Recipe: Mama Wolf's Latkes

Happy Chanukah! A few months ago, one of my friends was generous to provide me with the perfect latke recipe (which I used for a German potluck), and so I will pass on the deliciousness as my Chanukah present to you all.

MAMA WOLF'S LATKES [slightly adapted by Sarah] (c) Architectural Appetite 2008

3 cups grated baking potatoes, peeled (about 3 medium-small potatoes)

1 egg

2 tablespoons flour

1 small onion

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Grate potatoes and onions together. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together. Heat up the oil, and make sure it's hot but not so hot that it flies around all over the place. Spoon some latke batter into the oil and then wait until the center is stiff before flipping. Fry until brown and then drain on a paper towel.

These are delicious. Serve with apple sauce or sour cream or whatever weird condiment you were brought up with.

Holiday Recipe: Gingerbread Cakelettes

OK, so going through with this recipe may require you to go out to Williams Sonoma and buy a $20 cakelette pan, but hey! Maybe you can adapt this one to a cupcake recipe or something and then find your own way of making adorable treats.

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4th stick of butta
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten (I may have not actually bothered to beat the egg before putting it in)
3/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the cakelette pan (but don't OVERflour - I learned this the hard way [first batch went to the trash - that almost rhymed]).

Sift together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and salt. If you are feeling too lazy to sift (this may have happened to me - I may be confessing too much as I explain this recipe), just put them together and stir a little. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a large bowl), beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Add the brown sugar and continue mixing until it becomes something like light brown butter, as opposed to butter with sugar on top of it. Add the egg, mix it in, add the molasses, mix it in.

Reduce the speed to medium-low and then add the flour in 3 parts, alternating with the milk (i.e., flour --> milk --> flour --> milk --> flour). Continue beating until it's all combined.

Spoon the batter into each cakelette pan, spreading it into the arms and legs. Make sure it's about half full (if it's more than that, they will have deformed backs and become the hunchbacks of Notre Gingerbread - I am so clever). Bake until baked - about 12-15 minutes.

When they're done/pass the toothpick test, take them out and let the pan cool for five minutes. After the five minutes is up, turn the pan upside down and let the little guys fall out (preferably on the counter and not on the floor). Wait for them to cool completely before personalizing them with your choice of icing (I used cream cheese frosting). The batter will make about twenty-one cakes, so make sure to rinse and repeat after the first batch is done.

Sarah's creations:


So maybe I am not an artist. Or a baker.