We've been blogging for over 3 years now and we don’t have one recipe on the blog for cheesecake. Danya and I have planned to do one for a while now, but while neither of us is really into baking, we hadn’t found the perfect recipe to share with our readers.

Change of topic. About a year ago, a girl named Talia, who was born in New Orleans and moved to Israel at the age of 8, opened up the first of its kind American café/bakery in the heart of Tel Aviv. The first time I visited Nola American Bakery place was on my birthday last October, and to my luck, they were just testing recipes for different versions of pumpkin pie, and Harriet, their amazing baker, brought me a plate of all the versions to taste. From that day on I’ve been seriously hooked to the place as it’s the only place in entire country where I can get a taste of home (and they do it so damn well).

When it came time for Danya and I to think of a recipe to share for the upcoming Jewish holiday, Shavout (where tradition calls for the serving of dairy products-otherwise known as the holidays of cheeses, quiches, and cheesecakes), we knew that it was our time to post a cheesecake recipe.

I love classic recipes and therefore wanted to do a recipe for a New York Cheesecake (you can take the girl out of America…). This time I know I had to look no further than to Talia and Hat (Harriet) from Nola to provide the most perfect recipe. And they did. And it’s just the kind of recipe that Danya and I love to share with our readers-no frills, readily available ingredients and really easy to make.

Don’t forget to check out our other delicious recipes for Shavuot- here, here and here.

New York Cheesecake

We flavored ours with a bit of lemon juice and lemon zest, but you can easily flavor this according to your taste- try smashing up two snickers bars or Reeses peanut butter cups and adding it to the filling,.

Ingredients for about six 4 inch/10 cm. round individual pans, or one 9-inch/23 cm. round springform pan:

For the crust:

200 grams/7 oz. crushed speculous cookies or graham crackers

200 grams/7 oz. crushed petit buerre or graham crackers

4 oz./115 grams unsalted butter, melted

A pinch of kosher salt

For the filling:

12 oz./340 grams cream cheese

3.5 oz./100 grams sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

3.5 oz./100 grams sour cream

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For the frosting:

9 oz./250 grams sour cream

3 teaspoons sugar

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoon lemon zest

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 340ºF/170ºC.
2. Place all of the ingredients for the crust in a large bowl and use your fingers to mix together the ingredients. If using the individual pans, line the bottom and sides of each pan with the crust. If using one large cake pan then line only the bottom with crust.
3. Prepare the filling: Using a hand-held or stand mixer, mix all the filling ingredients in a large bowl until smooth and well combined.
4. Pour the filling into the prepared crust and bake for 18-20 minutes for the individual pans for 30 minutes for the large pan, until the filling has set but is still a little giggly, and when you touch with your finger there is no fingerprint visible.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting: in a large bowl mix together all the frosting ingredients until smooth.
6. Remove cheesecake from oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes at room temperature. Top cheesecake with frosting and bake for an additional 5-7 minutes.
7. Allow to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight before serving.

No-Bake Cheesecake in a Jar

You can use any soft seasonal fruit for the compote- we used blueberries but feel free to try strawberries, raspberries, plums, etc.

Ingredients for 6 small (250 ml.) jars:

For the berry compote:

2 cups (400 grams/14 oz.) blueberries (fresh or frozen)

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons lemon zest

For the crust:

200 grams/7 oz. crushed speculous cookies or graham crackers

200 grams/7 oz. crushed petit buerre  or graham crackers

4 oz./115 grams unsalted butter, melted

A pinch of kosher salt

For the cheesecake filling:

12 oz./340 grams cream cheese

1 can condensed milk

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons lemon zest

1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preparation:

1. Place all the ingredients for the berry compote in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally but being careful not to mash the berries. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate at least 2 hours before using.
2. Prepare the crust: Place all of the ingredients for the crust in a large bowl and use your fingers to mix together the ingredients.
3. Prepare the cheesecake filling: Using a hand-held or stand mixer, mix all the filling ingredients in a large bowl until smooth and well combined.
4. Assemble the jars: Place a layer of crust into the jar, top with the cheesecake filling and then with the berry compote. Repeat until jar is filled. Repeat with remaining jars and refrigerate for one hour before serving.

