handle.  I will give you the recipe as it was originally written.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup unsifted all-purpose whole-wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
  • 7 1/2 ounces (1 1/2 cups) currants or (soft) raisins (I used chocolate chips instead)
  • 4 ounces (1 generous cup) walnuts, coarsely broken or cut
  • 4 ounces (1 generous cup) pecans, coarsely broken or cut
  • 3 ounces (1/2 generous cup) pignolias (pine nuts)
  • 4 ounces (1 cup) peanuts, may be salted or not
  • 2 1/2 ounces (1/2 cup) sunflower seeds
  • 2 1/2 ounces (1/2 cup) sesame seeds
  • 1/2 cup wheat germ
  • 1 cup rolled oats or quick-cooking (not instant) oatmeal
  • 1/2 lb (1 cup) butter or margarine
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
  • 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

  1. Adjust rack to top position in the oven.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut aluminum foil to fit cookies sheets.  Do not grease.
  2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ginger and use a strainer to strain into a very large bowl.  Add the raisins, and toss till they are coated with flour.  Add the walnuts, pecans, pignolias, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, wheat germ and rolled oats or oatmeal.  Mix together and set aside.
  3. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and peanut butter.  Add the sugar and beat well.  Beat in the eggs and the milk, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary.
  4. Pour over the flour-nut mixture.  Stir with a heavy wooden spoon or spatula or mix with your hand, until the dry ingredients are completely absorbed.
  5. Make these large.  Place by 1/4 cupfuls 2 1/2- 3 inches apart on the foil.  With the back of a spoon, flatten the cookies to about 3/4 inch thickness.
  6. Bake 18 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned and semi-firm to the touch.  If necessary, reverse position of cookie sheet during baking to insure even browning.
  7. Use a wide metal spatula to transfer cookies to racks to cool.

photo credit: www.vegansisters.com

     
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    Posted in baking recipes, cookies, recipes, sugar free

     

    aranygaluska

    17 Mar

    I was quite organized this week so I got all my baking orders for Purim and deliveries out of the way.  Today, Tannis Esther is a nidcheh (pushed off) as it is usually a day before Purim (Shabbos this year), and we do not fast on Shabbos unless it is Yom Kippur.  So that leaves me with a free day to make what I’d like for the breaking of the fast tonight, and for Purim.  My plan today is to make hamantashen, which I have only made once in my life when I tried it in a dairy variety, dairy chocolate bobka and rugelach and Aranygaluska.  Wikipedia defines Aranygaluska as Hungarian sweet dumplings.  In actuality, it is balls of a rich yeast dough dipped in oil and rolled in ground walnuts.  It is then layered and baked in a tube pan and traditionally served (at least in homes of Hungarian background) on Purim.   We always had a (slightly overbaked ;)) Aranygaluska straight out of the oven on Purim.  It is similar to monkey bread in that it’s eaten “pull-apart” style as opposed to in slices.  When I googled Aranygaluska, I saw a picture of one which had lekvar (prune jam) filling in each ball.  Although not authentic in my mother’s home, I think I will make it that way today since I love the lekvar filling and look for opportunities to use it.  I think the best option for a fresh cake, would be to freeze it raw and then thaw and bake it fresh on Purim morning.

    This is a recipe that was printed in Mishpacha’s Family First Magazine in the March 5, 2008 edition.  I tried it that year and must have been in one of my organized moments, because I found it just where I thought it would be and in a protective plastic sleeve. I am glad I was able to find it now.

     

    ARANYGALUSKA

    Ingredients

    • 6 1/2 cups (2lbs + 4 oz) or 1 Kilo flour
    • 1 cup margarine or butter, melted
    • 6 tablespoons sugar
    • 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
    • 3 tablespoons dry yeast
    • 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
    • 1 1/2 cups apple juice (use milk if making it dairy)
    • 2 egg yolks
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt

     

    TOPPING:

    • oil
    • 3 cups choppped/ground walnuts
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1 vanilla sugar

    Directions

    Place the flour, margarine, and sugars into a large bowl.  In a smaller bowl, pour the lukewarm water over the yeast and wait 2-3 minutes.  Add this to the flour, along with the apple juice, egg yolks, and salt.  Mix together until it forms a dough.  The dough should be soft and pliable.  Tranfer the dough to a bowl sprinkled generously with flour.  Cover and let the dough rise for 45 minutes.

    After the dough is risen, transfer it to a work surface and roll it out gently to a 1/2-inch thickness.  Use a glass with a 3-inch rim and cut out circle.  Cover the circles and let them rest for 15 minutes.

    Prepare two bowls.  Pour some oil into the first; in the second one, combine the walnuts with the sugar and vanilla sugar.

    Lightly grease two tube pans with removable bottoms.  Working quickly, dip the dough circles into oil and then coat them with the nut/sugar mixture. Put the coated balls inside the pan to form layers.  Sprinkle additional nut mixture on top of each completed layer, until you have three layers in all.  The cake should reach about 3/4 of the height of the pan.  Repeat the same process with the second pan.  If using lekvar filling, put a teaspoon or two of the jam in the center of each round.  form into a ball, enclosing the filling.  Then dip in oil and nuts and described above.  Rise 30 minutes.

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

    Bake for 45 minutes.  Let cool.  Use both hands to carefully remove the cake from around the tube.  Serve whole on a cake plate, and expect the balls to be pulled apart for eating.

    yield: 2 cakes

     
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