Granny’s Sponge Cake. Light and airy and citrussy. A Passover version is here, too!

Granny’s Sponge Cake

My Iraqi Granny made the most incredibly light sponge cakes. How did she do it?She whipped the whites into billowy clouds in a large platter with a fork and carefully incorporated them into the yolks. Of all the many things Granny baked, it’s her sponge cakes that I remember most. This happened in Shanghai, where my father, mother, brother, and I lived with Granny in a one-room apartment during world War II.

I’ve tweaked Granny’s recipe just a bit to include jolts of orange and lemon zest.

Smushing the finely grated zest with some granulated sugar extracts as much of the natural oils as possible, giving the cake its special taste. (To make this cake for Passover, please see the NOTE at the end of the recipe).

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We are so fortunate to have bunches of fresh, fragrant basil at farmers’ markets throughout the year. And, at $3.00 a bunch, that’s an amazing bargain. When we moved to Kaua’i in November, 2021, we had a hard time believing that basil grown at any time but the summer would pack so much flavor. But when I yelled “Wow!” after nibbling on a leaf. That’s all the proof we needed.

I can buy two basil varieties on Kaua’i—Large-leafed sweet Italian, and anise-flavored Thai. Thai basil’s sturdy leaves make it ideal for stir-fries.

Making Pesto

I make pesto with Italian basil. And I use a food processor. The traditional tools for pesto are mortar and pestle, and the word pesto means pounded. I made pesto that way when we lived in Naples, Italy. Actually I didn’t have a mortar, so I pounded the basil in a sturdy bowl with a wooden spoon. I tore the leaves first to make my job a bit easier, but I have to say, making pesto by hand takes a long time.

Besides basil, you’ll need an excellent olive oil, pine nuts, freshly grated Parmesan and Romano cheeses, garlic, salt, and some butter.

Why butter? Julia della Croce and Marcella Hazan both say it’s for texture and depth of flavor. And I agree. Pesto with butter is super creamy.

When it comes to pine nuts, I always buy the Italian pinoli. Any good pine nut will be fine in pesto, but the pinoli are the only pine nut I had in Italy and so I continue using it in pesto and in other Italian recipes. Pine nuts should be purchased air tight and stored in the freezer. They are perishable. Once a package is opened, store leftovers, tightly wrapped, in the freezer. And use them within a few months.

I make pesto with a regular size Cuisinart food processor that I bought in a thrift store for $5.00. This machine had been made in Japan, and I’ve since learned that the best quality Cuisinarts were all made in Japan. Lucky me.

My Pesto Recipe

Here are the ingredients for enough pesto for six main course servings. What you don’t use will keep refrigerated for at least a week.

2 peeled garlic cloves

2 ounces basil leaves (for consistency it’s best to weigh the basil)

1/2 teaspoon table salt

2 tablespoons pine nuts

1/2 cup excellent extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup (50 grams) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons (12 grams) freshly grated Pecorino Romano

5 tablespoons butter (salted or not), at room temperature

1. With the metal blade in place, start the motor and drop the garlic cloves through the feed tube. Process a few seconds until you no longer hear chopping sounds. Turn off the machine.

2. Add the basil leaves, salt and pine nuts. Pulse a few times to begin chopping the basil and pine nuts. Pour in the olive oil and process 10 seconds. The basil should be finely ground but still have texture. It should not be a puree.

3. Add the soft butter, and both cheeses. Pulse rapidly about 5 times to incorporate the ingredients. Taste carefully and taste for salt. Add a bit more if you feel the pesto needs it.

4. And that’s it. The pesto is ready to use. It keeps well in the fridge for at least a week. Freeze it for longer storage.

I always cook enough pasta for 2 servings. I’ll spoon one-third of the pesto into a heatproof cup and set it aside. For the pasta, I usually choose spaghetti. I’ll weigh 7.5 ounces for Dorothy and me. I cook the pasta in a 3-quart stainless steel pan that measures 9 inches in diameter with 3-inch sides. This is the pan I packed in our luggage. I half-fill it with water and bring the water to a rolling boil over high heat. I salt the water (about 1 tablespoon kosher salt) and add the pasta. In a few seconds when the pasta becomes flexible, I use tongs to immerse the pasta completely in the water. Note: A 4-quart saucepan half-filled with water is a great way to cook pasta for 2 to 4 servings. Use a 6-quart pot half-filled with water to cook pasta (scant 1 1/2 pounds) for 6 servings.

Adjust the heat so that the pasta stays at the boil and cook until it’s al dente. The spaghetti I use cooks in 9 minutes. While the pasta cooks—give it a stir occasionally— stir about a tablespoon of the boiling water into the pesto. This will be the sauce for the pasta.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it well. Return it to the cooking pot and add the pesto. Stir quickly and vigorously to coat the spaghetti evenly with the pesto. Divide into two warmed serving bowls, sprinkle some freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano on top and serve right away. A green salad is always welcome with pesto.

Have fun!

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First thing I want to say is Welcome to all my new bakingwizard subscribers!
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From Missoula, Montana to Kauai, Hawaii

It’s been awhile since I posted a new recipe, and here’s why. We sold our home in Missoula, Montana, last fall and moved to Kauai! Moving out of our custom-built home after 44 years was not easy. We had so much stuff to deal with, including enough cookware to furnish a small restaurant and books galore–hundreds of Dorothy’s science and nature books and about 3,ooo of my cookbooks. Fortunately, our buyers love books and they said we could leave on the shelves what we hadn’t packed to store.

Why move to Kauai? It’s our favorite island and we’ve stayed there many times over 30 plus years. We also felt we needed a lengthy break to recover from the trauma of having to leave our beautiful home. Before we left Montana we were very fortunate to find an apartment rental in a building complex, Sun Village, for seniors 55-years-old and over. We knew the place well because we have friends who live there and a few years ago we were able to rent an apartment in the complex for 2 months.

Because the apartment was unfurnished, we had to buy everything we needed to set up our new home. We had arranged for a year’s least to begin November 1, 2021. We arrived October 31 and rented temporary quarters in Kapaa, a few miles north of Lihue, our new home city. Everyday we drove our rental car into town to scout furniture, etc., and deposited our purchases in the apartment. Once we bought a bed, we moved in, on November 10. Our two-bedroom apartment is on the top floor–the fourth–with vaulted ceilings and ceiling fans and we have views of the forest in front and the ocean to the right and mountains to the left. Our second bedroom is a study for Dorothy and a storage room, with just enough space for a one-person fold out cot. Very comfy, we’ve been told.

