Edot: Carob Cupcakes

Our community of Hebrew Elective bakers is becoming very adept both in understanding the Hebrew terms for the ingredients and preparation instructions, as well as in the preparation techniques themselves.

As always, I begin the session introducing what we'll be preparing, speaking in Hebrew as I point to each vocabulary word on the white board:

This week, we prepared carob cupcakes. My introduction did include some English this time, since not only did I have to share the Hebrew word for "carob" (charoov), but I had to explain what a carob was. Only a handful of students had ever heard of a carob before, and those students knew only that it was a kind of tree that they had heard about in the "Honi Ha'me'agel" (Honi the Circlemaker) stories, read to them on Tu Bish'vat. Honi, according to this story found in the Talmud, planted carob trees all over the Land of Israel.

Once we had established what the main ingredient was, we rolled up our sleeves, warmed up our just-washed hands, and focused on preparing what would turn out to be one of the most delicious products of our Hebrew cooking elective.

La'seem et ha'chem'a b'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola (Put the butter into the big bowl)

L'hoseef et ha'sookar me'al ha'chem'a (Add the sugar on top of the butter)

L'ha'kreem et ha'chem'a v'ha'sookar b'yachad, eem ha'etzba'ot (Cream the butter and sugar together with the fingers)

Cream them both until fluffy

Leeshbor et ha'beitzeem l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'k'tana (Break the eggs into the small bowl)

V'leetrof et ha'beitzeem eem ha'mazleg (And beat the eggs with the fork)


Achshav, l'hoseef et ha'beitzeem la'chem'a v'sookar, b'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola (Now, add the eggs to the butter and sugar, in the big bowl)


Az, l'hoseef L'AT L'AT et ha'kemach, avkat charoov, peetzpootzei charoov, ta'am vaneel, v'shamenet chamootza... (Then, add LITTLE BY LITTLE the flour, carob powder, carob chips, vanilla extract, and sour cream...)

(I should note here that when searching for recipes to prepare with the students, I keep an eye out for instructions like the above, which will allow as much interaction and cooperation between the students as possible - a community activity!)