My friend Suzanne recently recommended Lauren Shockey’s memoir, Four Kitchens, to me. Shockey wrote the book about the year she spent as a stage, or unpaid apprentice, in restaurants in Manhattan, Hanoi, Tel Aviv, and Paris. It was not my favorite kitchen memoir (I prefer the brash, in-your-face descriptions of Anthony Bourdain’s writing), but I did find her discussion of routines in the different kitchens and the amount of detailed preparation that went into some dishes fascinating.
Her recipe for Halvah Ice Cream comes from her stint in Israel. I am in love with halvah, a sweet, flaky, ground sesame seed confection that I adore. Some people dip it in chocolate, but you will not be surprised to hear that I like it plain, without that unnecessary adornment.
This was my first time making ice cream by myself. J. and the boys bought me the ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid mixer earlier this year, and although J. has made a couple of batches of ice cream this was my first go. I was very pleased with the flavor, and the recipe “ripens,” or hardens, into a proper, scoopable dessert. However, mine did not turn out silky smooth, as J.’s salted caramel version did. It had very fine lumps in it, even though I strained it carefully. As an ice cream-making newbie, I don’t have a solution to that problem yet, but I tend to think it had to do with the texture of the tahini, and not that I curdled the eggs.
Since I didn’t nail the recipe the first time, I have an excuse to make it again. (And you won’t hear me complaining about that.)
Halvah Ice Cream
Adapted slightly from Lauren Shockey’s book, Four Kitchens
1 c. whole milk
1½ c. heavy cream
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
1 c. sugar, divided
3 eggs, separated
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. sesame paste (tahini)
Pour the milk, cream, salt and half the sugar into a heavy pot. Cover and, with a watchful eye, cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and remaining sugar in a small bowl. (Save the egg whites to make yourself a nice omelette — you’ll want something light to balance out the ice cream!)
Once the milk mixture has come to a boil, lower the heat and slowly ladle a little bit into the sugar and egg yolks, whisking as you go. This will temper the egg yolks, warming them, which prevents them from turning into scrambled eggs when you add them to the hot liquid. Once you’ve added a ladle-full of liquid to the eggs, add the egg mixture back into the pot on the stove.
Add the vanilla extract and sesame paste and cook over medium heat, whisking gently but constantly, for about 7 minutes. Strain the mixture through a chinois into a bowl. The mixture will strain slowly, but don’t push the batter through. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.
Who doesn’t like challah? My whole family adores this recipe — we’ve made it at least a half-dozen times since we first tried it. I find that many challahs sold today are almost like dessert. They are sweet and super-eggy; they practically squish rather than tear. They’re very different from the challah I grew up with, which was barely sweetened and much more dry. That’s why it made such good French toast.
This challah recipe is a nice blend of those two varieties. It is enriched with eggs, just a bit. There is honey used as a sweetener, but the sweetness is subtle and not cloying. My boys think the pull-apart nature of the rolls is the best thing since… well… sliced bread.
After making Peter Reinhart’s (Two-Day) Challah last month, I was exposed to the idea of a “cool rise” in bread making. It’s very convenient to be able to make a dough the night before, store it the fridge, and bake it off the next day. As a yeast newbie, I had been afraid I’d kill off the yeast. But that fear is unfounded, at least for this recipe. I think that, as Peter explains, the overnight in the fridge deepens the flavors and makes a better product. It’s still delicious with two warm rises, though.
We like this challah so much that I’d temporarily stopped experimenting with other bread recipes. I’m going to remedy that tonight with a nice loaf of French bread.
4 c. bread flour
2 packages active dry yeast
1½ tsp. kosher salt
2 large eggs, 1 of them separated
1 c. hot water (120° to 130° F)
3 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. olive oil
In the bowl of a stand mixer, use your paddle to mix 3½ c. bread flour, yeast, and salt, blending well. Add 1 whole egg and 1 yolk, hot water, honey, and oil to the bowl. Mix until combined, scraping down the sides if necessary. Refrigerate your remaining egg white. Then switch to your dough hook.
Knead the dough for about 6 minutes, adding more flour if the dough feels sticky, until it is smooth and elastic. (I usually add another quarter-cup.) Place the dough in a greased bowl, then turn it over once. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour, until it has doubled in bulk. Punch the dough down and let it rest for 5 minutes.
Divide the dough into 16 even pieces. I like to do this by forming it into a loose roll and then cutting it into halves until I have 16 pieces. Form each piece into a ball, pulling and pinching the dough underneath itself so each ball has a smooth top. Arrange the balls in a greased 9-inch cake pan: 10 around perimeter, then 5, and 1 ball in the center.