Before we left the mainland, we arranged to have our twenty-year-old Subaru Outback station wagon shipped to us from Long Beach, CA. And on November 18, we picked it up at Nawiliwili harbor. The shipping cost was actually cheaper than the 3-week car rental!

We love it here so much that we’ll be staying another two years, at least. If you haven’t already subscribed to my newsletter, please do. It’s called “So You Want to Live in Hawaii.” Visit gregpatent.substack.com to sign up. It’s free. You’ll learn what life is like here, the farmers markets, weather, and our live=in geckos, who control the insects. We have two small balconies and get to watch geckos eating pineapple and mango we put out for them. We also witness fights and jockeying for territory. Very exciting!

It’s taken awhile to set up doctors and dental appointments. And I’ve spent a few months developing a new sourdough starter. I had to leave my trusty 20-year-old mother starter in Missoula.

Story behind Pineapple Muffins

So here we are on July 4, 2022, and I am finally ready to make my first new blog post from Kauai. The recipe, “Pineapple Muffins,” comes from my first cookbook, “Big Sky Cooking,” published in 1980, and written to accompany the first series of 26 half-hour TV cooking shows that debuted on KECI-TV in October, 1979. That’s 43 years ago, bit it feels like yesterday–all the craziness of taping in our home kitchen, working with one camera, and making sure our dog was kept out of the way. You know why.

I modified the recipe to include Hawaiian ingredients–fresh ginger and vanilla–which have other sources that you can buy everywhere. The recipe comes together quite quickly. I originally named the recipe, “Pineapple Cupcakes,” but muffins seems more appropriate. These are not traditional muffins. They don’t swell to impressive heights, but they are moist and tender and more like little cakes. Very tasty. And they keep well, wrapped airtight, for about 4 days.

You will fill the muffin cups almost to the top, but the batter will not run over. TIP: If you live above sea level, say 3000 feet or so, reduce the baking soda to 1/4 teaspoon.

Happy baking and happy eating! It feels good to be writing a post again.

For this recipe, Greg uses King Arthur flour. You can order King Arthur flour and flavorings through Greg’s King Arthur Affiliate site, which helps pay the costs of this website!

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It’s been many years since I baked a fresh pineapple pie. I published my recipe in “Baking in America” (Houghton Mifflin 2002), and now that I live in Hawaii, local pineapple is always available. Except when it’s not.

For the past couple of months, I couldn’t find a Hawaii yellow pineapple anywhere on Kaua’i. Our favorite breakfast fruit is a papaya half stuffed with finely cut pineapple. Without pineapple, we got by with a squeeze of Calamansi lime. Then, just last week, I found pineapples at Costco. And they’re local! The pineapple drought is over. But what caused it?

Pineapples take 1 1/2-years to develop into ripe fruit. They are very sensitive to temperature. Last winter, a temporary dip in temperature (just a couple of degrees below 60˚F) caused developing pineapples to mature sooner than they would under normal conditions. They shifted to a vegetative condition. The result: a glut of slightly smaller ripe pineapples this summer and a highly reduced crop by early fall. Small businesses claimed whatever fruit there was, and we just did without.

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Shopping at a farmers market is a truly social experience. A seller may have just one food for sale, like the mango vendor, or several foods, as you’ll see in the following photos.

I often have questions about some food that pulls me to examine it further, and the seller is always happy to suggest ways to cook it. In a very short time we’ve formed a bond, and after a few more visits, she may tuck a little something extra into my bag.

In the four years we’ve been living in Kaua’i, Dorothy and I have gone to countless farmers markets, and the one standout, the place we go to every week, is the Puhi Market on Saturday mornings near the Community College in Lihue.

The many sellers offer a huge variety of foods and food products. In addition to the local fruits and vegetables, you’ll find Thai hot food, brick oven pizza, taro products, whole coconuts cracked for their delicious coconut water, wonderful baked goods, including French baguettes, croissants, and sourdough loaves, macadamia honey, toasted nuts, and more to satisfy the appetite.

For this newsletter, I want to focus on the Puhi Market vegetables. I took all these photos during one Saturday morning near the end of September.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this fruit and vegetable travelogue. You may have asked, “Where are the tomatoes?” I’ll talk about that in a future newsletter.

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At around 1 p.m. the other day, my wife sent me a text: How about pizza tonight?

Without responding immediately, here’s what raced through my mind: I have no pizza dough in the fridge. Pizza dough should age a few days in a chilly spot to develop its flavor. I have no homemade pizza sauce. I have no fresh mozzarella. But I do have a bunch of fresh basil.

Sure dear, great idea! I texted back. Then I went to work. My favorite pizza dough recipe, the one I always use, comes from Johnny Francesco, a pizza chef in Melbourne, Australia. I make it in my KitchenAid. He makes it by hand. Here’s a video where you can see his entire process. it’s about 16 minutes long. I learned more from watching Johnny make pizza than from anyone else.

The Dough

The best flour for pizza is tipo 00 high gluten flour. Here’s what I have.

The dough Johnny uses contains 1,000 grams of flour, 600 grams of water, a small amount of yeast (I use 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast), and 30 grams of salt. This amount will make enough dough for six pizzas. I cut the recipe in half.

I put 300 grams of room temperature tap water into my 5-quart KitchenAid mixer bowl and stir in the 500 grams of flour, 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, then the 15 grams of salt. I scrape the side of the bowl, attach the dough hook, and turn the motor on low speed for 7 1/2 minutes. You may be tempted to add more water because it takes awhile for the flour to be completely incorporated into the dough. But don’t! Just leave the mixer alone.

At the end of mixing and kneading, you’ll have a beautifully smooth ball of dough, maybe only a bit tacky, but easy to handle.

At this point, I’d divide the dough into three balls, put them into a tupperware container, and stash the dough in the fridge for a day or two before baking a pizza. Johnny stores his pizza dough in a cool basement temperature of about 65˚F. In Montana I could do that. In Hawaii I have no basement.

For pizza tonight—and by the time I made the dough and refrigerated it it was 5 p.m.—I had to rush to Safeway for the block of unsliced fresh mozzarella.

Back home I cut one-third of the cheese into 9 slices and set them on a towel to drain excess liquid. I also got out my pizza sauces.

Next, I turn on my trusty GE electric oven to 530˚F and preheat it with a baking stone on the bottom shelf. About an hour later it’s time to shape the pizza.

Next, brush the edge of the dough lightly with olive oil—or skip this step—and spread the dough with a thin layer of RAO’s and top it lavishly with fresh basil.