As a food photographer I am inherently attracted to the sensuality of food. There are those foods which make my job more difficult, and those foods, like beets that make me excited to be shooting them. On a shoot, I am always on the lookout for the sensuality of the food im shooting, and I try to connect to that place in order to create the most appealing shot. For me, it’s not enough that the food tastes good or that it makes sense from a culinary standpoint, but it has to really look good (I know I sound like one of those superficial girls who only looks at hotties). Even the most delicious of foods that looks unattractive has the ability to dissolve all of my inspiration and creativity.  I’m completely biased towards shooting fresh, seasonal and beautifully inspiring produce and food.

Here’s an example: this past Monday we were shooting for the blog. I was in the kitchen shredding beets. The little speckles of beet juice that were shooting around my workspace began to form an almost picturesque form. When I was shooting the actual salad, that fine point of meeting between the purple of the beets and the white of the yogurt excited me like a girl at prom. I was fascinated by the colors, textures and combination of ingredients together. I know this made sound awkward, but this is the meaning of my work.

Back to the salad…

Many years ago there was a cute little café here in Yaffo next to my studio that used to serve a delicious beet salad with hints of orange, yogurt and mint. This salad is an attempt to recreate the one I ate way back when that left such a clear memory in my mind.

You can prepare the salad ahead of time by grating the beets and making the vinaigrette and then mixing the two before serving. This salad is so easy to make that I like to give it a more elegant touch by serving it in individual glasses rather than in one large bowl.

Beet and Yogurt Salad

Ingredients for 8 servings:

4 medium sized uncooked beets, peeled

For the vinaigrette:

½ cup olive oil

2 teaspoons minced garlic

⅓ cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons honey

2½ teaspoons orange zest

2 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

For serving:

1 cup yogurt, preferably Greek or goat’s milk

2 teaspoons orange zest

1 bunch fresh mint leaves

Preparation:

1. Using a hand grater or a food processor, coarsely grate the beets. Place grated beets in a large bowl and set aside.
2. Place all of the ingredients for the vinaigrette in a jar and shake until well combined. Taste and season accordingly.
3.  Pour the vinaigrette over the grated beets and mix to combine.
4. Serve the salad with yogurt, orange zest and fresh mint leaves.

I have a fetish for supermarkets. When I visit a different country, one of my most favorite activities is to visit their local supermarket. For me it’s one of the most practical anthropological studies one can conduct. I just got back from a recent to Los Angeles, and besides family and friends, shopping and food, supermarket shopping is one of my favorite pastimes in the city.

My recent anthropological studies show that supermarkets in LA (mainly Trader Joes, Whole Foods) have perfected a technique to sell food which appears to be almost homemade, and packaged in a way that looks extremely healthy. This outer appearance of their products makes A. the shopping experience so much more delightful and B. gives you the feeling (erroneous or not) that what you are eating is actually healthier for you.

Back to Israel. I really do love my life here (sans the major missing the fam), and what I’ve come to appreciate is that my quality of life here is on par if not exceeding the quality of life in LA (which on paper is quite superior). The one major thing that gets me about life here though is the supermarkets. The supermarkets here are your basic-get-your-stuff-and-go type of shopping experience. I want my supermarket to be like a good pedicure- I don’t mind if the task lasts longer than expected. I’m missing those cleverly packaged items, made to look homemade and healthy.

Good thing I’ve got Danya around to make up for the lack of fabulous packaged snacks. She came up with this amazing recipe for homemade granola bars and even gave me the idea of wrapping them individually-she has a theory that her kids love a wrapped snack. I guess that’s her anthropological study.

