I originally started making this recipe as a decedent treat for Passover, but it’s wonderful any time of the year a great choice if you are serving dessert to someone who is following a gluten-free diet.

Ingredients

This recipe doesn’t use any fancy ingredients. But, you will need A LOT of chocolate. Because chocolate is the predominant flavor, make sure you use a chocolate that you love. One of my favorite chocolates to bake with is TCHO.

Interestingly, this recipe contains no plums. The name may have come from the pre-Victorian use of the word “plums” as a term for raisins or the fact that it used to be more of a stew that contained prunes (more on that later).

It also isn’t what most Americans would think of as a pudding. American puddings are typically wet and milk-based, like chocolate pudding.

Ingredients

The secret to these Gingerbread Cupcakes is using lots of spices! When I created this recipe, I kept adding more and more spices until I was happy.

To make the perfect gingerbread spice blend, use a combination of cocoa powder, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice.

Hamantaschen dough is really easy to make and requires no refrigeration time! The filling options for Hamantaschen are endless – from poppy seed filling to all kinds of jams, chocolate, and more. I share lots of unique ideas in this post as well as tips and tricks for how to get the triangular cookies to hold their shape.

There is a bit of a rift in the Jewish community as to what the perfect hamantaschen texture should be.

Challah is a rich bread almost like a brioche, but more eggy and less buttery. It works just as well as brioche in my brioche French toast. In fact, challah is one of the best breads around for French toast.

During most of the year, challah is served as an oval loaf. But, on Rosh Hashana, round challah is always served. Rosh Hashana is the Jewish new year and the round shape represents the cycle of life.

I watched my Grandmother’s face when she realized that I hadn’t handed her a hard boiled egg but rather a cake baked inside a real egg shell. Her eyes were filled with wonder and I could envision what she must have looked like as a tyke the very first time she saw a red balloon float across the sky or the the trunk of a giant elephant spewing a stream of water.

“Crack it on the table,” I told her.

Pan fried gefilte fish are the gefilte fish for gefilte haters. Think of them as Kosher crab cakes (is it sacrilegious to even imagine Kosher crab cakes?) or Seder salmon croquettes. There is no jar jelly to contend with (anyone who’s been tasked with plating gefilte fish for their family’s Seder knows about this gross gefilte byproduct); and you can make homemade gefilte fish using high quality, socially responsible fish (check Seafood Watch before shopping for the best choices). Bubbie might miss the traditional cold gefilte (a Jewish staple that, like the jello mold, should have gone out of style in the 70’s) but everyone else, Elijah included, will appreciate the change.

Pan Fried Gefilte Fish Recipe

When I mentioned the concept of making homemade gefilte fish, my mother, mother-in-law, and husband all had the same reaction. “Stinky!” They warned me that gefilte fish would smell up the house for days. The traditional way of making gefilte fish involves boiling fish, which sends the fish odor bubbling into the air, permeating the far corners of one’s abode. This gefilte fish recipe, however, calls for pan-frying. While your house will smell a bit fishy, it’s no worse than a typical fish dinner.

Why?

Last year, Jonathan and I went to Gilroy, California. Gilroy is all about garlic. Each year, they host the Gilroy Garlic Festival – which features, as you might imagine, everything garlic! While we weren’t able to make it to the festival, we were able to try some garlic ice cream. It was shockingly tasty and the only ice cream that I’ve ever eaten that left me with bad breath.

When I was talking about the trip to Groom 1.0, he suggested that I make garlic cupcakes for Halloween to scare off the vampires. I loved the idea! I sent myself a futureme email as a reminder. It’s a good thing that I did. I completely forgot about the idea until I received the email a few weeks ago.

While I typically experiment and drastically change recipes, there is no messin’ with Momma’s charoset.

Charoses Recipe

Mom’s charoset recipe is actually from The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook [paid link]. As I look at this digital picture of the cookbook, I can picture the more worn out version of it sitting in Mom’s kitchen and feel all warm and fuzzy. If you want your own worn out version, you can get used copies of this book for only $4 on Amazon [paid link]!

Chinese New Year Cupcake Tasting Notes

You have to be a fan of Chinese cakes to like these Chinese New Year Cupcakes. Jonathan felt that these cupcakes tasted just like the sticky buns filled with red bean paste that you can get at dim sum. Since he loves those, he loved these cupcakes. If you are expecting anything with any kind of a crumb, this is not the cake for you.

Because the Chinese New Year cupcakes are so sticky, I would make one change if I were to make them again. Although I don’t typically bake in silicone cupcake wrappers, I think I would opt for silicone for these cupcakes – way too much of the cupcake stuck to the wrapper. If you don’t have silicone wrappers, you might also try spraying the inside of paper wrappers with a non-stick spray before pouring the batter in.