After 9 minutes of baking here’s the baked pizza. It’s about 8 p.m. The emergency is over. The pizza is fantastic! And we’re very happy.

Mangiate bene! Thank you for reading. And have fun baking!

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The Okinawan sweet potato is one of the most popular foods in Hawaii. And no wonder. In addition to being a nutritional powerhouse—it’s loaded with antioxdants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber—it’s just plain delicious in both savory dishes and in desserts.

Your market’s produce department is likely not stocking Okinawan purple sweet potatoes. That’s a pity. If it is, you’re in luck. If not, just ask the manager to please order these potatoes. Tell the person in charge how healthy the potatoes are and they’re so delicious; and also say they store extremely well at room temperature and that you’ll guarantee the potatoes sell because you’ll get your friends to buy them.

Ive found these potatoes in southern California. And they’re likely available in many states and neighborhoods where Japanese, Filipinos, and/or Hawaiians live.

What I Learned About This Potato

This purple sweet potato has a dry texture, far dryer than the orange sweet potato, so it boils up without becoming waterlogged. It makes wonderful latkes and gnocchi. You can cook several pounds of unpeeled tubers at a time—it takes 20 to 25 minutes at a rolling boil—and after draining and cooling them, store them in the fridge and use them all week long.

In researching recipes for sweet potato pie, the one rule that I kept seeing said to bake the potatoes instead of boiling them. This may be true for the regular sweet potato, but not the Okinawan. The lack of moisture in these purple sweet potatoes makes them perfect candidates for boiling.

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The Recipe

Preliminaries

You’ll need an unbaked 9-inch pie crust. This can be any recipe of your choice. Or check out the recipe here, Speedy Food Processor Pastry.

The crust may be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated.

Ingredients

2 cups riced or mashed purple sweet potato (490 grams)

½ cup sugar

¾ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 tablespoon peeled grated fresh ginger

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup coconut cream or full fat coconut milk (shake cans well before measuring)

Topping

1 cup heavy cream or whipping cream, whipped with 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla until stiff.

Procedure

1. Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 325˚F.

2. Have the unbaked pie shell at room temperature.

3. In a stand mixer, with the flat beater in place, beat the purple sweet potatoes,

   sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and grated ginger on low speed until well-mixed, about 2 minutes. Scrape the bowl and beater and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape the bowl and beater.

4. On low speed beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly incorporated, about 1 to 2 minutes.

5. Add the vanilla, butter, coconut cream or full-fat coconut milk and mix on low speed a minute or two until the filling is smooth.

6. Pour into the pie shell and set the pie onto a rimmed baking sheet.

   Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes until the filling is set and a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs clinging to it.

7. Cool the pie completely on a wire rack. You can serve the pie now or refrigerate it and serve it cold. Dollop each serving with lightly sweetened whipped cream.

   

   

   

   Happy Baking!

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This fresh ginger recipe created a lot of buzz a few decades ago. Many of my baking colleagues told me that I just had to make them. “They’re so gingery,” many said. “You’ll love them,” some added.

Well, I happen to just love ginger in just about any form—fresh, dried and powdered, candied, or in ice cream. And in Hawaii it’s available year round.

The recipe for Marion Cunningham’s Ginger Muffins comes from her Breakfast Book.

I got a bonus buying this volume because it also includes her Supper Book.

About Marion Cunningham

For many years, Marion assisted James Beard in his cooking classes. When Knopf editor Judith Jones asked Beard if he could recommend someone to revise and modernize the 1896 Fannie Farmer Cookbook, he recommended Marion. Marion jumped at this opportunity. The job was a work for hire. She was given a lump sum and no royalty. As time wore on, Marion ran over budget as the project took much longer than expected, and she paid out of her own pocket to complete the recipe testing and writing of the manuscript.

The book was a huge success, and Judith then served as editor for the many other cookbooks that Marion would write—with advances and royalty!

Marion’s The Breakfast Book, first published by Knopf in 1987, features the recipe for “Bridge Creek Fresh Ginger Muffins.” It’s absolutely terrific and deserves all the accolades it receives.

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The Recipe

Makes 16 muffins

A 2-ounce piece of unpeeled fresh ginger

3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons lemon zest (from 2 lemons), with some white pith

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk (240 grams)

2 cups all-purpose flour (10 ounces)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Grease the muffin tins.

2. Cut the unpeeled ginger into large chunks. If you have a food processor, process the ginger until it is in tiny pieces; or hand shop into fine pieces. (You should have at least 1/4 cup. It is better to have too much ginger than too little.) Put the ginger and 1/4 cup sugar in a small skillet or pan and cook over medium heat until the sugar has melted and the mixture is hot. Don’t walk away from the pan—this cooking takes only a couple of minutes. Remove from the stove and let the ginger mixture cool.

3. Put the lemon zest and 3 tablespoons sugar in the food processor and process until the lemon is in small bits; or chop the lemon zest and pith by hand and then add the sugar. Add the lemon mixture to the ginger mixture. Stir and set aside.

4. Put the butter in a mixing bowl and beat for a second or two, add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, and beat until smooth. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the buttermilk and mix until blended. Add the flour, salt, and baking soda. Beat until smooth. Add the ginger-lemon mixture and mix well.

5. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins so that each cup is three-quarters full. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm.

A Few Details before Plunging Forward

1. The number of muffins this recipe makes is sixteen. Sixteen is an unusual number for muffins. Standard-size muffin tins have 12 cups. There are 6-cup muffin tins also, so one of those pans could accommodate 4 muffins. I use a USA muffin pan, and I can fill those 12 cups with all the batter. If you have just one 12-cup regular muffin pan, save the remaining batter until the first muffins are baked and out of the pan. Then bake the remaining four muffins.

2. Here’s what 2 ounces of fresh ginger looks like. The coin is there for a size comparison.

   

   3. The chopped cooked ginger

   

   4.The Lemon Zest

5 Cooked Ginger and Lemon Zest

6. The Muffin Batter

   

   7. The smooth batter

   

   8.Muffin Batter in the Pan

   

9. Bakes Ginger Muffins in the pan.

10. The Muffins in a Basket.

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Happy Baking!

Forty years ago, as I was putting the finishing touches on my manuscript for Patently Easy Food Processor Cooking, a little voice—assertive and persistent—said “You must put me in too.” What’s going on? Who is this? A recipe is telling me it needs to be in my book? I say to myself, “My book has all the recipes it needs.” But I keep listening, and the voice says “A spice cake. I have to be in your book.” “But I already have a spice cake recipe in my book.” “Not mine. You need me, too.”

