Recipes Blog

Mother's Day Recipes

Mother's Day falls at a truly wonderful time of year. Spring is here, the flowers are blooming, everyone seems to be out and about and enjoying themselves. It's really a lovely time to celebrate and thank the Moms in our lives. We've compiled a grouping of simple, delicious brunch ideas any mom would enjoy. Maybe try breakfast in bed this year!

 

Mother’s Day Stuffed French Toast
"I hate going out on Mother’s Day – it’s crowded, expensive and you never really get a chance to sit and visit with your family and friends. Since Zabar’s has always been a part of my life Sunday brunch usually involves Bagels, Cream Cheese and Nova.  But on Mother’s Day I love to make French Toast and serve it with hot real maple syrup and fresh strawberries.  

This is one of my favorite Sunday Brunch treats. 

It is easy to make and really yummy. Prepare it the night before – and refrigerate. In the morning bake and enjoy!"

 

Our (new) Favorite Banana Bread
"Banana Bread is my go to treat when company pays a surprise visit, as a simple hostess gift or when we just need something delicious to snack on. Recently we held a bake-off in my house. My husband swears by his mom’s recipe so we compared her recipe to a new one I’ve been working on to an old standard from a tried-and-true cook book. 

And here is the one that won across the board. We all favored it, even my mother-in-law! ..."

 

Spinach and Goat Cheese Quiche
"Here is a recipe for the easiest, most adaptable quiche ever. I have made this for dinner parties, afternoon luncheons, breakfasts and brunches and it always meets rave reviews. What’s so great about preparing a quiche is you can fill it with whatever ingredients and cheeses you have on hand, making it the perfect dish for last minute meals. And this time of year, it’s just wonderful to make because it’s absolutely appropriate to serve quiche at room temperature. So cook one up while the morning is still cool and have a terrific brunch later that day."

 

Hazelnut and Orange Blossom Shortbread with Dried Cherries
"Last year on Mother’s Day, I made these light, pillow-y hazelnut shortbread cookies (well, sans Orange Blossom Water or dried cherries) and brought them to my Moroccan sister-in-law as a small token for her always put-me-to-shame, ridiculously generous hospitality.  Upon tasting them, she was absolutely certain that I had somehow gotten the family recipe from one of her sisters, and then proceeded to describe to me the almond cookies her mother used to make.  They were apparently quite similar in style to mine, but were enhanced with the essence of Orange Blossom Water, an ingredient, along with Rose Water, that she herself often uses in her amazing Moroccan repertoire of everything from salads to tagines and couscous to desserts..."

Happy Mother's Day!

Ganache Truffles

From French Classics Made Easy By Richard Grausman, 
Founder & Chairman, C-CAP
Prepared by Mehdi Chellaoui

Chocolate formed to resemble truffles, as they emerge from the earth covered with “dirt,” have been a Christmas specialty in French candy shops for decades. Their worldwide popularity has spawned truffle shops and candy companies specializing only in truffles – although many of the confections carrying this name hardly resemble their namesake. It now seems that anything round and chocolate is called a truffle.

The original chocolate truffles were made of a sturdy, fudgelike mixture, concocted of chocolate, butter, and egg yolks, that can be formed by hand and stand at room temperature without melting. But the contemporary chocolate truffle is made with a combination of chocolate and fresh cream (called ganache) and must be handled carefully and refrigerated, for it melts at room temperature.

Because they melt easily when handled, the soft, creamy chocolates, when formed into balls, are dipped in chocolate to lightly coat and protect them. They are then rolled in cocoa powder, which tastes much better than the soil it represents. Biting into a finished chocolate truffle provides a wonderful combination of sensations. Bitter cocoa covers a thin layer of crunchy bittersweet chocolate, which surrounds a creamy, meltingly soft chocolate center. Only those with incredible willpower can refuse a second one. 

Trying to make the truffles in one day can be difficult and frustrating, but doing a little work over a two- to three-day period makes truffle-making easy and enjoyable.

