Hanukkah is a fine time to serve these at brunch with a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream on top. I am constantly amazed at just how far Jewish food travels: when I was working on the update for this book, my daughter Daniela told me that a relative of her Chilean friend posted a recipe online for apple latkes. When I contacted her, I realized it was a Polish recipe. Shortly afterward, Daniela, on a train going through Poland, tasted a similar apple pancake. You can also substitute stone fruits, like apricots, plums, or peaches—in the late spring, at Shavuot, or anytime.
These cookies most resemble Italian baci di dama (recipe, page 120) in appearance, and their diminutive size is part of the appeal. You can, of course, fill them with dulce de leche, chocolate-hazelnut spread, or any other fruit jam, but the softness and florality of the classic guava paste works wonderfully to contrast with the crunchy, buttery cookies.
Scientist and inventor Dr. George Washington Carver, the child of a Mississippi slave, believed peanuts, sweet potatoes, and science could free Southern farmers from poverty. Cotton had exhausted the soil of the Deep South, and at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in southeastern Alabama in the early twentieth century, he showed farmers the benefits of planting sweet potatoes. They were well suited to Alabama, and he worked to grow demand by developing 118 products made from them, including flour, vinegar, molasses, ink, rubber, and even postage stamp glue.
And, of course, he cooked with them, slicing them into this tantalizing pie where, with spices, molasses, and cream, they cook down inside the flaky pastry. When you fork into a bite, it’s a bit like pie and a bit like your favorite sweet potato casserole. This recipe is adapted from The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro (1958).
The crumble steals the show in this salad! You can serve whatever leafy greens and vegetables you want with it, and it’s still going to be the best salad you have all week. I’ve headed in an autumnal direction here—chewy kale leaves with apple batons and cranberries. I also crumble over some soft goat cheese, which works beautifully with the sweet and sour elements of the salad. All together it’s a great combination of textures, colors, and flavors. It’s substantial enough as a standalone meal or as a statement side dish (official term!). The cranberry-plumping step (another official term) is optional. But once you’ve plumped, you’ll never go back!
A Basque cheesecake is traditionally served crustless and with no berry adornments, but I promise you’re going to fall in love with this rebellious version. I layer it with a cookie crust; I really like the spice in the Speculoos (Biscoff-ish) cookie and bright berries, which just make the mahogany top and lusciously smooth texture sing. You’ll notice the ingredients— like the cream cheese— are cold rather than at room temperature, so it won’t overbake in the hot oven as the top browns.
If Ukrainians ever voted on their favorite breakfast dish, syrnyky—little pancakes made with farmer cheese—would be the clear winner. Pretty much every Ukrainian, regardless of his or her skill in the kitchen, knows how to make this dish. Here’s my favorite tried-and-true recipe (which, I am proud to say, has become the go-to recipe in many Ukrainian households!).
Syrnyky are traditionally served with sour cream or jam, but feel free to experiment with other toppings, such as maple syrup, peanut butter, and fresh fruit. You can even drizzle the pancakes with a little caramel sauce!
When you make syrnyky, your choice of farmer cheese is of great importance. It should not be too dry—if it is, the syrnyky will not hold their shape well—but neither should it be too watery. If there is a lot of whey left in the cheese, you should strain it through a sieve with cheesecloth and let the liquid drain.
In 2017, when we were visiting our daughter-in-law Liv's family in Copenhagen, Eva, her mother, made a delicious meringue torte for us, similar to the schaumtorte of my childhood, a dessert the German part of my family served at Passover, but one that I always thought was too sweet. I loved that the hazelnuts and the dark bitter chocolate of Eva's recipe cut the sweetness of the meringue. Now it is part of our Passover Seder menu, though it also works beautifully throughout the year, especially for gluten-free friends. During the pandemic, when I was in New Orleans, I substituted local pecans for hazelnuts.
The first stop on my coffee cart treat quest (second stop, Raspberry Mazurkas, page 108) is the elusive Pink Cookie. Uncle Seth’s Pink Cookies are palm- size cookies scented with cardamom and topped with a pink- tinted cream cheese and almond frosting. Here, I’ve made them into a pat- in- the pan cookie bar with a layer of perfectly pink cream cheese frosting scented with a bit of almond extract.
When I was in Montreal at Hof Kelsten, a stellar Jewish bakery-deli, I tasted the best rugelach ever. The cream-cheese dough was shaped into small rectangular pockets, overflowing with strawberry jam and nuts. Although the chef would not share the recipe, he did tell me the ingredients, and I realized his pastry is very similar to my own, a simple American cream-cheese butter dough so good that one reviewer in Montreal mistook Hof Kelsten’s version for a French mille-feuille pastry!