The beauty of making your own homemade snacks is that you know exactly what goes into them, and with these granola bars, not only can you pronounce every ingredient, but most likely you have all the ingredients in your pantry. Tahini, a staple in Israeli cooking can be found at most health food stores and Middle Eastern supermarkets. The best part of this recipe is that it really is ridiculously simple to make- mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and then mix them. It’s as easy as making the simplest cookie. The trick here is to really let the granola bars completely cool in the baking dish before cutting them.

Ingredients for about 20 bars:

1⅔ cup rolled oats

½ cup dark brown sugar

⅓ cup whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

¾ cup mini chocolate chips

⅓ cup tahini paste

¼ cup honey

2½ oz./ 6 tablespoons butter, melted

1 tablespoon water

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line an 11-inch by 7-inch baking pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients-oats, sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, walnuts and chocolate chips.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining wet ingredients- tahini paste, honey, butter and water.
4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixtures are combined.  Pour mixture into the prepared baking pan, and use your fingers to gently press the mixture evenly into the pan.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the sides turn golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely to room temperature before serving.
6. Once cooled, remove the granola bars from the pan and cut into 1-inch by 3-inch rectangles.

There are certain foods I grew up with in America that were known as Jewish food. When I first came to Israel I was sure that those “Jewish” foods would be readily available throughout the country. Take bagels for example, probably the most Jewish of foods you can find in America. I have still yet to find a good bagel in the country, and the ones I have found have been over-priced, hard, and nothing like the real “Jewish” American ones.

Brisket is another one of these foods. Every American Jewish mom has their own recipe for Brisket, which is actually a beef roast, synonymous with the name of cut the beef. All the briskets I tasted stateside have all shared a common denominator: cooked for hours in a sweet and savory gravy-like sauce. Here is Israel, I have yet to come across a brisket at the dinner table, even during the holidays.

This recipe was based on my mom’s famous brisket recipe, which always comes out perfectly soft, sweet and tangy, just the way it’s meant to be. But like most moms I know, my mom uses ingredients in her brisket that my generation loves to eat, but can’t bring themselves to cook with the stuff. My mom cooks her brisket for about 5 hours and bastes it every 30 minutes. If you have the time and will, go ahead and baste, but I found that tightly securing the meat does the same job.

Danya was in charge of bringing the recipes for the side dishes, and while I knew she was doing the celery root puree, she surprised me with the sweet and sour cabbage. What she didn’t know was that the brisket itself also incorporates sweet and savory flavors, but yet somehow she came up with a dish that was so perfectly fitting for the brisket.

Mom Inspired Brisket

To get this cut of meat in Israel ask your butcher (a few days in advance) for the cut known as “Brost” or cut number 3. This dish gets better with time, so I suggest making it a day in advance. After refrigeration, the large fat deposits float to the top and become solid, making it easy to remove. To reheat, simply place in the oven, covered for about 30 minutes before serving.

Ingredients for 8-10 servings:

2 cups beef stock

2 cups readymade jelly (I used apricot, but you can use any flavor)

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

3.5 kg/8 pound brisket

15 garlic cloves

5 medium onions, sliced

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC.
2. In a large bowl mix together the beef stock, jelly, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, oregano and thyme.
3. Season the brisket generously with salt and pepper. Use a sharp knife to poke 15 holes throughout the brisket. Stuff the holes with garlic cloves.
4. Line the bottom of your baking pan with the sliced onion and place the brisket directly on top of the onions. Pour the prepared sauce over the brisket.
5. Cover the meat tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 3-4 hours, until the meat is very tender, but not falling apart.
6. Remove meat to a cutting board and slice into ¼-inch (½ cm.) slices. If you like your sauce smooth, then blend the sauce and the strain. (We served ours chunky, just the way it came out of the oven).

Celeriac Puree

When we were in France last month, we ate the most velvety celery root puree served with roasted lamb at Spring. When we got back from France, Danya was inspired by the big and beautiful celery roots in season now, that she was inspired to recreate the dish. What’s important to take note of in this recipe is that due to the face that every potato and celery root are different sizes, keep in mind that the ratio should be ⅔ celery root and ⅓ potatoes.

