Date Chews for Tu Bish'vat

In honor of the Tu Bish'vat holiday (which we celebrated Wednesday evening and Thursday 'til sundown), our Hebrew cooking elective students prepared date chews. These are basically date brownies.

As usual, I presented the review words and new words on the white board, but since this was the final class in the second round of electives for this year, I wrote the Hebrew vocabulary on the board, but left the English translations for the students to fill in, to show me what they could recall.

Most of the students recalled the most-frequently used vocabulary.

We wasted no time in getting going on the preparation, beginning with the dry ingredients. La'seem kemach, sookar, melach, v'avkat afeeya l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola. (Put flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into the big bowl.)

Achshav, l'arbev et ha'kol b'yachad b'toch ha'keara ha'g'dola. (Now, stir everything together in the big bowl.)

Leetrof et ha'beitzeem b'toch ha'ke'ara ha'k'tana eem ha'mazleg.  (Beat the eggs in the small bowl with the fork.)

Adding in the dates was a bit tricky. I had pre-chopped them the night before and had refrigerated them. When it came time to add them into the dry ingredients, the students had to pull the pieces apart to be sure they were distributed evenly in the mixture. Only then could they add in the eggs to bind everything together.

Leesh'foch et ha'beitzeem l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola (Pour the eggs into the big bowl)

V'az l'arbev et ha'kol b'yachad (And then stir everything together)

L'arbev eem ha'kaf, eem yad chazaka!  (Stir with the spoon, with a strong hand!)

V'l'arbev eem ha'yada'eem (And stir with the hands) - it was very sticky dough!

La'seem et ha'batzek l'toch ha'tavneet eem ha'kaf (Put the dough into the baking dish with the spoon)

L'sof, leefros et ha'batzek b'toch ha'tavneet (Finally, spread the dough in the baking dish) - with the spatula...

...or with the spoon - it was so sticky, it was hard to spread!

After cleaning up, the students noted down their first three choices for the third round of electives, beginning next week.

Please let me know if you'd like me to send you one or more of the recipes we prepared during the past 6 sessions. I'd be happy to do so.