Sweet Nothings - Egg Kichel for Chanukah

Egg kichel, or egg cookies ("eier kichelach" in Yiddish), are practically weightless cookies so they're sometimes called "nothings".  But, don't be fooled by their modest name.  Egg kichel are a cross between croissants, flaky pie crusts, and sugar cookies.  When you look at the ingredients, they don't sound like anything special: eggs, sugar, salt, oil, flour, and baking powder.  They also aren't the prettiest things (although you cookie decorators could surely jazz them up).  However, when they came out of the oven, my grandmother said they were the best thing that I have ever made for her.   If you've got a Jewish grandparent, neighbor, or friend, skip the chocolate gelt (coins) and bring them these sweet nothings for Chanukah.  You will have done your mitzvah (good deed) for the day. 

Deep Fried Cupcakes You Can Make at Home

To imagine deep fried cupcakes, picture biting into a piping hot funnel cake. As you bite into the hot doughy goodness, you hit a layer of melted chocolate and then a layer of hot chocolate cake. Your bite finishes with a final hit of funnel cake dough and a splash of powdered sugar. After licking your lips, you bring them to a big smile!

I've been thinking about making deep fried cupcakes for at least a year. I thought about deep fried cupcakes last Chanukah since I always make doughnuts (sufganiyot) on Chanukah and thought frying cupcakes would be a nice substitute for that. Last year, however, I ended up finding an awesome linzer cookie cutter and thoughts of frying fell by the wayside in favor of linzer cupcakes.

When Chanukah came around this year, though, deep fried cupcakes were still bubbling in my brain - and now I had a deep fryer. I highly recommend the mini Cuisinart deep fryer that I bought to make the Toasted Ravioli Cupcakes.

To say that the deep fried cupcakes were worth the wait would be an understatement.

Here's how to make deep fried cupcakes.

Step 1: You'll Need Cupcakes To Fry

You can deep fry any cupcake. I opted to fry mini-cupcakes so that the end result would be bite-sized fried cupcakes that you could pop in your mouth. I also opted to choose cupcakes frosted with a chocolate ganache. While a buttercream or cream cheese frosting could also work, if I were going to melt something, chocolate seemed like the perfect choice.

The chocolate cake I used was the one that I featured in my Better Than Sex Chocolate Cupcakes. The original recipe came from Chockylit's cupcake blog.

Makes about 50 mini cupcakes (Cut the recipe in half if you don't have lots of people eating. Although, you will probably have people lining up to try them.)

• 1/2 C (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 C sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 C flour
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 C milk
• 1 t vanilla

1. Beat butter until softened.
2. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.
4. Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a small sized bowl and whisk to combine.
5. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine.
6. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine.
7. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
8. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 1/2 full.
   
9. Bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frost the cupcakes with the following ganache recipe:

• 3.5 oz of dark chocolate broken into small pieces
  
• 1/3 C heavy cream

1. Place the chocolate in a small glass bowl.
   
2. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just starts to boil.
   
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until all the chocolate is melted and integrated with the cream.
   
4. While it is still warm, spread a thin layer of it over the cupcakes. It will harden when it cools.

Step 2: Make the Funnel Cake Batter


The next thing that you will need is some funnel cake batter to dunk your cupcakes in. I got the funnel cake batter recipe from MomsWhoThink.

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 C milk
• 4 T sugar
• 2 1/2 C flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 t baking powder

1. Beat egg and milk.
   
2. Mix all other ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly add to the egg mixture, beating until smooth.
3. Set aside for dunking. I do not recommend keeping this mixture in the refrigerator at all. I made some in advance and stuck it in the fridge and the texture changed. It became much thicker and not as easy to use for dunking.

Step 3: Deep Frying

I'm not going to give too many instructions on exactly how to do the deep frying. It will vary depending on what brand of deep fryer you are using or if you are just using a pot to fry in. However the basic instructions are:

1. Remove the cupcake wrapper. You do not want charred paper.
2. Dunk your cupcake in the funnel cake batter, making sure to cover all sides completely.
3. Follow the instructions on your fryer (You could also fry in a pot. It works, but it's much more messy.). I used peanut oil, but any vegetable oil will do.
4. Fry until all sides are golden brown (about 3 minutes).
   
5. Remove from the fryer and dust with powdered sugar.

Step 4: Eat the Deep Fried Cupcakes Immediately

You must eat deep fried cupcakes when they are hot. It's just not the same after they cool down - and yes, I'm wearing dreidels on my head. I go all out for Chanukah!

Linzer Cupcakes: Blue is for Chanukah

While traveling in Idaho, I came across a cooking store that sold linzer tart cookie cutters. I had no idea that this product even existed. As soon as I saw the Jewish star one, I knew it was going to make an appearance in my Chanukah cupcakes.