I’ve learned to pay attention to unbidden advice, whether voiceless or not, and that’s how Blue Mountain Spice Cake made its way into my book. It’s a simple recipe, mildly spiced, and ideal for snacking. I love it. I hope you will, too.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need.

I always begin by preparing the baking pan first. Then I preheat the oven.

To prep the dry ingredients, put the metal blade into the food processor work bowl and add the cake flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Process for 5 seconds and transfer the mix to a sheet of waxed paper.

Reinsert the metal blade in the work bowl and add the brown sugar and orange zest. Process for 2 minutes.

Next you add the egg and vanilla and process for 1 minute.

Next, add the softened butter.

And here’s the recipe as it appears in my book.

Happy Baking!

One final point. When making cakes in the food processor you mix the egg and sugar together first, then add the butter. The conventional method is to cream the butter with the sugar, then mix in the eggs and finally the flour.

You can, of course, make this cake in the conventional way with a mixer.

Oh, another thing. You should shake the buttermilk container to make sure the milk is smooth. It tends to separate a bit in the fridge. When shaken, the buttermilk will be bubbly, so it’s best to weigh it—230 to 240 grams.

And Please…

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Strawberries and rhubarb have worked their magic together in sauces, compotes, puddings, crisps, and pies ever since cooks first thought to combine the two.

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I know. I know. Easter has come and gone this year. In Italy, however, this traditional Easter pie is made by many bakeries year-round. Why? Because of public demand. The crunchy sugary crust holds a whole grain eggy ricotta cheese filling scented with the beguiling aroma of orange flower. The combination is just too wonderful to be eaten at just one special time of the year.

I tasted Pastiera for the first time when my family and I lived in Naples. Cooked grain in a pie was new to me, and I loved how the chewy berries contrasted with the creaminess of the filling. I also just loved the sugary and buttery crust. That pastiera was enormous, at least 18 inches in diameter. The crust alone contained 18 egg yolks and the filling 12 yolks!

Italian author, Amedeo Colella, who writes about Neapolitan life and food, says that pastiera, as with just about all the great Neapolitan pastries, was born in a convent, specifically the Convent of San Gregorio Armeno in Naples’s centro storico (Old Town). The convent nuns were the first to bake hundreds of pastiere (plural) for the Neapolitan bourgeoisie. And that’s why the best pastiera is still to be found in bakeries near the monastery.

Old recipes for pastiera say to soak soft winter wheat berries in multiple changes of water for three days and to cook the berries for an hour or two. This never worked for me. What does work is cooking pearled farro for minutes instead of hours. In italy I queried several bakers, and they all said alternative grains are completely okay to include in pastiera.

Amadeo Colella ends his essay on pastiera with these words: “Pastiera is the very symbol of inclusiveness and hospitality, virtues in which the city of Naples has always excelled.”

I’ve adapted the recipe here from my friend, Arthur Schwartz, who has written many authoritative cookbooks, including “Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania” (Harper Collins, 1998). By pastiera standards, his pastiera is small, but big enough for 8 to 10 servings.

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RECIPE

Makes 8 to 10 servings

Pastiera Napolitana

The traditional grain for this pie is wheat berries, but nowadays many bakers use farro or barley in place of the wheat. I opt for pearled farro. Pearling removes the tough outer coat of the grain so boiling time is just about 20 minutes. I bake the pie in a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.

The Pastry

2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons sugar

Grated zest of 1 lemon

10 tablespoons (5 ounces) cold unsalted butter

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

The Grain

1/3 cup pearled farro

2 1/2 cups water

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup whole milk

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

1 tablespoon butter

Ricotta Filling

1 15-ounce container ricotta

1/2 cup sugar

Cooked farro from the recipe above

Grated zest of 1 large orange

1 teaspoon orange flower water (or vaanilla if you don’t have the orange essence)

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1. Make the pastry. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, lemon zest, and sugar. Cut the cold butter into pieces and add to the bowl. Use a pastry blender or your fingertips to work the butter and dry ingredients into a coarse meal. In a small bowl, beat the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla together with a fork tocombine well. Add to the dry ingredients and mix vigorously with the fork until everything comes together. Then reach in with your hands and squeeze the dough repeatedly until it unites into a smooth mass. This is your pastry. It will weigh about 21 ounces.

Divide the dough into two pieces, one about 2/3 of the dough and the other 1/3 of the dough. Shape each piece into a 1-inch-thick disk; wrap them in plastic, and refrigerate.

2. For the grain. In a medium saucepan (2-quart is ideal), combine the farro, water, and salt. Set the pan over medium-high heat and bring to the boil, stirring a few times. As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat to medium-low—thewater should be bubbling very gently—and cook, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes, until the berries are al dente—tender but slightly chewy. Take the pan off the heat and set it aside to cool to room temperature. Drain off any water.

3. Add the milk, orange zest, and butter to the cooked wheat. Set the pan over medium-low heat and bring to the simmer, stirring occasionally. The liquid should be bubbling gently and the bubbles will be small.

Continue cooking, stirring now and then, for 10 to 15 minutes more and watch the bubbles carefully.

Take the pan off the heat and set it aside to cool. The contents of the pan should look creamy, not dry. If necessary, stir in a little bit of milk to restore creaminess.

4. Make the ricotta filling. In a medium bowl, whisk together the ricotta, sugar, all the cooked grain, orange zest, orange flower water, eggs and egg yolks, until well combined. Taste a dab carefully. The filling may need more orange flower water.

5. Assembly and baking. Take the packets of chilled pastry out of the fridge and let them warm up a bit at room temperature, fifteen minutes or so. If you try to roll the dough when it’s cold, it will break into pieces. Dust your work surface lightly with flour and coat the larger piece of dough on both sides. Roll the dough gently, without forcing it, in a back and forth motion with a rolling pin into an oval shape about 8 to 10 inches long. The edges of the dough are likely to crack in spots. That’s what a sugar pastry does. Just pinch the edges together to smooth them out. Flour the dough lightly, as necessary, to prevent sticking. Turn the oval of dough ninety degrees and roll back and forth to make a circle. Now that you have a circle of dough, continue rolling from the center outward in all directions, turning and flipping the dough from time to time, to maintain the circular shape.

Flour as necessary to prevent sticking, and pinch together any cracked edges. Stop rolling when you have a 12- to 13-inch circle of pastry.