Ingredients for 8-10 servings:

3 large celeriac, peeled and cut into large cubes (about 3 pounds/1½ kilos)

5 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes

1 tablespoon salt

½ cup heavy cream

3.5 oz./100 grams butter, melted

Salt and fresh ground pepper, according to taste

Preparation:

1. Fill a large pot with water and celeriac, potatoes and the tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes, until both are softened.
2. Strain the celeriac and potatoes from the water, retaining a ½ cup of the cooking water.
3. Place the celeriac and potatoes in a large bowl and add the heavy cream and butter. Blend with a hand blender until smooth, but making sure not to over blend where it becomes paste-like. If the mix seems too thick, add a bit of the cooking water.
4. Season with salt and pepper according to taste and serve warm.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage

If you are preparing this dish without making the brisket as well, replace the sauce from the brisket with a bit more butter, olive oil and lemon juice.

Ingredients for 8-10 servings:

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 medium onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium heads of red cabbage, thinly sliced

2 oz./50 grams, butter

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon coarse salt

3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

¼ cup of the sauce retained from the brisket

Preparation:

1. Heat the olive oil in large pan over medium heat and add the onions. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add the garlic and continue cooking for another 2 minutes.
2. Add the chopped cabbage, reduce heat and cook, while stirring for about 10 minutes, until the cabbage is softened.
3. Add the butter, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and salt and cook on low heat for an additional 10 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, add the lemon juice and the brisket sauce and season with salt and pepper according to taste.
5. Serve warm with a drizzle of olive oil, on top of the celeriac puree.

It’s been over two years since Danya and I taught our first food photography and styling course, and since then we have had 7(!!) amazing courses, with our eighth underway. In the past few months we’ve received many emails from people wanting to take our course, and we’ve been brainstorming about a course that would be for a wider audience. One that would include photographing  both inside and outside of a studio setting, and one that would be available for those who can’t participate in a mid-week course.

So here it is! An intense three day (weekend) food photography and styling workshop. We looked for a location that would provide us with inspiration, in both the culinary and photography fields, a place that would have soul and provide us with that vacation feeling. And so we found it: Nazareth.

Located in the northern part of Israel, Nazareth is divided into the old city and the newer part of town. Our workshop will take place in the old city, where the cobblestone streets and alleys make even the most Israeli citizen feel like they have traveled to worlds and beyond.

We will be hosting the workshop in the renowned Fauzi Azar Inn, a quaint old mansion renovated into a unique and charming guesthouse, located right next to the Nazareth Souq (Market). We were given a excellent tour of the city by Gil Lahav, a local Israeli tour guide, who helped us put together an incredible itinerary for the 3-day workshop.

So what’s on the itinerary:

Lectures on the following topics: light, composition, styling, food prep, etc.

A tour of the souq (market), which will include a session on spontaneous food photography and collecting styling accessories.

Two studio sessions (each with a different emphasis on photography and styling)

A surprise which will incorporate the local food of Nazareth and food photography…

The details:

When: May 2-5, 2013

Where: Fauzi Azar Inn, Nazareth

Who is it for: those that have basic knowledge of photography (not necessarily food related). The course is also suitable for those who have taken our course in the past.

What equipment is necessary: a digital SLR camera and a tripod.

Why: Because it will be a weekend filled with photography, food and styling. What could be better?

For prices and registration email us @ matkontion@gmail.com

One sunny winter fall morning a few months ago, Danya and I were having a business meeting regarding an upcoming project, when they guy we were having the meeting with mentioned that he was going to Paris in February for an international cookbook festival.

Danya looked at me. Paris. Cookbook festival. You and me. She didn’t have to even say the words out loud. Within days we had the whole thing booked. Flight,check. Apartment, check. The last thing I had to do to prep for the trip was to do research in the culinary department. (Those that know me well enough know that I’m not the kind to fly to Paris without an exact culinary itinerary).

