Small honey cake from The Exceptional
Dessert, shown with a a jar of honey from
Savannah Bee Company (a NIBBLE Top Pick Of
The Week, also certified kosher). Photo by
Erika Meller | THE NIBBLE.

Honey represents a sweet beginning to the Jewish new year, and honey cake is a traditional of Rosh Hashanah dessert. Succulent with honey and traditionally spiced with “pumpkin pie spices,“ a good honey cake is very moist and irresistible. It’s delicious with a cup of tea or coffee, or a sweet dessert wine. This one is made with heart-healthy canola oil, cinnamon, allspice and cloves, with a touch of coffee and brandy, and garnished with sliced almonds. It’s heavy on the allspice, making it nicely spicy—this is no bland honey cake. Very moist, we polished off an entire one at a morning meeting while testing organic coffee.

Also new at The Exceptional Dessert are OK-certified pareve and pas Yisrael are Exceptional Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies, made with oats, bittersweet chocolate, dark brown sugar, canola oil, cinnamon sea salt (plus other ingredients). They’re also available with dried cherries and walnuts.

If you want to bake your own honey cake, try this recipe from our friend Marcy Goldman’s cookbook, A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking.

Serves 15

Serve with Homemade Applesauce (see accompanying recipe).

– 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
– 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
– 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
– 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
– 1 cup canola oil
– 1 cup honey
– 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
– 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
– 3 large eggs
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 1 cup brewed coffee
– 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
– 2 tablespoons rye, whiskey or more orange juice
– 1 cup toasted sliced or slivered almonds

Preparation

1. Adjust a rack to the lower third of the oven. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Generously grease a 13-by-9-by-2-inch pan and line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper. Have all ingredients at room temperature.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Add the oil, honey, sugars, eggs, vanilla, coffee, orange juice and whiskey.
4. Using a sturdy whisk or an electric mixer on lowest speed, stir together well to create a thick, thoroughly blended batter. Spoon the batter into the pan, and spread it level with a rubber spatula.
5. Bake until the cake springs back when gently pressed in the center, 55 to 65 minutes.
6. Transfer the cake pan to a wire rack and allow the cake to cool about 20 minutes before inverting the cake from the pan. Or let the cake cool completely in the pan and cut the cake into squares or rectangles before serving.
7. When the cake is almost completely cool, sprinkle the almonds over the cake’s surface.

Happy holidays!

• Learn more about vinegar in our article, Vinegar 101.
• Check out the history of mustard and all the different types of mustard.

Three winners will each receive four 5-packs of Flavor & Fiber bars. Flavors include Banana Walnut, Cinnamon Raisin, Espresso Chip and Lemon Ginger.

They’re great for breakfast with a cup of tea or coffee; or toss them in your pocket for a great grab-and-go snack anytime. You’ll be glad to get to know Gnu.

• To enter this Gourmet Giveaway, see THE NIBBLE’s NutriSnacks Section and click on the link at the bottom. Enter your email address for the Gourmet Giveaway prize drawing. Good luck!
• Check out our review of Gnu Foods Flavor & Fiber Bars.

Something gnu and tasty with lots of fiber.
Photo of Cinnamon Raisin (top) and Banana Walnut bars by B.A. Van Sise | THE NIBBLE.

• Find many more garnishing ideas.

Top Chef Master Rick Bayless.

Last week, we caught up by phone with the winner of Top Chef Masters, Rick Bayless, and chatted about his win on Top Chef Masters, against a formidable field of America’s most lauded chefs. We had the chance to ask what really happens behind the scenes on the show.

TN: Did you really have absolutely no help to get all that work done—especially in the finale when you were plating food for nine judges (Top Chef judges Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons as well as the five winners of the original Top Chef program)?

RB: No help at all. We did everything ourselves, including peeling and chopping garlic and washing pots. If you needed a certain pan and there was only one of them, after another chef used it, you had to wash it yourself.

TN: Given the skill level of the master chef contestants, what do you consider the keys to success in the competition?
RB: The ability to handle the stress and to get it all done with no help. Chefs at the masters level have been working with a team of assistants for a long time. We were on our own. I was shredding 180-degree tongue with my bare fingers against a clock, burning my hands. There’s also the luck of the draw; with the street food challenge, for example, as well as with the ingredients you’re given. I’m very comfortable with making street food, I was very comfortable with my ingredients; I won the challenge. Finally, there’s the luck of making the right decision in the first place. If what you’ve chosen to do isn’t working, there’s no time to go back and change things.

TN: You’ve won $100,000 for the Frontera Farmer Foundation, which gives grants to family farmers for equipment that helps them in important ways. It will be a huge help for the Foundation. If you could do Top Chef Masters again and potentially win another $100,000, would you be game?
RB: I’d have to think long and hard about it!

You can learn more about the Frontera Farmer Foundation and make a contribution to this worthy cause. If it weren’t for family farmers, there wouldn’t be such exceptional produce and meat—not to mention cream, cheese, herbs and so many more types of food—that go into making meals so special at the fine restaurants we love so much.