Arthur Schwartz's HANUKKAH RECIPES

Recipes Excerpted from

Jewish Home Cooking By Arthur Schwartz

http://www.arthurschwartz.com

Covered loosely with foil, this is a very moist cake that will keep for a week at room temperature. If the outside dries out slightly, that’s all the better. The crusty outside is delicious. (If you cover the cake with plastic, or put it under a cake dome, the crust with soften.) An old-fashioned removable bottom aluminum tube pan promotes a good crust, and the cake will un-mold with its crustiest side up. If you don’t have this old-fashioned pan, a Bundt pan produces a more decorative shape, but the crusty top becomes the bottom when the cake is unmolded. It’s your choice. Either type pan of pan is fine, as long as it holds 12 cups. I bake my cake in an old light-colored and thin aluminum tube pan. A heavy, dark metal pan, such as a Bundt pan or most recently purchased tube pans, bake much faster -- turn the heat to 350 degrees and check the cake after about an hour.

Grease a 12- cup (10-inch) tube pan or Bundt pan with margarine. If using a decorative Bundt pan, make sure to get the butter into all the crevices, and grease the whole pan heavily.

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to blend. Set aside.

In a small bowl or cup, combine the cinnamon and 5 tablespoons of sugar. Stir to blend. Set aside.

Peel, core, and cut the apples. Place in a mixing bowl and toss with the cinnamon sugar. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and 2 cups of sugar together on medium speed until the mixture is light yellow and thick, about 1 minute. Slowly pour in the oil and continue beating another few seconds. Beat in the orange or apple juice and vanilla.

Stop the machine. Add the flour mixture all at once. Stir on lowest speed just until the flour is thoroughly blended in. Do not over mix.

By hand, stir in the apples and walnuts. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared tube or Bundt pan.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours. It should be well browned and separating from the sides of the pan.

Place the cake on a rack and let it cool in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes. Turn the cake out onto the rack and cool to room temperature before slicing. You may want to dust the top of the cake with confectioners’ sugar. Use a serrated blade knife for slicing.

I used to be against reheating latkes, but I know many people would gladly compromise slightly on the quality of their latkes for the sake of being able to sit down with the family. As I get older, I understand these things better. To reheat, put the pancakes on a rack in pan in a 425-degree oven for about 3 minutes.

Keeping the potatoes from turning gray is a problem for some people. My grandmother’s solution was to stir her batter with a very large, tarnished, silver-plated spoon that she’d inherited from her mother. I have it now. When not stirring, it was left in the bowl. I used to think the heirloom spoon had some magic, but it is only the tartrates on the surface of the tarnished silver that prevent the potatoes from turning dark. Short of a silver spoon, use a pinch of cream of tartar.

Peel the onion and cut it into eighths.

Peel the potatoes and keep them in a bowl of cold water, but for no longer than 2 hours.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat the eggs together to mix well.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, pulse the onions, scraping them down a few times, until very finely chopped, almost a puree. Stir the onions into the beaten eggs.

Chunk up the potatoes and, in the same processor bowl (no need to clean it), pulse the potatoes until very fine, but still with some texture. Pour the potatoes into a strainer placed over a bowl and press out excess water with a spatula. Stir the potatoes into the egg-onion mixture.

Add the matzoh meal, salt, and pepper. If not using a tarnished silver spoon, add a pinch of cream of tartar. Stir well and let stand while the oil is heating.

In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, heat about 1/8 inch of vegetable oil until very hot. Spoon out the batter, using 1/2 a large kitchen utility spoonful for each. The batter should sizzle as soon as it hits the fat, but not wildly. If the edges of the batter separate, the oil is too hot. If there are just slight bubbles when the batter touches the oil, the oil is not yet hot enough. The first round of latkes is inevitably less good than later batches. Consider the first tries a “chef’s share.”

Fry the latkes for about 4 minutes on the first side, slightly less time on the second. They should be well-browned before turning them. Drain on absorbent paper or on a rack.

Serve immediately. See headnote for reheating directions, although reheating is always compromises quality.