Carefully roll the pastry around the rolling pin and slowly unroll it over the 9-inch tart pan. Without stretching the dough, lift the edges of the pastry and nudge it onto the sides of your pan. If the pastry cracks at any point—and just so you know, this is likely to happen—do not despair, just pinch the edges together and patch large gaps with some of the overhanging pastry. Once your pan is lined, cut away the excess pastry with a sharp knife. Gather scraps together and wrap in plastic. Read caption below about extending the pastry rim above the pan edge.

Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Roll the smaller piece of dough on your lightly floured surface to a 10-inch circle. Cut the dough into 1/2-inch wide strips.

Whisk the ricotta filling a few times and pour into the pastry-lined pan.

Carefully lay strips of dough on the filling to make a diamond pattern. Three or four strips in each direction should do it. Cut off overhanging pastry. Gather up scraps and add to the first batch of scraps. Shape into a disk, rewrap, and refrigerate. Leftover dough makes great cookies!

6. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until the filling is set and jiggles a bit only in the center. Cool completely on a wire rack, 2 to 3 hours.

7. Serving. Pastiera is usually served plain. Cut into portions and set them on dessert plates. I usually add a few berries for color and taste. Store leftover pastiera in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before serving.

A final note: In a pinch you can buy cans of cooked wheat to make pastiera. The contents of the can replace the cooked farro. Just cook it further following the instructions in steps 3 and 4 above and it’ll be ready to pour into your pastry shell. Look online to find sources for the cooked grain.

Happy Baking!

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Passover, also known as Pesach, begins at sundown on Saturday, April 12th, and ends at nightfall on Sunday, April 20th.

I just love eating matzoh. The crispiness and crunch get me every time.

Commercially manufactured mazoh is square in shape and each piece bears lines of browned areas that look quite appealing. The mazohs are crisp and addictive. I like spreading them with some softened butter or peanut butter or just layering some sliced cheese on top. This is something I do today and have done for most of my life. I grew up eating matzoh, and it was always store bought.

Homemade matzoh is an entirely different thing. The dough is rolled paper thin, docked with a fork, and slid onto a preheated baking stone in a 450˚F oven. In two to three minutes, you’ll get a puffy, bubbly homemade matzoh that becomes shatteringly crisp as it cools. One bite will hook you.

Here’s what home-baked mazoh looks like:

Where I Learned How to Make Matzoh

About twenty years ago, when I was seeking recipes for my cookbook, “A Baker’s Odyssey,”(Wiley, 2007) Cindy Klotz answered my call for help. I did not know that people actually made mazoh at home, but Cindy does it every year at passover. She makes batch after batch and works so fast she sometimes becomes a blur.

One thing about passover: Rabbinical law says that when flour and water meet, you have 18 minutes to get what you’re making into the oven before fermentation starts. When the Jews fled Egypt during their exodus from slavery, they had no time to bake. So any bread they ate had to be unleavened. Matzoh dough takes little time to make—it’s just flour and water—and it’s rolled so thin that it could bake quickly in the desert heat.

When I was growing up in Shanghai, and the youngest person at the seder, I was given the honor of having matzoh dough wrapped in cloth and strapped to my back to symbolize how matzoh was believed to have been baked during the long journey out of Egypt. Those seders lasted for hours, and all I wanted was some food.

Making Matzoh: The Steps

Move an oven rack to the lowest position and remove the second rack or place it in the highest position. Preheat the oven to 450˚F about 45 minutes before you actually roll out the first matzoh.

Mix flour and water together in a large bowl. Put 8 3/4 ounces (247 grams) of unbleached all-purpose flour into the bowl and, with a fork, gradually stir in 6 ounces (170 grams) of room temperature water to make a shaggy, slightly sticky lump of dough. Do not beat the dough. If you only have dry and liquid measuring cups, use the dip and sweep method to measure 1 3/4 cups flour and a glass measure for 3/4 cup water.

Transfer the dough round to a baker’s peel or rimless cookie sheet. To do that, working quickly, fold the dough in half, move it to your sliding surface, and unfold it so it’s a round again.

Slide the matzoh onto the baking stone, and bake for 2 to 3 minutes, sometimes a bit longer depending on your oven, until the matzoh is browned in spots, bubbly looking, with areas that are mostly clear. With tongs, transfer the matzoh to a cooling rack.

Repeat the rolling, pricking, and baking with the remaining matzoh balls.

Once you get a rhythm going, you can all the baking done in 30 to 40 minutes.

When completely cool, store the matzohs in a large ziptop bag where they’ll stay crisp for 4 to 5 days.

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Have fun with this. This is a great recipe to make with kids. There’s no rushing around. And you’ll all have so much fun!

My relationship and love for Key Lime Pie began in the 1980s when I gave Cuisinart food processor cooking classes all over Florida—two two-hour classes a day. After the evening class, dinner time. At just about every restaurant I went to, Key Lime Pie appeared on the menu. And I always ordered it. All were delicious, and nary a crumb survived. Each restaurant kitchen made its pie in pretty much the standard way: stir together egg yolks with sweetened condensed milk, and finish by mixing in fresh lime juice. The acidic lime curdles the milk proteins and sets the filling. Key limes aren’t any limier than the ubiquitous Persian lime, but the name Key Lime somehow just sounds romantic. Oh, and all the pies I sampled sported Graham cracker crusts.

All or almost all key lime pies these days are made with Persian limes. Nevertheless the name “key” is still used because it is an unprotected designation.

Many different citrus species thrive in Hawaii, including lemons and the common Persian limes. Another lime that we go nuts over is the Calamansi lime. Native to the Philippines, these limes thrive in many tropical and subtropical climates. They grow on trees and are seasonal. The fruit is orange or green or somewhere in between, but the juice is always bright orange. Calamansi is a seedy fruit, but there’s more pulp to seed, so they’re juicy

At a farmers’ market in Lihue a couple of years ago, one seller had nothing but calamansi limes to sell. Visitors didn’t know what they were, but when asked, the seller said, “key limes,” and in short order all were sold.

I use calamansi limes in my key lime pies. If you live where these limes don’t, do not despair. My way of making the filling assures it will feel super creamy regardless of the lime; but the calamansi lime adds a certain depth of tang the key lime or Persian lime lacks.

I do not use a graham cracker crust for this pie, and I recommend you don’t either. A graham cracker crust is convenient, but its taste and texture just get in the way of the heavenly filling. A baked pie crust—homemade or store-bought--is the way to go. And, historically, key lime pie originated long before the Graham cracker crust was born. So a true pie crust is the original base for this pie.