 

Passover Apple Pecan Pie

By Tori Avey, The Shiksa in the Kitchen

Here’s the thing… I love pie. Love, love, love it! But at Passover, when leavening is not an option, making a tasty pie crust becomes much more difficult. This recipe evolved out of my need for a Passover pie substitute (because let’s face it– it’s really, really hard to get through an entire week without pie). I did away with the crust entirely and instead relied on matzo cracker crumbs to hold the filling together. The result is something between an apple crumble, a pan dowdy and a pie. Whatever you want to call it, it’s delicious!

Bake this Passover dessert in an old-fashioned pie dish, and nobody will complain about the missing crust… the flavor is very similar to a nutty apple pie. The candied pecans add a crunchy sweet topping to this decadent Passover treat. Serve ala mode for extra deliciousness.

Mrs. Stein’s Chocolate Cake

By Sarabeth Levine
From Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours by Sarabeth Levine with Rick Rodgers (Rizzoli 2010) 

When I was gathering the recipes for this chapter, my daughters, Jennifer and Tina, reminded me of an almost ridiculously chocolate pound cake that I hadn’t made in years. How I let this one slip through the cracks, I’ll never know. I did some searching, and there it was, tucked away in my treasured recipe book. It was splattered with chocolate batter, a clear indication that it was a favorite that I made again and again. I received the recipe from Mrs. Stein, a Hungarian beauty who was a relative of my father-in-law, Joe Firestone. Welcome back, old friend.

Photo by Quentin Bacon

Sugar Valentines

From One Sweet Cookie: Celebrated Chefs Share Favorite Recipes
by Tracey Zabar

Image © Ellen Silverman

These cookies, sprinkled with coarse sugar, are elegant after-dinner sweets. This versatile dough can be rolled out and cut into any desired shape. Flower-shaped cookies are a lovely alternative to a pricey bouquet for your sweetie. Because these cookies are flat, you can also omit the sugar topping and decorate them with the icing of your choice.  

Buy the book: One Sweet Cookie: Celebrated Chefs Share Favorite Recipes

Chocolate Souffle with Grand Marnier & Chocolate Sauce

From French Classics Made Easy By Richard Grausman, 
Founder & Chairman, C-CAP
Prepared by Mehdi Chellaoui

This is an extremely light chocolate soufflé made from my basic chocolate mousse recipe with the addition of orange zest and Grand Marnier. A plain chocolate soufflé can be made by omitting them. The soufflé mixture can also be baked in a water bath (bain-marie) for a little bit linger, to give you a pudding au chocolate, a wonderful, dense fallen soufflé dessert.

German Marble Cake

By Tori Avey, The Shiksa in the Kitchen

The idea of marbling two different colored batters into a cake originated in nineteenth century Germany. Marble cake made its way to America with German immigrants before the Civil War. Originally the cakes were marbled with molasses and spices. The first recorded Jewish recipe for a marble cake appears in an American cookbook called Aunt Babette’s Cook Book: Foreign and Domestic Receipts for the Household, published in 1889. This recipe replaced the molasses and spice combination by marbling chocolate into the cake, a reflection of the new American obsession with chocolate. The cake remained popular throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

According to the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food by Gil Marks, “Many Jewish bakeries in the New York area in the 1950’s through the 1970’s would distinctively add a small amount of almond extract to the chocolate marble cake, creating a version sometimes referred to as a ‘German Marble Cake,’ that had a characteristic almond aroma.” Delicious, right?

My German Marble Cake recipe is traditional, with a slightly modern twist-- I like to add vanilla pudding mix to the batter. This little trick is a fantastic way to add moisture and flavor to your cakes. You can use regular or instant pudding mix; just sift it in dry with the flour. It creates a wonderful texture and locks in moisture so the cake doesn’t dry out as quickly. They certainly weren’t doing it this way in Germany 150 years ago, but sometimes it’s fun to improve on tradition. If you don’t have vanilla pudding mix in your pantry, just replace the pudding with an equivalent amount of cake flour. And in case you’re wondering, cake flour is a finer grade of all purpose flour that produces a more delicate cake with a tender crumb. I highly recommend it for this particular cake; it makes a batter just perfect for marbling.

If you’ve never marbled a cake before, click here for detailed instructions on my site. A high quality cocoa powder will bring even more flavor to the marbling in this lovely cake; Valrhona Cocoa Powder, available at Zabars.com, is an excellent choice (and kosher certified for those who keep kosher!).

