Holiday Cookie Countdown: Jewish Mandelbrot

Courtesy of

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/moms-mandelbrot/detail.aspx

Holiday Cookie Countdown: Jewish Apricot Almond Rugalach

Courtesy of

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/apricot-almond-rugalach/detail.aspx

Community Service is for the Dogs!

Recently, the team at Wexner Heritage Village took on a cooking challenge - for dogs! Three different types of dogs treats were baked and bagged for Pets Without Parents: Banana Biscotti, Peanut Butter Drops and Apple Crisps. Pets Without Parents is an organization that fosters cats and dogs until they are able to be adopted. The homemade dog treats (Kosher, of course) were sold at the August adoption day to raise money for additional food and animal care.

Culinary Innovation - Cakes from the Heart

From the Sous Chef that brought us the Parve Cheesecake, comes an instance of culinary innovation, Soaring Higher and Be A Star all rolled into one!

The CEO at Cedar Village in Cincinnati approached us prior to a Board of Directors meeting about making a small cake to celebrate the first wedding anniversary of 2 board members who met while on the board of the facility.

We asked the sous chef, Tracey Medford, to come up with something special for them. She went over and above any expectations! As we found out after presenting the cake at the board of directors meeting, the couple never had a wedding cake when they got married, only a cup cake. After serving the guests, the top layer was boxed for the couple to freeze and enjoy on their second anniversary.

A few days later, Tracy found out that two residents were renewing their vows. Sadly one of the residents was a patient of hospice services. The renewing of vows was to be done before the beloved spouse passed away. The cake below was created in 2 hours for this couple to be able to share for such an important moment.
The icing used on both of these cakes is a parve frosting.

SIMPLE PARVE ICING

1 cup margarine (softened)

2 lb confection sugar

1 Tbs vanilla or to taste

Use water or non dairy creamer to arrive at a spreadable consistency

Culinary Innovation - Parve Cheesecake

From Cedar Village in Mason, Ohio

Parve Cheesecake

Yield: 1 - 10" spring form pan
Crust
2 cups of ground graham cracker
2 tbsp of sugar
1/3 cup melted margarine
Pat mixed ingredients into the bottom of a spring form pan
Filling
3# non-dairy cream cheese (Tofutti)
6 eggs
3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
Combine sugar and tofu, mix on low until combined. Add lemon juice and vanilla. Add eggs slowly, one at a time. Add any "mix ins" now - butterscotch cups, chocolate chips, nuts, etc.
Start oven at 300 degrees. Bake 1 hour (until the edges start to set). Turn oven down to 250 degrees for another hour. Turn oven down to 200 degrees for one more hour. When cake is set, turn oven off and let set in oven until cool enough to remove without oven mitts.