My work life and personal life were so hectic in the few weeks leading up to the trip that I didn’t have the time to do the proper research. Literally three days before the flight, I found a hole in my busy schedule and sat on the computer to research away. Once I had the document ready with all the relevant information (restaurant names, addresses, opening hours) and a google map to go along with it, I began emailing and calling the restaurants to make reservations.

I shouldn’t have been surprised when not one of the places had a single place on any of the five days we were going to be there. But yet that didn’t stop me from still trying, asking to be placed on the waiting lists for lunches, dinners, whenever!

For five days in Paris we ate. We ate a lot and we ate well. In the food department we had what we called “Paris luck”. Here are two of those experiences.

Spring Restaurant

"Spring is a prix fixe menu of what we like to eat.  It is a very personal exploration of French cooking.  It is what happens when the market meets our appetite. The menu changes weekly, sometimes more often.  We are cooks, waiters, and wine enthusiasts:  all trying to provide a good time".- From the Spring website.

Spring was one of those places on my list that I really really hoped we would be able to go to. Our flight landed in Paris on a Thursday afternoon, and by the time we got to the apartment it was around 5:00PM. We got our wifi set up, checked my email, and there it was. An email from Spring, saying a reservation had opened up that night for 7:00PM, if we were interested. Yes of course we are, I wrote them back immediately. And so it was our first meal in Paris, reservation and all.

It was a six course prix fixe meal, without any of the stuffiness I had heard about at typical expensive French restaurants. The wait staff were really laid back and very explanatory, albeit in a quite a heavy accent.

The food was incredible and walked the fine line between simple cooking with outstanding ingredients and complex cooking, with layer after layer of flavor and depth. I won’t go into everything we ate, but I can say I ate the best oyster, soup, sole fish and lamb that I have every had- in one meal.

Spring

6 Rue Bailleul, 75001 Paris, France

+33 1 45 96 05 72

Tricotin

I knew I would never be able to get a table at Le Severo without a reservation, and so I called a few times hoping to snatch a table at this steak haven.  Twice there was no answer and once a man picked up and said he didn’t speak English. I had to move to plan B. On our last day, Monday, we would show up at the restaurant at 12:30, just when the doors opened and we would be sure to get a seat. We started that morning out early at the Pompidou Museum of Modern Art, and got caught up there longer than we planned.  We got on the subway at around 1:30PM to head to the restaurant, which was quite a distance away. I had a good feeling, as our Paris luck had been following us around since Spring. We arrived at the door at 2:07, and I noticed there were several places available. We were in. Or so I thought. The man at the door looked at us and said, we stop serving at 2:00. I couldn’t move (a bit of shock+5 days of running around Pairs+freezing cold weather). We begged. Told him the truth, our flight was that night, that we came all this way. He said “come back tomorrow”. As we left the place with our heads down, my glance caught a plate on the table next to the door. That looked like the best steak and french fries I had ever seen.  Our Paris luck had ended, or so we thought.

We decided to go meet Danya’s brother who was moving into his new apartment in Paris just next to China town. On the subway on the way there I started checking my IPhone app, Paris Time-Out for places to eat in Chinatown.  I marked down a spot and we were on our way there, by this time (3:00PM), starving, and freezing and just pretty annoyed. We walk into this place, which looks like an enlarged hole in the wall and make our way to one of the many open tables, while checking out the food of the diners who we passed. Every dish smelled and looked amazing. We got the menu, which was in English (!) and started ordering-Danya took a beef Pho soup and I took a shrimp dumpling ramen soup. Both were so deliciously flavorful, that we decided we had to try more of what the kitchen had to offer. We ordered dim sum, spring rolls and pork buns, and everything we tried was perfectly prepared, seasoned and executed. We would’ve  ordered more if we had any more room.