This cake is perfect for the holidays. The loaf size makes it a wonderful hostess gift. Wrap it in cellophane and tie a beautiful ribbon around—presto! A beautiful and tasty homemade gift from the heart. Enjoy!

Milk Chocolate Brownies

Nick Malgieri of the Institute of Culinary Education
From One Sweet Cookie: Celebrated Chefs Share Favorite Recipes
by Tracey Zabar

Image © Ellen Silverman

Every week, David cooks and I bake for Sunday dinner. I often make one of the brownies from One Sweet Cookie - Cheesecake Brownies from Nicole Kaplan, Maida Heatter's Palm Beach Brownies (with or without chocolate covered mints), or my own blondies, which we call Chumleys. These Milk Chocolate Brownies, from my friend and baking teacher, Nick Malgieri, are often requested by the children--Ben & Marki, Danny, Michael, and Willie. They are yummy by themselves, but you can also serve them with whipped cream, ice cream, and berries.

Master baker Malgieri has been my teacher for several years. He keeps me laughing with stories of his great-aunts Philomena, Elvira, and Nicoletta, and the trouble they were always getting into. This recipe for delicate, lightly caramelized brownies is a variation on one he learned in culinary school almost forty years ago. When he tried to scale down the recipe to make a smaller batch, he added only half the required flour. Here is the result of that lucky accident.

Buy the book: One Sweet Cookie: Celebrated Chefs Share Favorite Recipes

Orange Cookies

by Lidia Bastianich of Lidia’s Italy
From One Sweet Cookie: Celebrated Chefs Share Favorite Recipes
by Tracey Zabar

Image © Ellen Silverman

It's starting to get oh-so-cold outside. Time to bake! Lidia Bastianich's orange treats have become staples in the Zabar household; they are also a perfect gift. These fragrant, citrusy cookies with a sweet glaze hit the spot at the end of a meal. Chef Bastianich writes, “These traditional Italian cookies are as easy as it gets, and everybody loves them. The citrus flavoring makes them particularly inviting. Most likely, you have had them at Italian family celebrations like weddings, confirmations, and baptisms. Not too sweet, these cookies keep for a week or two in a cookie container." - Tracey Zabar

Pumpkin Spice Cake

By Tori Avey, The Shiksa in the Kitchen

Autumn is here! I love this time of year. The leaves are changing, the air is crisp, and Thanksgiving is fast approaching. It is most definitely my favorite season… in part, because of pumpkins! I can’t help smiling when I go to the grocery store and see gorgeous orange pumpkins piled high in the produce section. It’s the symbol of the season.

The pumpkin originated in Central America over 7,500 years ago and made its way throughout North America before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Native Americans cultivated pumpkins and prized them as a food source; because of their thick and solid flesh, they could easily be stored throughout the winter. Like other forms of squash, pumpkins are easy to grow. They became a favorite with immigrants to the New World, particularly in New England. Pumpkins were prized for their versatility; they were cooked into pies, stews, tarts, soups, and puddings. The flesh could be boiled or roasted, fried or mashed. Pumpkin seeds were dried and salted as a nutritious snack food. In the early 1800’s, decorative pumpkins called jack-o’-lanterns were carved to celebrate the autumn harvest season. In 1819, Washington Irving featured a jack-o’-lantern in his short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as the “head” of his Headless Horseman character, which likely led to the jack-o’-lantern’s association with the Halloween holiday. In the mid 1800’s, it became stylish to serve pumpkin pies for the Thanksgiving holiday, a trend that continues to this day. As you can see, pumpkins play a large role in American food history.

I love cooking and baking with pumpkin; the flavor is subtly warm and delicious. Pureed pumpkin adds gorgeous color and moisture to baked goods, and a special essence that just feels like fall. When combined with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves, pumpkin takes on a magical quality.

Case in point, my Pumpkin Spice Cake. This delicious loaf cake is the perfect treat for a chilly afternoon. When you bake it, your house will smell like autumn. It’s soft, moist, sweet, and delicious. Try topping a warm slice with salted butter; serve with a hot cup of Zabar’s famous special blend coffee. Heaven!