Here’s the filling recipe:

4 large egg yolks

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

½ cup fresh lime juice (calamansi or Persian limes)

1.Put the egg yolks into a medium size bowl and beat with a hand-held electric mixer on medium- to medium-high speed until the yolks are thickened and paler in color. This step gives the filling its super smooth texture. (Note: A few years ago I developed a key lime pie recipe for a food magazine and found that actually beating the egg yolks for a few minutes gave the pie a welcome lightness).

2. Gradually mix in the sweetened condensed milk on low speed or stir it in with a spoon. A tablespoon or two at a time, stir in the lime juice. Stir the filling a few times with a rubber spatula to make sure it’s completely smooth. And that’s it! At this point many recipes say to pour the filling into the crust and refrigerate. I like to bake the filling a short time to ensure a lovely smooth texture.

To Bake:

Preheat the oven to 350˚F with a rack in the middle position. Put your baked pie crust onto a baking sheet and scrape the filling into the crust.

Put the pie in the oven and set a square of aluminum foil over the top of the pie. The foil will rest on the edges of the crust above the filling.

Bake 15 minutes. Remove the foil and the pie from the oven and set the pie on a cooling rack. When completely cool, refrigerate the pie, uncovered, for 5 to 6 hours or overnight.

Whipped Cream Topping

1 ½ cups heavy cream or whipping cream

2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Make sure your beaters and bowl are cold. Put them in the fridge and hour or so beforehand. Pour the cream into the chilled bowl and add the sugar and vanilla. Beat until the cream holds a firm shape. Spread over the filling and smooth the top. Cut into servings with a sharp knife.

If you like, place a few raspberries and/or blueberries alongside the wedge of pie.

The pie holds up really well in the fridge for up to four days.

Makes 8 servings.

Have fun with this pie!

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The world of snacks is immense. I gasped when I spotted these shelves, stocked with snacks of all sorts from China, Japan, the Philipines, and other countries in Asia. Which to try? A veritable puzzlement staring me in the face.

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My love of passion fruit began way back in the late 1980s when Dorothy and I spent a few days on Kauai. In Hawaii, passion fruit is called lilikoi. I cannot imagine a more beautiful sounding name. I do not remember what I was eating that first time, but lilikoi grabbed me by the taste buds and I yelled “Wow!” Was it a dessert, a tea sipped at lunch, or an ice cream? All of that doesn’t matter now because lilikoi’s alluring floral aroma and unidentifiable tanginess imprinted themselves on me for life. Passion fruit indeed!

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Through the forty-plus years since meeting lilikoi for the first time--before Dorothy and I began living on Kauai—I kept in contact with lilikoi by ordering bottles of passion fruit juice from Aunty Lilikoi. I’ll tell you more about that later.

Lilikoi grows on a vine. See the picture above. The fruit casing is hard, but it’s easy to cut open with a knife.

Inside you’ll find the seeded fruit encased in an orangy pulp. Both seeds and pulp are edible, but in desserts the seeds are removed and only the juice is used.

Removing the seeds is easy. Scrape the seeded pulp into a blender and pulse about ten times with very quick on/off bursts of power to liquefy the pulp. The seeds pretty much stay intact. Straining the contents of the blender gives you pure lilikoi juice that’s ready to use. And that’s it.

The juice keeps well in the refrigerator for up to a week, but it’s best to freeze it for longer storage. In the freezer lilikoi juice will keep its potency for up to one year.

I’ve made cheesecake, chiffon pies, tarts, and lilikoi curd. Why use lemon juice when lilikoi is at hand? The curd can also be frozen.

The dessert I make most often with lilikoi is Lilikoi Dessert Bars, my riff on the classic lemon bars.

Here are a few photos to illustrate the steps.

Mail order sources for passion fruit juice are at the end of this recipe. Happy Baking!

LILIKOI DESSERT BARS

Makes 24 Bars

These treats are best served cold. Store the pan of baked bars in the refrigerator and cut and dust them with powdered sugar just before serving. If you want to make lemon or lime bars, substitute either for the lilikoi juice.

Ingredients

Brown Sugar Shortbread Crust

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour; spoon flour into dry measuring cups to overflowing and level off with a straight-edge ( 8 1/2 ounces by weight; 240 grams)

• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown or muscovado sugar (100 gram)

• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

• 1 1/2 sticks ( 6 ounces; 170 grams) cold unsalted butter sliced into 12 to 15 pieces

Passion Fruit (Lilikoi) Filling

• 4 large eggs, cold is okay

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

• 3/4 cup fresh passion fruit juice

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Have ready a 13 x 9 x 2-inch ungreased baking pan.

Crust

1. For the shortbread crust, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, and salt and add the butter slices.

2. Work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips or a pastry blender until the butter is broken up into medium-size pieces, about ¼-inch. If your kitchen is warm and you find the butter getting too soft while you work it, put the bowl into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Pour the crumbs into the ungreased baking pan.

4. Press firmly and evenly on the bottom to make a compact layer. You’ll see pieces of butter here and there.

5. Bake for 20 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

Filling

1. While the crust bakes, whisk the eggs in a medium bowl to combine well. Add the granulated sugar and whisk in well. Add the lilikoi juice and flour and whisk until smooth. Try not to create large bubbles. Pour over the hot crust and return the pan to the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees and continue baking until the filling is set, about 30 minutes.

2. Any odd spots here and there are from large bubbles that popped during baking. Not to worry, they’ll be hidden under a dusting of powdered sugar if you choose to do so.

3. Cool the pan completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate for an hour or two until cold. If you want to serve the next day, cover the pan tightly with foil and refrigerate.

4. Loosen the sides of the dessert with the tip of a sharp knife, going around the pan more than once if necessary. The top of the filling is sticky. To make cutting easy, I rub soft butter on the blade of my knife. It cuts through the bars without tearing.

5. Remove bars from the pan, dust with powdered sugar, if you want, and serve.

How to order passion fruit juice:

1. www.auntylilikoi.com.

This site offers many excellent products containing passion fruit juice in addition to bottles of unsweetened passion fruit juice. Made from concentrate, I have had excellent results with it. A 10-ounce bottle costs $12.00 plus shipping. If you are on Kaua’i visit their store in Waimea. The address is on their website. For telephone orders call 1-808-338-1296.