Lightly beat the reserved egg white and brush it over your rolls. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, up to an hour if doing a warm rise. You can also do the second rise in your refridgerator, overnight. Just remove the dough from the fridge an hour before you are ready to bake it, so it comes up to room temperature.
Bake rolls at 350° F for 22 – 25 minutes, until golden brown. Check challah at 20 minutes for color — if it is browning too quickly, you can cover the top loosely with foil while it finishes baking.
Let challah cool on a wire rack for at least 45 minutes, and then pull apart to eat.
It is not every day that I have 11 egg yolks in my fridge. But after making a double batch of meringue frosting (all egg whites) for a Dairy-Free Frosted Birthday Cake, I did. What happened to the twelfth yolk, you may ask? I (accidentally) carefully placed it in the drain of my kitchen sink instead of the bowl with all its brethren. Apparently I was bored and distracted by the the time I hit a dozen eggs.
So, with 11 egg yolks I had three options: make hollandaise, custard, or challah. Hollandaise was out; no one in my family would eat it. Custard was a toss-up: perhaps the boys would love a homemade pudding, but it could just as easily go the other. Challah, however, is no-fail in this house. So I settled on a recipe from Michael Ruhlman’s blog, Peter Reinhart’s Challah.
There are two things about this challah that are different from other bread recipes I’ve made before: first, it used all yolks instead of some whole eggs and some divided; second, it calls for the initial rise to be done in the fridge, at least overnight but for up to four days.
I posted some pictures of the dough rising on the Chick in the Kitchen Facebook page, including a photo of the dough after the final (third!) rise and before baking. My dough took a little more flour to come together than the recipe suggests, and I did choose to add the vanilla. The fridge rise was amazing. When we opened the door of the fridge the next morning, it looked as though the dough had tried to escape the bounds of the bowl — it had more than doubled in size. I don’t know a lot about the chemistry of bread-baking, but it was very interesting to experience this “cool” rise cycle.
I choose to make 8 large challah rolls (we call them “nose” rolls because of the nubbin in the middle) and 1 large braided challah. The dough was very easy to work with after the first rise, and braided easily. I used both the recommended thump test (the bottom of the bread should sound hollow) and took the internal temperature of the bread (should be 190 degrees F) when done. I overbaked the rolls by about 2 minutes, so if you are making smaller breads watch the time carefully.
This challah was fantastic. J. said it was hands-down the best homemade challah he had ever tasted, and that it was just as good as something from a bakery. The texture of the bread was light but still with a bit a chewiness, and it didn’t taste overly sweet or eggy. A. preferred slices of the challah which was slightly more moist than the rolls. G. liked them both, but told me he still prefers the Pull-Apart Honey Challah Rolls.
Although the recipe takes two days to complete, it’s not any more complex than any other yeast bread. You just have to have the time. If I were ever in a position again where I had a large number of egg yolks to use up, this would be my go-to recipe. But since I don’t have imminent plans to whip a dozen egg whites, it won’t be in the near future.
I love having a reason to bake a cake. I don’t bake cakes as an after-school treat (cookies rule!), as we just don’t want that much of a tempting sweet around unless it’s easy to parcel out and freeze. But for birthdays, I’m all about baking a cake!
This weekend we celebrated several January birthdays in our family, and I was tasked with bringing a pareve, or non-dairy, cake. My mom keeps a kosher home, and she and my dad were serving deli for our lunch gathering, so I had to find recipes without butter and milk.
The night before our event, I baked two rounds of Black Chocolate Cake, using dark cocoa powder and Earth Balance butter sticks for the shortening. It was gorgeous and moist — truly more black than dark brown.
Since buttercream frosting wasn’t an option, I decided to try my hand at White Meringue Frosting. Egg whites are whisked with lots of sugar and a little vanilla extra over a double-boiler, until the eggs reach a temperature of 160°F and all the sugar is dissolved. Although the recipe cautions about thoroughly dissolving the sugar to avoid a grainy end product, I wasn’t totally successful. I did whisk that mixture by hand, on the stove, for 20 minutes though! The cooked mixture felt and tasted smooth to me, but once it was whipped in the KitchenAid the graininess became more pronounced. Regardless, the frosting was tasty and my father-in-law actually thought the sugar granules were an on-purpose, delicious feature. A. did not — upon tasting it, he immediately asked why there were “crumbs” in the frosting.
The cake was a big success, and I am sure I can do a better job on the frosting next time. If you need a non-dairy frosted cake for allergy or kashrut reasons, I can definitely recommend this one. And here’s the evidence:
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more about me and CITK, and keep in touch:
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I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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