Rice and Honey (Riz b’Asal)

Sarah and I wish everyone a sweet new year! We hope you had a wonderful Rosh Hashana, an easy fast and meaningful prayers on Yom Kippur...and to ensure that your year remains sweet, we present you with our recipe for a delicious Syrian dessert that would be perfect for you to serve on Sukkot.

My grandmother included the recipe for this rice and honey pudding in the cookbook which she made for my mom, but she did not specify how long it takes for rice and honey to cook.  I expected it to take 20 minutes or so because after all that is how long rice takes to cook normally. After 45 minutes, I called up my mother and said, "This is taking forever! I want to go out and I'm stuck at home waiting for the rice and honey." My mother told me that yup, it takes about an hour to cook. So, if you have an hour, this recipe couldn't be easier. If you like honey, then this recipe is for you. (Disclaimer: I do not like honey. I do wish that I did because the texture of this dessert is amazing. My mother and brother were the consumers of this dish in my family. This year Mike tried it for the first time and loved it.)

First you mix the rice, honey and water together in a big pot.

You leave it covered on medium/low heat for an hour. Check on it after 45 minutes and see how it is doing.  You know it's done when all the liquid is absorbed and it is very thick and somewhat hard to stir. It may even stick to some pots (not mine because I used a stick proof pan). Add the corn starch, which has been diluted in some cold water and cook for 5 more minutes.

After you take it off the fire, mix in rosewater, according to taste. I used 2 teaspoons, but add as much as you feel it needs. I used orange blossom water instead of rosewater. I prefer orange blossom water because it has a more mild flavor than rosewater. It is very similar and a good substitute. If this is your first time tasting rosewater, I suggest using the orange blossom instead.

This is what my bottle of orange blossom water looks like. 

Then take a medium size plate (I used 4) and spoon the rice mixture onto the plate to make big patties. Make sure you use real plates and not paper plates because it will stick to the paper. If you have wax paper you can put it on top of the rice and honey patty and make layers. I did not have wax paper so I just used 4 different plates.

Cool to room temperature before serving. To store, cover the plate with saran wrap and put in the fridge.

Rice and Honey:

1 cup rice

1 cup honey

5 cups water

2 tablespoons of corn starch

2 teaspoons rose water or orange blossom water (according to taste)

Mix the rice, honey and water together in a big pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium until it is soft and thick  (approx. an hour). Dilute corn starch in a little bit of cold water (I used 6 teaspoons) and stir and add to pot. Cook for 5 more minutes and then take off of the fire. Add the rosewater or orange blossom water to the rice and stir. Pour into individual dishes. Cool to room temperature before serving. To store, cover the plate with saran wrap and put in the fridge.

Year Round Cookies Perfect for Passover (Flourless and Gluten Free)

I found this recipe ages ago on the blog Everybody Likes Sandwiches. These cookies are delicious and I make them all the time. These are not gluten free cookies or Kosher for Pesach cookies, they are normal, every day cookies that just so happen to be gluten free/Kosher for Pesach. Got it? These are yummy. They're fudgy/nutty cookies that also have a meringue like texture. You could use any nut of your choice. This time I made them with almonds, but I usually make them with walnuts or pecans. In fact, if you want to be adventurous, you don't even have to use nuts. You could use chocolate chips/coconut/mint chips/anything or all of the above instead. In fact, the recipe that I adapted this from called for sunflower seeds and cocoa nibs. Enjoy these on Passover/Enjoy these on Easter/Enjoy these with your gluten free friends/Enjoy these with your allergy-free friends/Enjoy these any day of the year!

chocolate puddle cookies

1) 3 c icing sugar (aka powdered sugar)
2) 2/3 c cocoa
3) 1/2 t fine sea salt
4) 1 c toasted almonds (chopped)
5) 4 large egg whites
6) 1 t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, mix together icing sugar, cocoa, and salt. Add in nuts. In a small bowl, stir together the egg whites and vanilla and then pour into the nut/cocoa/sugar mixture. Stir until everything is well combined.
Line cookie sheets with parchment or silpat and then drop batter using a tablespoon. Bake for 13-15 minutes. You will know that they are ready when the cookies lose their shine and become matte. Wait until cooled before you lift the cookies off the tray (using a spatula) and place them on the cooling rack.If you move them to soon you will find yourself with a chocolatey (delicious) mess.

My Husband was on TV Peanut Butter Cookies

Anyone who knows my husband knows about his crazy good memory. This memory of his often puts him in the center of attention. Well, it was no exception when he went to the Jeff Probst show as an audience member of a Survivor-themed episode and ended up being interviewed on TV by Jeff Probst, himself, because of his ability to remember the order that every single Survivor player on every single season (there have been 25 seasons so far) was voted off. He is the ultimate Survivor fan and he got to prove it to the world.

Mike Showing Off on the Jeff Probst Show!