2. Amazon.com. You will find many sources. Always make sure you are buying passion fruit juice with no added sugar. My friend, Cindy Klotz, is delighted with her purchase of Mazzoni Passion Fruit Puree, 100% Pure Passion Fruit, No Sugar added. It’s a 2.2 pound bag. The price is $25.50, and if you have amazon prime, there is free delivery. Cindy divided the puree into 3/4 cup portions and froze them.

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During my hiatus, I fell in love with Okinawan purple sweet potatoes. They’re on the small side, about 4 to 5 ounces each, with brownish skins. But when peeled they reveal themselves as gorgeously purple.

I boil them for my first dish of purple mashed potatoes. And let me tell you, they are utterly delicious and creamy smooth without adding any cream. When raw, these potatoes have a very firm texture making them easy to shred by hand. The shreds feel damp but not at all wet.

Bingo! That means no squeezing to rid the shredded potatoes of moisture. To turn those shreds into pancakes you just stir in seasonings, an egg, and some dried bread crumbs, matzoh meal, or flour. Now comes the fun part: frying up a batch of crispy latkes.

Potato pancakes (Latkes) are a traditional treat during Hannukah. I think that one reason latkes are seasonal is because of the manual labor involved in getting the water out of the potatoes. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and more squeeze.

But purple sweet potatoes can make latkes a frequent potato side dish.

Shred the peeled potatoes on the largest holes of a box grater.

The Recipe

1.For this recipe, which makes 8 to 9 potato pancakes, two 4-ounce peeled potatoes will do it. Shred them. Press firmly as you move the potato up and down.

2.When you fluff the potato shreds they won’t feel at all wet. Put them into a medium bowl and add the remaining ingredients—1 large egg, 1 teaspoon Kosher Crystal Diamond salt (or ½ teaspoon fine sea salt), ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, 2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger, and ¼ cup panko crumbs, matzah meal, or all-purpose flour. Mix well and you’re ready to start cooking.

3.Film the bottom of a 12-inch skillet, preferably non-stick, with 1/3 to ½ cup oil. I use coconut oil. But olive oil, peanut oil, avocado oil, grapeseed oil, or other oil you like, is fine.

4.Turn on the heat to medium-high and when the oil begins to shimmer, it’s ready to receive the pancakes. Give the sweet potato mixture a big stir and spoon a heaping soupspoonful into the oil. The oil should sizzle. Press down gently to level the pancake. Continue spooning the mixture into the pan—leave a bit of space between cakes--pressing down on each one. Work quickly so the pancakes cook for about the same time.

5.Cook 2 to 3 minutes until the pancake bottoms are nicely browned and crisp. Flip them and continue cooking another 3 minutes or so until they’re well-browned and very crisp.

6.Drain the pancakes on a kitchen towel or paper towels and transfer them to a warmed platter. Serve right away.

I serve the pancakes as is, but you can top them with a little sour cream, a drizzle of honey, applesauce, smoked salmon or whatever else you may like.

Feel free to change the seasonings in the pancake mix according to your tastes.

This recipe may be doubled.

7.Have fun!

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I am completely smitten with a smashing new cookbook on Russian cooking, “T-Bone Whacks and Caviar Snacks” (2018, University of North Texas Press), written by Sharon Hudgins, a Russian scholar and former University of Maryland professor. Sharon and I have know…

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Aloha, my faithful followers. It’s been awhile since my last newsletter, and here’s a new one to whet your appetites. This is an update of a previous newsletter for paid subscribers only.

When we moved to Kauai almost three years ago, I had to adjust my baking life to our new environment. Making bread needed no alterations because our room temperature ranges from the mid-seventies to the low eighties. Bread dough loves these conditions! We have no air conditioning.

Our apartment has two sets of floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors. We keep the one in the living room and kitchen area open during the day. Propping the front door open provides a refreshing current of cross ventilation.

                                  This video was lovingly created by Dorothy H. Patent

Recipe and Tips

Making pie dough or other fat-based pastry has its challenges here, but it can be done! The key is to have all ingredients ice cold. A food processor makes such quick work of putting the pastry together that the dough remains icy cold.

NOTE: If you’re a baker who loves to get her hands in the flour to pinch pieces of butter into flakes, this technique may still work for you in a tropical environment so long as the flour, water, and fat  are ice cold and you work like the wind.

The fat in this recipe is all butter. Here’s what I do. I weigh the flour in a small stainless steel bowl, add the salt and optional sugar on top, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and pop it into the freezer. Leave the bowl there for at least 2 hours. It can stay there for days.

Have ice water at the ready in the fridge. Cut the stick of cold butter into 8 equal pieces and refrigerate.

For a one-crust pastry, weight 5 ounces (142 grams) of bleached or unbleached all-purpose flour into your bowl and sprinkle on top ¼ teaspoon table salt or ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt and 1 teaspoon sugar. The sugar is optional but it does help with the browning. Cover the bowl nice and tight and put it in the freezer.

To make the pastry, have the food processor on your countertop and set the frozen flour, ice water, ice cold butter and a 1 tablespoon measure next to it.

Dump the flour, salt and sugar into the work bowl with the metal blade in place. Process 5 to 10 seconds. Add the butter pieces and pulse 4 times for 1 second each. Uncover the work bowl and add 3 tablespoons ice water. Cover and pulse very rapidly 20 times to cut the butter into smaller bits. Check the dough; it may be moist enough to begin holding together.

If not sprinkle in up to 1 tablespoon more ice water and pulse a few times very rapidly until the dough becomes moist enough to hold together when you squeeze it. Look closely into the processor as you pulse. You’ll be able to see the point where the pastry looks like it will come together when you press it. Do not let the dough gather into a ball in the processor or it may become too tough when baked.

Dump the clumps of dough out onto a lightly floured pastry cloth and press them together into a 4- to 5- inch diameter disk. Work quickly. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate. That’s it! Let the dough chill for about 2 hours if you want to use it that day. During the rest period the gluten relaxes and the pastry will be easy to roll. If you have a large food processor you can double the recipe.

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Four million coffee trees on 3,100 acres. That’s the size of Kauai Coffee Company’s coffee farm. This is one extraordinary scene of the vast property.

Ever since we moved to Kauai in late 2021, Dorothy and I had wanted to take a tour of this coffee farm. We opted for a guided bus tour in mid-June, and we weren’t prepared for sights such as this one. We had thought that Kauai Coffee Company farm was just a small operation nestled into the southeastern corner of our island. How wrong we were!

Before our tour began we tasted several coffees at a sampling table. I learned that medium roast coffee beans are higher in caffeine than dark roast beans, but I prefer the flavor or dark roasts.

