family jewels

Secrets.

Every family has them.

This is ours.

Well, up until now.

All recipes have a way of traveling the globe, evolving in each and every stop along the way. I guess the beauty of a GREAT recipe is just how well they have travelled and how those ‘stops’ along the way have shaped them.

57 years ago my grandmother was handed a recipe from a polish neighbor who lived across the road from her.

Her name was manya and her family used to own a catering company back in Poland, where she would serve these specialty cakes. My grandmother was lucky to be taught how to perfect this recipe; A sweet yeast dough filled with a moist honeyed poppy seed paste, then rolled to form a glorious cake recipe.

A staple in our house ever since.

As it is Purim today, a Jewish holiday where eating poppy seed filled pastries is a tradition and giving out 'mishloach manot' (gifts to friends and neighbors) is customary, it’s the perfect time to be sharing with you this special family recipe.

Enjoy it. Make it yours, and pass it on.

Manya’s poppy seed roll

Ingredients for 4 loaf

cake pans, 26 cm:

300ml milk

5 eggs

¾ cup sugar

300g soft butter

50g fresh yeast

1 kg flour

pinch salt

Filling-

2 cups milk

1.5 cups sugar

½ cup honey

500 freshly grinded poppy seed

60g butter

Lemon zest from 2 lemons

½ cup golden raisins

4 tbsps. Crushed cookies/bread crumbs

Prepare the dough a day in advance.

Using the dough hook on your stand mixer; mix the milk, eggs, sugar, yeast and flour on low speed for 3 minutes, until the dough comes together. Add the soft butter and salt and continue to mix for 2 minutes until incorporated. Increase to high speed and let the mixer work for an additional 8 minutes.

Place in a lightly floured bowl, and cover the dough with a plastic bag and a kitchen towel over night in the fridge.

For the filling- boil the milk, sugar and honey, add the poppy seed and continue to stir on low heat for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir inside the butter, lemon zest, raisins and crumbs.

Let cool completely.

On a floured surface, remove the dough from the bowl and divide to 4 pieces.

Roll out each piece, to a 0.5cm thickness circle. Spread 5 tbsps. of the filling and roll. Place in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper.

Brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle poppy seed for garnish.

Let rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Bake for 60 minutes in a 170c pre heated oven.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday!

Am excited.

12 months ago, was when I decided to finally put together my pictures and recipes to form ‘a grain of paradise’- my food blog.

It was a decision I made many months before, but it is always the hardest part to actually follow through with what we have in mind.

‘a grain of paradise’ owes a lot of gratitude to Najwa from delicious shots. As without her final push to make my blog a reality and help putting it all in a working form, I would still be thinking of a blog, instead of actually writing one.

Writing was never and still is not my strong point, finding the words to describe my images are still a daily challenge.

My blog is a work in process, much like myself I suppose.

I love chocolate cakes.

And truth be told, ill use any valid excuse to make my chocolate cake, and as its Valentines Day in just 2 days as well, am covered. 

  

 My Super simple, go-to chocolate cake

1 cup oil

1.5 cups sugar

3 eggs

1.5 cups flour

(Mixed with 10g baking powder)

6 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tbsp. instant coffee

1 cup milk

Using a mixer, whisk the eggs and the sugar; add oil and mix to incorporate. Add dry ingredients and then the milk. Pour into a 26cm pan and bake for 40-50 minutes at a pre heated 180c oven.

While the cake is in the oven make the frosting by boiling 250ml heavy cream and then pouring it on 200g chopped dark chocolate. Mix until you get a smooth consistency.

When the cake comes out of the oven, pour the chocolate and serve.

Or you can let the frosting and the cake completely cool down and frost the cake when it thickens, top with your choice of berries.

queen of hearts.

Cynical, adj.

1. distrustful or contemptuous of virtue, esp selflessness in others; believing the worst of others, esp that all acts are selfish

2. sarcastic; mocking

3. showing contempt for accepted standards of behaviour, esp of honesty or morality

The free dictionary by Farlex

Valentine’s day.

Valentine’s Day began as a celebration of a Christian saint, named valentinus. One legend believes that the roman Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, so he decided to outlaw marriage for young men. valentinus  realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.

For cynical people like myself, legends are nothing but a brothers Grimm tale and Valentine’s Day is a mere Hallmark marketing scheme.

So what can I possibly write for a valentine's day blog post?

Beats me! But I do have a heart shaped cookie recipe to share

if only for the sweet irony of things.

Super Simple heart shaped butter cookies

300g flour

200g cold chopped butter

60g powder sugar

1 beaten egg

Zest from 1 lemon

Filling:

Your favorite chocolate/jam/ lemon curd/ dulce de leche spread

Mix the butter, Flour and lemon zest in a food processor until you get dough crumbs. Add the powdered sugar and continue to mix using few short pulses. Slowly add the beaten egg, and stop mixing when all crumbs come together to form a unified dough. (There’s no need to add the whole egg if the dough comes together before that)

Wrap the dough in cling film, and let rest in the fridge for an hour.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter the shape of a heart to cut 30 hearts out of the dough.

Place on a baking tray and bake in a preheated 180c oven

For 15 minutes, or until the cookies get a nice golden color.

Let cool, and spread your filling of choice between 2 cookies.

For a fancier cookie; Melt 100g of white chocolate, and use a spoon to create lines over the cookie.