It was so cool watching him on TV and definitely a cause for celebration. Mike is always begging me to bake cookies. "Can you just make normal cookies? Not your quinoa, healthy, weird experiments." One of his favorite cookies are these peanut butter cookies. They are absolutely delicious. Haha! Joke's on him. What he doesn't know is that they ARE healthy and that his celebration cookies were very much an experiment. No quinoa, though. I bought a container of peppermint (his favorite) ice cream and figured if the cookies were a disaster, there was a backup plan. This recipe originally came from the blog Handle the Heat (before my adjustments) and it is a hit every time I make it. I have given the recipe to many family members. 

So, yeah, this recipe is not one of my grandmother's recipe. But, this blog is also a celebration of peanut butter. Pesto recipes will also be making appearances :)

I had been planning on surprising Mike with these cookies all day. On my drive home I realized I didn't have eggs. I was so disappointed until I remembered that I had learned from Pinterest that flax seed can substitute for eggs. When I got home I saw that Mike had bought eggs, but even so, I was determined to follow through with my experiment and see what happens when you substitute flax seeds for eggs.

The batter was more dry than usual, but the cookies turned out surprisingly to be more moist than ever. They were absolutely delicious and Mike had no idea that anything was different and gobbled them up. And they were so super healthy! This was such a success, next time I may try and make them even more healthy by cutting down on the sugar.

Perfect Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

(Yup, I used the Kirkland Peanut Butter that was recalled, only because it had already been opened and no one had gotten sick from it. This is the best peanut butter ever. Each container has such a generous amount of peanut butter in it, it mixes evenly, and is delicious. Too bad that it was getting people sick, huh?  I have 3 more in my cabinet which I will regretfully be returning the next time I go to Costco.)

The Best Peanut Butter Cookies - Healthy and Vegan

1) 1 cup peanut butter

2) 1 cup brown sugar 

3) 2 tablespoons of flax seed mixed with 6 tablespoons of water (or two eggs if you don't have flax sseed)

4) 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

5) 1/2 cup old fashioned oats

6) 1 teaspoon baking soda

7) 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray baking sheet with PAM or line with parchment paper. Beat peanut butter and brown sugar with an electric hand mixer on medium speed until incorporated. Add the flax seed and water mix, slowly, until mixed in. Add in flour, oats, and baking soda. Stir in chocolate chip with a fork or spatula. Drop balls of dough onto the baking sheets. This recipe made 2 trays of 12. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack. 

Mandelbread

There is nothing Syrian about Mandelbread. In fact, Wikipedia says: "Mandelbrodt, Mandelbrot, Mandelbroit or anglicized to Mandelbread, is a dessert associated with EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWS. The Yiddish word mandelbrodt literally means almond bread. It is made by forming dough into a loaf, baking it, slicing the loaf into oblong cookies and then baking again. The crunchy, dry cookies were popular in Eastern Europe among Rabbis, merchants, and other itinerant Jews as a staple dessert that kept well."

But Mandelbread is a dessert that I associate with my grandma and with my Syrian cousins and aunts and uncles. My grandmother was born in America and so she wasn't only exposed to Syrian influences. She probably had some Ashkanazic (Jews from Europe) friends and was exposed to Mandelbread through them. 

My grandmother did not write down the Mandelbread recipe in the cookbook she made for my mother. I believe that this recipe is from my mother's first cousin, Mimi. When I was a little girl I would spend summers in West Long Branch, New Jersey so I could hang out with Mimi's daughter, Ida, who is my age. There I was exposed to some Syrian foods that even my grandmother did not make. And of course there was Mandelbread. Mimi's father, my Great Uncle Izzy, cherishes the Mandelbread that his wife, my Great Aunt Renee, makes and I know that he loves me because he always lets me have one! 

This picture is upside down, right? I don't know why that is...

Anyway, here is the recipe:

Mandelbread

1) 3 eggs

2) 1 cup sugar

3) 3/4 cup oil

4) 2 tsp vanilla

5) 3 tsp baking powder

6) 3 cups flour or enough so batter isn't sticky

7) 1 tsp of cinnamon

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

1) Beat eggs

2) Add sugar

3) Add oil

4) Add vanilla

5) Add flour, baking powder & cinnamon

Feel free to add chocolate chips, nuts, or any flavorings

Put parchment paper or PAM on a cookie sheet

Form the dough into two logs

Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar

Bake for 30 minutes

Lower oven to 300 degrees

Cut and lie on sides in two trays

Return to oven until crisp (about 30 minutes)

I made one log plain, and I added walnuts to the second one. The top one in the picture is plain, the bottom one is with walnuts. Of course they were side by side, but for some reason my picture flipped again. I will have to get to the bottom of this picture flipping business. 

If you have extra Mandelbread, just freeze them. They are delicious eaten straight out of the freezer.