Zabar's Black & White Cookies

We began our weekday session, as always, with our half-hour Hebrew language elective. Our cooking elective is very popular, and so I'm challenged to find Jewish recipes which will take little time to prepare, and which will result in baked goods approved by the majority (if not all) of the students. So far, so good.

This week's recipe is one of my favorites. Black and White cookies (or, as we called them in Boston where I grew up, "Half-Moons") are light, spongy cookies, covered with chocolate and vanilla frosting. These cookies likely originated in the Northeast region of the U.S., though there is some confusion about where exactly.  Today, you can only find them in Jewish deli's, and so I count them as a "Jewish recipe." Zabar's is one of the most famous Jewish delicatessens in the country (and probably in the world, thanks to the internet).

In order to achieve the spongy texture, a cake flour has to be used which contains less protein than all-purpose flour. The cake flour is mixed together with the same amount of all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar and salt, then added together with the other ingredients as follows:

Reisheet kol, la'seem et ha'chem'a l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola. (First of all, put the butter into the large bowl.)

Az, l'hoseef et ha'sookar l'toch ha'ke'ara, mey'al ha'chem'a. (Then, add the sugar into the bowl, over the butter.)

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

Achshav, leesh'bor et ha'beitzeem l'toch ha'ke'ara. (Now, break the eggs into the bowl.) From Jacob's expression, the chicken must have been fed a lot of calcium!

MAZEL TOV! The egg has landed - thankfully, in the bowl! 

L'hoseef et he'chalav v'et ta'am ha'vaneel v'ta'am ha'leemon l'toch ha'ke'ara...(Add the milk and the vanilla extract and the lemon extract into the bowl...)

...v'l'arbev et ha'kol be'yachad eem ha'kaf. (...and stir everything together with the spoon.)

Achshav zeh moochan l'hoseef et ha'kemach, avkat afeeya, ha'sookar, v'ha'melach. (Now it's ready to add the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.)

L'hoseef otam l'toch ha'ke'ara L'AT L'AT! (Add them into the bowl LITTLE BY LITTLE!)

L'hamsheech l'arbev eem ha'kaf. (Continue to stir with the spoon.)

Nice technique - bending the bowl to create a spout to control how much flour mixture comes out

One stirrer, 4 supervisors

Teamwork - hold the bowl, pour in the flour, stir the mixture, and supervise

Achshav, l'arbev et ha'kol eem ha'yada'eem. (Now, stir everything with the hands.)

The dough won't let go!

Achshav, la'seem et ha'batzek al ha'kaf. (Now, put the dough on the spoon.) Jenna came prepared, apron and all!

Ve'az la'avor et ha'batzek me'ha'kaf la'tavneet. (And then transfer the dough from the spoon to the cookie sheet.)

Only 6 cookies per sheet - they need a lot of room to spread.

Sof sof, zeh moochan la'afot ba'tanoor. (Finally, it's ready to bake in the oven.)

After the cookies were baked and cooled, our professional icers (Josh and Natalie) performed their magic - not an easy task when you only have minutes left to frost all the cookies before the food critics - er, students - come to pick up the finished product and pronounce their decision.  THUMBS UP!!!

Maimone and Erin are helping Yardena and me on Wednesdays, and both are recording the proceedings for posterity!

This week's Hebrew vocabulary - hopefully, you can practice it at home with your children

We have one more session to go in this third round of Hebrew electives. We're off for the Presidents' Holiday next week, so on February 25th and 26th our students will choose a new (and final) elective for the final 6 weeks of Religious School.