Matza Apple Tea Cakes

These past two weekday sessions we met up in the Oneg Room with Karen to learn how to make a wonderful Pesach treat - Matza Apple Tea Cakes. These are perfect snacks or even part of a meal for the holiday (which begins this year on the evening of March 30th, just a little over a week from now!).

As usual, we started the session each day by gathering around the demo table where Karen shared kitchen secrets about the best way to slice apples.

Then it was time to start slicing. As it turns out, Granny Smith apples have tough skins, and are not the easiest apples to slice into small pieces.

Thankfully, Karen's tips were put to good use. 

And even then, it took two students at each table half of the session to slice both apples into small enough pieces to put into the batter.

Meanwhile, two other students were preparing the batter. First, you added in the oil.

Then it was time to measure out the matza meal ...

...and add it into the bowl - but not before looking up and giving a big smile for the camera !

Some students teamed up - one pouring the matza meal into the measuring cup, while the other carefully held it then poured it in.

As you can see, there was a lot going on at once at each table.

Once all the batter ingredients had been put into the bowl, it was time to add in the apple pieces.

Then it was time to stir (with a big smile!) ...

Paper cups were arranged neatly in the muffin pans ...

... and the trickiest part of all was spooning the finished batter into the paper cups without spilling it all over the table.

This was accomplished very well with a lot of team work!

Once the paper cups were filled 3/4 of the way up, it was time to sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of them. Some students used their fingers to sprinkle the sugar ...

... while others used a teaspoon to do the job.

Our half hour cooking session sped by as it always does, and everyone had a chance to taste the baked tea cakes just before going home. In our Edot class, there was a unanimous decision that these were so delicious that it was hard to eat just one! Luckily, we send out the recipe to all the parents, so I'm hoping you all have a chance to prepare these together at home and enjoy them.

Following our weekly tefillah service and indoor recess (it had begun to rain again), we reviewed what we had learned to date about the Jews of Spain, then I introduced a writing assignment which each student completed before the end of the session. I asked them to write two paragraphs for which they had to imagine that they were Crypto-Jews living in Saragossa, Spain in the year 1591 (several generations after Jews had to choose between converting or leaving Spain). The first paragraph asked them to share their feelings about how it felt always having to look out for Inquisition spies or Christian servants in their households who might catch them performing a Jewish ceremony or even something so simple as washing themselves before Shabbat. This first paragraph was titled, "Tzafoon" (the Aramaic word for hidden). The second paragraph asked the students to share their feelings about how it felt to be "sandwiched" between Judaism and Christianity - always wondering if they might give themselves away during a church service by doing or saying something that would give them away as being "Judaizers," and how it felt when they celebrated Jewish holidays and realized they were forgetting the rituals and prayers. This second paragraph was titled, "Korech" (Aramaic for "wrapping" or "sandwich"). We'll be reading these paragraphs this coming Sunday, during our re-enactment of a Crypto-Jewish seder.