As we rode through the coffee farm, our guide told us about the farm’s history and the history of coffee growing in Hawaii. She also related how Kauai Coffee Company differed from most coffee farms in being totally run by machines.

Our tour lasted about 1 1/2 hours, and as we got off the bus we learned of a self-guided walking tour. This is well-worth the short walk because the signage is very informative and you get to learn about every step of the coffee making process.

Growing Coffee

It takes 3 to 4 years for newly planted coffee trees to bear fruit. This fruit, or cherries, take about 8 months to fully ripen, turning from green to bright red as they mature. At the cherry’s core is the seed, or bean. Usually two beans come from one cherry; but sometimes just one bean, a peaberry, develops. The ripe cherry itself is sweet and you can eat the fruit.

Once a coffee tree begins producing cherries, its most productive period lasts for 7 to 20 years. At Kauai Coffee Company, one producing coffee tree will yield one pound of coffee beans a year from the once a year harvest.

Coffee thrives in tropical climates and does especially well in volcanic soil. The soil here has a reddish tint. The trees are exceedingly hardy and some live for 100 years.

Growing at near sea level, these trees receive abundant sunshine and warmth. Irrigation comes from the waters of Mount Waialeale, the wettest spot on earth with over 450 inches of rain per year. Located in central Kauai, some of the rainfall is diverted to the Kauai Coffee Company farm to irrigate the coffee trees.

Kona coffee farming on Hawaii Island is entirely different from the Kauai Coffee Farm. In the Kona region, hundreds of family operated farms of just a few acres each make up the coffee belt on Hawaii Islands’ west side, where the elevation is from 700 to 2500 feet. This “belt” is 2 to 3 miles wide and about 30 miles long with coffee trees growing on the volcanoes Hualalai and Mauna Loa. Misty air usually bathes the coffee trees in the afternoons, and natural rainfall irrigates the coffee trees.

Coffee Harvesting

At Kauai Coffee Company, the entire farm is run by machines. It’s such a vast operation that automation is the only way. Huge machines harvest the ripe cherries in one fell swoop. In Kona, the cherries are hand-harvested over a period of time so that only the ripest ones get picked.

Sorting the Harvest

The harvested cherries are moved to an area called the “wet plant” where they’re dumped into a very large water bath. The ripe cherries sink and the overripe ones float. The “floaters” are collected, pulped, and used for fertilizer in the orchard. The heavier cherries are transported by water to the production lines for further processing to separate the pulp and skin from the beans. The beans are classified by size and density.

Drying the Beans

Grading the Beans

Bagging the Coffee

A Friendly Reminder

Buying Kauai Coffee

Many markets sell Kauai Coffee Farm coffee, but for the best and freshest coffee, you can order online or visit in person. Their coffee is smooth and delicious,

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We have the Portuguese to thank for having brought their way of making doughnuts to Hawaii more than one hundred years ago. These fried pastries, malasadas, without a central hole, have become their own Hawaiian thing.

I’ve found many recipes on the internet. Some say to use bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. The liquid may be milk, half and half, cream or evaporated milk. Eggs and butter seem to be constant ingredients. Sugar is used sparingly in the dough but liberally to coat the fried malasadas. One thing I add is vanilla because I like it in sweet doughs.

The Kauai Bakery in Lihue makes a huge variety of malasadas.

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Here’s a recipe for the way I make plain malasadas. I’ve included a series of photos after the recipe to illustrate the key steps.

Hawaiian Malasadas

Makes 16

This dough has a wonderfully smooth and stretchy feel. It’s very easy to make in a stand mixer or by hand, and the malasadas turn out light and tender. I use instant yeast because it mixes into the dough without a proofing step where you dissolve the yeast in liquid first and wait a few minutes to see if it bubbles. Beware: Instant yeast is not the same as rapid rise. The brand I use is SAF. I keep a bag of it in the freezer. I also let the dough rise in the fridge overnight to develop its flavor.

¾ cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons butter, unsalted or salted

3 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (425 grams or 15 ounces)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon table salt

2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast (7 grams)

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 to 2 quarts vegetable oil for frying (grapeseed. avocado, coconut)

Granulated sugar for coating malasadas

1.   In a small saucepan heat the cream and butter over medium low heat until the butter melts. Take the pan off the heat and set aside until the liquid feels warm, not hot. Test with a fingertip.

2.   In the large bowl of an electric mixer whisk together thoroughly the flour, sugar, and salt. Whisk in the yeast. Attach the flat beater and add the warm cream and butter. Mix on medium low speed until the contents of the bowl become crumbly, about 3 minutes.

3.   Switch to the dough hook and add the eggs and vanilla. Mix on medium low speed until the dough gathers into a mass, 1 to 2 minutes. Then raise the speed to medium and knead for 3 to 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Scrape down the side of the bowl and knead for 1 minute more on medium speed. Pick up the dough and work it with your hands to make sure it feels smooth and stretchy. Shape it into a ball and return it to the mixer bowl. The dough will weigh 2 pounds.

4.   Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight. The dough will double in volume in the cold.

5.   The next day, set the dough on your work surface and pat it out to a 6- to 7-inch square. Dust with a little flour if it feels sticky. Line a large baking sheet with cooking parchment and cut the dough into 16 even pieces (each should weigh around 2 ounces). Roll each between your palms into a ball and set the balls well apart on the parchment. Flatten the balls until they’re about 3 inches across and ½-inch thick. Cover loosely with a kitchen towel and let them rise about 45 minutes until puffy and light. Rising time will depend on your kitchen temperature. Have paper towels spread out on a flat surface to drain the malasadas.

6.   To fry the malasadas, heat the oil in a heavy 10-inch skillet over medium heat to 360-365 degrees F. Meanwhile, cut the parchment the malasadas are on so that each malasada is resting on its own piece of parchment.

7.   One at a time, pick up a malasada on its parchment and slip it into the oil on its paper. Remove the paper from the oil with tongs. Cook no more than 4 to 6 malasadas at a time. Fry for 2 minutes per side. With a slotted spoon, transfer the malasadas onto the paper towels.

8.   Return the temperature of the oil to 360-365 degrees and continue frying the malasadas.

9.   When all the malasadas are cooked, put about ½ cup granulated sugar into a paper bag and add 5 or 6 malasadas. Close the bag and shake vigorously to coat the malasadas. Transfer the malasadas to a serving platter. Repeat until all malasadas are coated. Then dig in!

Malasadas are best when eaten warm. Leftovers can be reheated briefly, 20 to 30 seconds, in a microwave.

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