Showing posts with label Hanukkah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hanukkah. Show all posts

Friday, December 12, 2008

What a Cook Wants, 10


Chocolate Babka
My West Coast friends have rarely heard of babka, unless they're Seinfeld fans. But for those raised in the Northeast, even us gentiles, chocolate babka is a magical treat. It looks like a loaf of bread, but inside is a magical, sweet eggy bread-mine with veins of rich chocolate. It's dessert pay-dirt.
It's a thoughtful gift for your Hebrew pals, but who wouldn't like their very own loaf?
Chocolate Babka, $10, serves 6-8 (but who are we kidding, it serves 1 just fine) and is Parve (dairy-free). In cinnamon also, but why bother?

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

What a Cook Wants, IV


A Happy Hanukkah!
Who doesn't love the story of Hannukah? The Maccabee brothers, who were small in number, fought for freedom from the big army of Greco-Syrians who had controlled them and put an idol of the Greek God Zeus in their Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Against all odds, the small but scrappy army defeated their oppressors after three long years of battle. At the end of the fighting there was only one small jar of undefiled oil left in the temple, enough to light the ner tamid for one day. But a miracle occured: in the seven days it took to purify new oil, the light continued to burn brightly. That's why Hanukkah is known as the "Festival of Lights" and the menorah is lit for eight days.
I take the story as a reminder: for those who fight for the right reasons, even if they are small and outnumbered, God (whatever that is) gives a helping hand. And for me, even when my battles don't work out the way I'd like, there are still small miracles to behold.
(But I'm no rabbi! Please check in with an actual Jewish authority for a legit take on this holiday.)

So what does this have to do with delicious circles of chocolate wrapped in foil to resemble coins? I have no idea. But I will tell you that See's Hannukah gelt contains the best chocolate of all the gelt I've tasted. And I've gobbled up a lot, trust me~ I don't let my gentile-ness get in the way of Hanukkah candy consumption, heck no! So get some good gelt for a friend or two; the box contains four mesh bags of milk chocolate "coins" that unfortunately never last as long as that holy oil :)
$15 for a 1-lb. box of kosher milk chocolate gelt, divided into 4 mesh bags.