A bit of education, compliments of Joy of Baking:

Linzertorte is "one of Austria's most famous desserts. Believed to have originated from the City of Linz, written recipes began to appear in the early 1700s. Traditionally this torte consisted of a crust made with flour, ground nuts (traditionally almonds), sugar, egg yolks, spices and lemon zest that was filled with preserves (traditionally black currant) and then topped with a lattice crust. "

Linzer tarts are the cookie form of Linzertortes. Linzer cupcakes are the cupcake version of linzer tarts, a mere two degrees of separation from the real thing.

Despite the fact that I did not read Joy of Baking prior to baking my Linzer cupcakes, I randomly selected black current jam as the cupcake topping. I was shocked and excited to find that that is the traditional one used. I picked it simply because it wasn't red. I thought if Chanukah cupcakes had red jam they would look too Christmasy.

Rant
It really bothers me when colors get taken over.
For example,
Pink = Breast Cancer (Pink used to mean girly and feminine. Now it means save our boobs. I'm all for saving boobs, but I don't want to push a campaign every time I wear the color.)
Red = Christmas (I wear lots of red. I happen to look good in the color, some redheads don't. Whenever I wear it around the holidays, I feel like I'm in the Christmas spirit. Holiday cheer is great, but I don't always want to walk around promoting a holiday I don't celebrate just by wearing a color I like.)
Green = Irish (I have red hair and I wear green. I must be Irish, right. Not.)
Rainbow = GLB (I love rainbows and I love gay people, but why can't I wear a rainbow without it meaning something other than my awe of the amazing natural phenomenon?)
/End Rant

My initial Chanukah cupcake idea was to make a jelly doughnut cupcake as seen at Coconut and Lime. These are like traditional Chanukah sufganiot (doughnuts) but in cupcake form. They are really a perfect Chanukah cupcake. However, I couldn't quite work in the linzer thing and I had to use my new cookie cutter.

Then, I saw these linzer cupcakes at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and decided to put the jam on top of the cupcake rather than in it to create a linzer effect.

The Cake
For the cake, I used the same recipe as my strawberry cupcakes except I used blackberries instead of strawberries. Despite the "black" in the title, the batter for these cupcakes looked play-doh purple and when they were done baking they were a nice shade of blue. Blue is not all that appetizing, however as it turns out, it is a color that has been taken over by Chanukah. Perfect.

BTW, it would be so easy to adapt these for Christmas by using a Christmas cookie cutter and sticking with strawberry cupcakes and strawberry jam.

adapted from ABC News

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup blackberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two standard cupcake pans with 24 paper cupcake liners. Set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs. Mix until smooth and creamy. Add buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix until combined. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix until just combined. Stir in berries. Place batter into each cupcake cup filling each half full. [Warning: These cupcake will rise a lot. Don't fill more than halfway or they will overflow.] Bake cupcakes for approx. 18-20 minutes. Let cool.

The Frosting

There was no frosting. I just spread some black current jam on top of the cupcake along with some blue and white edible glitter. Be sure to put the glitter down first. That way it won't get on the jam and mess up your peek-through jam window.

The Linzer Tarts

from allrecipes

Note: This makes far more tarts than you will need for the cupcakes. I'd cut it in half or plan on having lots of extra cookies to serve with your cupcakes. I am including the directions directly from the site so you know how to make the tarts if you choose to do so. I only made the top half (with the hole) and then placed it on the jam on my cupcake.

• 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups ground almonds
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 5 tablespoons raspberry jam
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, the almonds and cinnamon, and continue beating until the mixture becomes a slightly stiff dough.
Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate it for about one hour.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
On a lightly floured surface, roll the 1/2 of the dough into a sheet 1/8 inch thick. With a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, cut as many circles from the sheet as you can. Knead the leftover scraps of dough into a ball and roll it out again into a 1/8 inch sheet. Cut out more circles. You should now have about 12 circles.
Arrange them on an ungreased baking sheet leaving about and inch of space between them.
Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the other half of the dough, but before placing the second batch on the baking sheet, cut out the center of each circle with a 1/2 inch cookie cutter. Bake both batches for 10 - 15 minutes or until light brown. Cool on cake rake for 20 minutes.
Spread tops of the solid circles with a thin coating of jam, lay a cutout cookie on top of each, pressing the two together so they make a sandwich. Spoon a dab of jam into the opening of each tart and sprinkle the tops with confectioners' sugar before serving.
NOTE: Keep dough as cold as possible for easier handling. You may have to chill it after rolling it out so that it will be easier to cut.