Strawberry Lemonade Challah

Another week, a new challah recipe!  

As summer is approaching, I love taking advantage of all the fresh fruits! My favorite drink on a hot day is a sweet and tart strawberry lemonade. So, what better way to welcome warm weather than with a strawberry lemonade challah? 

The strands are stuffed with a freeze dried strawberry and lemon filling, then topped with a fresh strawberry and lemon puréed cobbler topping! 

What you will need:

Challah dough recipe

Filling:

I always have dry filling for my babkas on hand in ziploc bags {recipe here} use 8 tbsp of the vanilla pudding powder

½ cup freeze dried strawberries

1 tbsp lemon zest

5-6 tbsp lemon juice

Topping:

3 strawberries, puréed

⅓-½ cup flour

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

Directions:

Make challah dough according to directions here.

Divide dough into 8 equal parts and then roll each part into a log, long enough to fit a loaf pan. {makes 2 loaf challah}

Make the filling by first adding the freeze dried strawberries to a mini blender or food processor, process until almost a fine dust. In a bowl, add all ingredients and stir until combined.

Gently flatten each log so that it is about 2 inches wide. Add filling to each flattened log. Pinch the edges to seal, and then braid the logs. Place the challah in a greased loaf pan and let the challah rise for 30 minutes.

While the challah is rising, prepare the cobbler topping. Puree the strawberries, then add all ingredients together in a bowl until a thick paste-like consistency is achieved. {may need to adjust the flour amount based on consistency} 

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Once the challah has risen, plop little dollops of the topping all over the top of the challah.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until the challah is slightly golden.

Once you slice into the challah, you’ll see all the ribbons of strawberry lemon goodness!

And, if you happen to have any leftovers after shabbas, it makes a great Sunday brunch French toast!

Enjoy!

Cranberry Pumpkin Loaf

I love everything pumpkin and any excuse to use pumpkin! And my new favorite combination is pumpkin and cranberry. The earthy, deep flavor of pumpkin combined with the fresh, tart pop of the cranberries in this pumpkin loaf is so unexpected. Festive enough for New Years dessert! 

What you will need:

½ cup canola oil (or 1 stick unsalted butter)

1 cup pumpkin puree (recipe for homemade here)

1 cup loosely packed light brown sugar

¼ cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)

2 large eggs

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

¾ tsp kosher salt

½ tsp baking soda

½ cup frozen cranberries

2 tbsp turbinado sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and grease, or grease a loaf pan and dust with flour.

Combine the oil, pumpkin, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth.

Whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl. When I don’t have whole wheat flour on hand, I use all-purpose flour and it works well too.

Add the dry to the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth (but don't overmix).

Scrape into the loaf pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Press cranberries into the top and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, until the top is browned and crusty, and a toothpick inserted in comes out clean. Let cool.

Enjoy!

Gelt Together Cookies

Chanukah is one of my favorite holidays! I usually make some ugly Chanukah sweater iced sugar cookies, but this year I’m all about easy recipes! 

I purchased a bunch of bags of gelt from Trader Joe’s, and figured I can ‘decorate’ thick sugar cookies rolled in blue sugar with a gelt. I’ve seen similar ideas with Hershey kisses or nuts, so why not gelt? The combo works perfectly together. Make them for your Chanukah gelt together and they will be a showstopper! {see what I did there with geLt?!}

What you will need:

Sugar cookie dough (my easy recipe here)

I swapped butter for oil 1:1 here and worked perfectly

Sanding sugar or sprinkles

Gelt

Directions:

Follow directions here through chilling the dough. 

Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350°. 

Form 1” balls of dough using a small cookie scoop or eyeballing. The dough should yield approximately 24 cookies. 

Flatten the balls slightly to form a disc.

Roll the edges in blue sanding sugar, or sprinkles, or whatever your heart desires!

Bake for 10 minutes. While the cookies are baking, unwrap your gelt. 

When the 10 minutes are up, quickly press a gelt in the center of each cookie before it sets. Then return to the oven for another 2 minutes. 

My son helped me with this stage, just had to remind him the tray was hot and left the oven mitt on it so he didn’t get burned. 

Allow the cookies and chocolate to cool completely before handling. 

Enjoy!