November arrives and I think pumpkin. Here in Israel, the d’la-at is amazing. They are huge in size and weight, cream color with stripes all around. People tend to buy chunks in the markets.
Forget the pies and try these uses.
Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles
20 cookies
This came to me on the Food & Wine website, but snickerdoodles were less familiar to me. Probably German in origin, the name of these sugar cookies could be a corruption of the German word “schneckennudel,” but notice the word “schnecken,” popular among Jewish cooks. Joan Nathan, well known American cookbook author, tells us that “Schnecken—the word means snail in German—are made of a rich and sweet yeast dough enriched with egg, sour cream and butter. The dough is pressed out in a large rectangle shape, sprinkled with sugar, cinnamon, raisins and ground nuts, and rolled up like a jelly roll. Cut on the cross section, the roll is sliced, baked, and served open-side up in small coiled rounds.”
Here is my version made pareve with slight changes.
- 1¾ cups sugar
- 2 T. cinnamon
- 1½ t. cardamom
- ½ t. nutmeg
- ½ cloves
- 2¾ cups flour
- 2 t. cream of tartar
- 1 t. baking soda
- 1 cup unsalted butter or pareve margarine
- 2 large eggs
- 1½ t. orange blossom water or
- ¾ t. orange extract
- 1 t. vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, stir together ¼ cup sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and cloves.
- In another bowl, stir together flour, cream of tartar and baking soda.
- Beat margarine and 1½ cups sugar until light and fluffy (4 minutes). Add eggs one at a time, then orange extract and vanilla. Add flour in 2 additions.
- Shape dough into 20 balls. Roll balls in spice mixture until coated. Arrange on baking sheets. Bake in preheated oven 6 to 7 minutes, rotate pans to opposite racks, continue baking for 10 minutes. Let cool.
Baked Pumpkin Wedges
6 servings
This came from an old newspaper, more than 40 years ago, which had come from a 1976 cookbook, “Pumpkin Happy.”
- 1 (4-pound pumpkin), cut into wedges, strings and seeds scraped out
- ½ to ¾ cup pareve margarine
- ¼ cup brown sugar or honey
- 1 t. cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Oil a glass baking dish.
- Make shallow cuts in each pumpkin wedge.
- Melt margarine in a saucepan. Add sugar and spices. Brush over wedges.
- Bake in preheated oven 35 to 45 minutes until tender,
Pumpkin Butter
2½ cups
This is great on toast with cream cheese, according to Kelsey Youngman, food writer, in Food & Wine online recipes.
- 1 (3-pound) pumpkin, stemmed, halved lengthwise and seeded
- 1 T. vegetable oil
- ¼ cup apple cider
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 3 T. honey
- 1 t. apple cider vinegar
- ¾ t. cinnamon
- ½ t. ginger
- ¼ t. nutmeg
- Pinch cloves
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Brush cut sides of pumpkin halves with oil. Arrange cut side down and bake in oven about 50 minutes, until tender.
- Scoop flesh into food processor. Discard shell. Add apple cider, process 1 minute. Add brown sugar, honey, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Process 20 seconds. Transfer to a saucepan.
- Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and cook until mixture is reduced by one third and turns slightly darker in color, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat, cool and spoon into jars with lids. Store in refrigerator.
Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, author, compiler/editor of nine kosher cookbooks and food writer for North American Jewish publications. She lives in Jerusalem, where she leads walks of the Jewish food market, Machaneh Yehudah, in English.