Tricotin

15 Avenue de Choisy, 75013 Paris, France

+33 1 45 84 74 44

In the past few weeks I've gotten into the habit of making homemade bread rolls and freezing them. I warm them up for breakfast, I make sandwiches for the kids to take to school, or as an afternoon snack. This recipe for the perfect bread rolls comes from my sister-in-law, Hani.

Hani is 24 years old. She has nine brothers and sisters. She comes from a religious family and is  a mother now to a 9-month old baby. Theoretically, we don't have much in common and most probably wouldn’t have been friends, but that’s only in theory. In actuality, Hani is one of the most sincere and intelligent people I have met. She has an incredible ability to expose her most intimate self, which in itself is the key to creating a genuine and personal friendship. During the weekends that we spend together we dive deep into talks about relationships, kids, religion, family and food of course!

A few weeks ago, Hani sent me an email with a recipe she received from her sister who got it from her neighbor and suggested I post it on the blog. It took me awhile to make the recipe, because on paper, it didn't make such an impression on me. Once I finally got down to making the recipe, one Friday morning, I was surprised at how easy they were to make, but was still a bit skeptical of how they were going to taste. Oded and the kids came home just as they were finished baking, and they literally couldn't  put them down. Since then, I've been making them once a week, and I can rightfully say this is one of the best recipes I've come by in quite some time.

So what's so special about these bread rolls?

Preparation- they are so easy to make that even those who are  afraid of working with yeast will find that there is nothing about this recipe that won't work.

Texture- these rolls are somewhere in between a bread roll, a pita and an English muffin. They are soft and a bit sweet with a nice crisp outer layer.

Storage- the rolls heat up really nice after being stored in the freezer. I like to cut them in half and put them is the toaster with a little butter and salt.

Some tips before getting started:

Hani suggested that I could replace the all-purpose flour with 70% whole wheat flour and 30% all-purpose flour. I tried it with 50% Rye flour and 50% all-purpose flour and they came out a little too flat.

There is nothing pretty about working with this dough. Its messy, sticky and drips everywhere. Make sure to prep your work space accordingly.

There is no oil or butter in this recipe- it's not a mistake! But I do like to drizzle a bit of olive oil over the bread rolls before I bake them, giving them the nice crisp outer layer.

You can top the bread rolls with any topping of your choice, or leave them plain. We used some sea salt, poppy, zaatar, and sesame seeds. Just put a little sprinkle of your topping of choice onto the rolls before baking.

The rolls can be stored in an air-tight container in the freezer for up to two months.

Bread Rolls:

Ingredients for about 30 rolls:

2 pounds/1 kilo all-purpose flour

2½ tablespoons instant dried yeast

1 cup instant oatmeal

7 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

6 cups water

Preparation:

In a very large bowl, mix together the flour and yeast. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix until the ingredients are combined. The dough will be very wet and sticky.

Cover the bowl with a plastic bag (the kind you get from a super market) and allow to rise for about an hour. The dough will be spilling over the bowl at this point.

Preheat oven to 400ºF/200ºC. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Wet your hands with water, and grab a handful of the dough and simply place it onto the baking sheet. Continue placing the dough onto the baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches/5 cm. apart.

Bake for 15 minutes, until the rolls are golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before taking off of the parchment paper.

Danya and I have been so busy working on different projects this past month (cookbooks, blog-stuff, magazines, etc.). One of our recent projects was a recipe booklet that was produced by the Israeli culinary magazine, Al Hashuchan, for a new item that just hit the supermarkets here in Israel, Speculoos Spread. We've had Biscoff Speculoss cookies readily available for some time now, but the spread, oh the spread has just finally made it here!

It was hard to choose only two recipes to share with our readers, they were all so good! Here are two of our favorite recipes, created by the fabulous Chen Shukrun.

A big thanks to Yaara Nir Kahlon- her ceramic dishes make food look so beautiful.

