The Inside the Jewish Bakery Challenge -- Semester One (December, 2011 - March 2012)

I am too kitchen challanged (its, its usual disaster area self) at the moment, along with trying to do other things in the house like move some furniture etc. to go into the challange, but looking at all the lovely bars, certainly will try this as soon as possible.

Looking at the dough in the recipe, I think it would work nicely for making my currant tarts into a bar! And I can see it with a prune filling like mentioned above, so it looks a lovely versatile recipe and worth the work of producing it! I will definitely try the bars as is though first before playing with other fillings.

i've baked w/ poppy filling/paste/butter before, actually a lot, and just by tasting the filling my spontaneous thought is that it lacks substance. will see tomorrow when i bake the whole thing if i'm pleasantly surprised after all.

please cast your votes for ITJB as 2011's best new Kosher Cookbook at http://www.joyofkosher.com/nomination-category/best-new-kosher-cookbook/

btw, love the posts and photos and am so pleased that this first recipe is meeting/exceeding expectations!

I'll continue to follow the challenge with great interest.

Stan

I'm not Jewish and Kosher is not fully understood by me, but any cookbook that can make you laugh, make you cry and make you say I remember doing this with my family members, or think of things that we do with family that are traditions, is as far as I'm concerned the best cookbook period.

I love my copy, still haven't read it the second time, but will. I want to try out the recipes and find the ones I like the best and then they will become traditional in my house. So while I may not be Jewish, some of the traditional foods will continue being made.

BTW I'm number 8

now that I've actually (happily) baked something from the book, I'd like to add a review on Amazon. I'm sure I'm not alone. Stan could you point us in the right direction? Thanks, Bonni

Hi there

I'm a bit confused - how does signing up for the challenge work? and how does the correspondence work? Do we continuously post and comment under this single ever-growing thread? Or is there another web link that I've missed? Or do we pm Urchina?

Sorry - I'm a bit new to the challenge protocol!!

Thanks

Lisa

I will post some more in-depth musings on my personal blog. While I'm still skeptical regarding the overall flavor profile, my Turkish-born husband thought these were great. Personally, I love the pastry base (1-2-3), but am still unsure about the poppyseed filling. I think next time I shall do what I always do w/ poppyseed: use milk instead of water and just "steep" the poppyseed rather than cooking it. I am also going to add some lemon flavor - just a hint - to give it more depth. Other than that, these are "garnicht schlecht". :)

I do not think your "concrete" problem had anything to do with the whole wheat pastry flour. Pastry flour, whether whole wheat or regular, has low protein, and that is what is required for this dough. I substituted 70 g of the flour with whole pastry flour - for a little healthier option. Mine turned out just fine.
The problem will be your oven temperature that is so way off.
Karin

Hello Kendra

Thank you, that helps!

OK (*assuming novice-warrior-of-the-kitchen pose*), I hereby sign up to bake those recipes and share my experiences ! Amazon tells me my book should arrive around the 13th, woo hoo. So my first post will be a smattering early (unless I corrupt an innocent law-abiding baker into alleged copyright violation - *evil grin*) ;-)

Oh - and the advice about changing the viewing options to 'Newest first' (and collapsed thread) - that makes all the difference. Now we're in business :-)

Splendido

Lisa

OK, so Saturday I mixed up the dough, and yesterday the filling and topping. I really enjoy the sweet poppy seed flavor. I am not that enamored of the shortbread. The issue is not with this shortbread, just shortbreads in general.

This exercise is a good teaching tool. Breaking the dough has an amazing effect, one much more effective than I would have imagined. I learned that poppy seeds are very oily. And I learned that streusel  is easier to make than I thought.

I took no pics, as mine turned out looking like the others'.  As to the over all goodness, I'll be giving some to a neighbor and some to my sister for evaluation. These are not at all bad, but as mentioned above, the cookie base is not a favorite of mine. I'm not qualified to judge pecan pies either since I don't much care for them.

//edit: I meant to ask, how does one pronounce mohn?  ~gt

cheers,

gary

The "o" in Mohn (= poppy) is pronounced pretty much like the long "o" in "home", as opposed to the short "o" in "rock" The "h" after a vowel lengthens the vowel.
Karin

Hmm. I grew up around Yiddish and Hebrew speakers and it was always pronounced as a short 'aw' sound. As in to rhyme with the French 'bonne' or 'comme'. Imagine the word 'born', but shortened to remove any trace of the 'r', so it sounds more like 'bohn'. In Hebrew, it's a vowel sound written as a vav with a dot on top. NOT the diphthong 'oh' (o + oo, which would make it sound like 'moan'), but a monophthong which is kind of an elision of both sounds (mohn).

Well, there appears to be the same differences of opinion regarding "mohn" as there are for how to pronounce "pecan". Those differences are, of course moot, as my pronunciation is the correct pronunciation. :D

I will allow these variations to dance on my tongue until one or another takes up residence.  Thanks to each of you.

gary

Guys, I don't want to argue with you, but whether incorporated into Yiddish or not - " Mohn" is a German word, and pronouncing it with a short "o" is for me as a German just weird.
Karin