Speculoos Truffle Pops

Ingredients for about 35 pops:

1 package (250 grams/ 9 oz.) Biscoff Speculoos Cookies

100 grams/3.5 oz. blanched almonds

100 grams/3.5 oz. speculoos spread

1¼ cups (225 grams) cream cheese

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

35 lollipop sticks

For the topping:

300 grams/10.5 oz. dark chocolate, melted

2-3 tablespoons ground Biscoff Speculoos Cookies

Preparation:

Using a food processor, blend together the speculoos cookies and almonds until finely ground. Place the mixture in a bowl and add the speculoos spread, cream cheese and powdered sugar.

Using your hands, knead the mixture together until smooth. Cover bowl and refrigerate for one hour.

Remove from the refrigerator and use your hands to make 1-inch diameter balls. Place the balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place a lollipop stick in the center of each ball. Place baking sheet in freezer for 30 minutes.

For the topping: place the melted chocolate in a tall and narrow cup. Remove the truffles from the freezer and dip each one in the melted chocolate, allowing the left-over chocolate to dip back into the cup. Place the dipped truffles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and evenly sprinkle over the ground cookies. Place in the refrigerator until the chocolate has hardened.

Speculoos Humantachens

Ingredients for about 25 cookies:

For the dough:

7 oz./200 grams butter, softened and cut into cubes

3.5 oz./100 grams powdered sugar

10.5/300 grams flour

1 teaspoon speculoos spread

1 egg yolk

For the filling:

7 oz./200 grams speculoos spread

4 tablespoons ground Biscoff Speculoos Cookies

For decoration:

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Preparation:

1. Prepare the dough: Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter, powdered sugar, flour, and speculoos spread on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until large crumbs form. Add the egg yolk and continue to mix just until dough is formed.
2. Using your hands, shape the dough into a ball and slightly flatten it out to form a disk. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
3. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to about ⅛-inch thick. Using a 3-inch/8 cm.  round cookie cutter, cut circles out of the dough.
4. In the center of each circle place a heaping teaspoon of the speculoos spread and then top with a pinch of the ground speculoos cookies. Make a triangle shape with the dough, making sure the edges are pinched tightly together (otherwise they will open during baking) and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place baking sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 340ºF/170ºC.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden around the edges. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving. Before serving, sprinkle on the powdered sugar.

A big thanks to (in order of pictures): Veronica, Tal, Iris, Natalie, Hadar, Gili and Matan, Eti, Noy, and Revital for teaching us, while teaching you.

We are currently organizing a 2-day intensive Food Photography and Styling course to be held at a soon to be announced fabulous location in Israel. Send us an email at matkonation [at] gmail [dot] com for more info.

I’m known to be a big fan of cookies. One of my favorites is our chocolate chip cookies that we posted quite some time ago.  Recently I was desperately in the mood for a good oatmeal cookie, and so I went on a search to find a good recipe.

I tried out a recipe I found online from a very well-known and reputable site, and the cookies came out horrible, in my opinion. They were as flat as discs, and had me feeling like I was eating all butter and no oatmeal.

I knew Deb, from Smitten Kitchen, would have a recipe for oatmeal cookies, and so I tried hers out. With a few little changes, these were the oatmeal cookies I had been dreaming of. They are perfectly crisp on the outside, and soft on the inside, and stay that way until their gone (albeit not very long).

I’m a big fan of oatmeal and dark chocolate but you can add chopped walnuts, raisins, cranberries, almonds, or whatever else makes you happy.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients for about 18 cookies:

115 grams butter, softened

⅔ cup (125 grams) dark brown sugar

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

1½ cups quick oats or rolled oats

100 grams/ 3.5 oz. dark chocolate, chopped into small cubes

Preparation:

1. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla on medium speed until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
2. With the mixer speed on low, gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture until combined. Use a wooden spoon to then spoon in the oats and then the chocolate. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes before baking.
3. Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out the cookies (about the size of a ping-pong ball) and space them two-inches apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until dark golden around the edges and but undercooked-looking on top. Allow to cool to room temperature before eating.