My husband calls Fruity Noodle Kugel “The ugly duckling of the Shabbos meal.” I think when the kugel is as delicious and as pretty as this one, it should be called “The beautiful princess of the Shabbos meal”. Anything that has fruit cocktail and maple syrup can’t be anything but fabulous. I serve this kugel on a pedestal cake stand for dramatic effect because there is never enough drama at the Shabbos table.
Recipe and Photo reprinted with permission from Shabbos Under Pressure by Sharon Matten.
Instant Pot Fruity Noodle Kugel
Servings
8 Servings
Ingredients
- Nonstick vegetable spray
- 12 ounces wide egg noodles uncooked
- 1 29–30 ounce can fruit mix with cherries in syrup
- 1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup canola oil
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- 1 Spray a 7-inch x 3-inch round pan and lid with nonstick vegetable spray. Set aside.
- 2 Mix the egg noodles, canned fruit (with the liquid), crushed pineapple (with the liquid), sugar, maple syrup, canola oil and large eggs together in a large bowl.
- 3 Fold in the flour.
- 4 Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Cover with the tightly fitting lid.
- 5 Place a rack/trivet with handles on the bottom of the Electric Pressure Cooker (EPC) pot. Add the ½ cup ADDED WATER to the bottom.
- 6 Carefully set the kugel on the rack. Lock the lid and close the pressure valve.
- 7 Set the EPC to high pressure mode and cook for 10 minutes using manual high pressure mode.
- 8 Naturally release the pressure for 30 minutes, then manually release the pressure.
- 9 Remove the kugel from the EPC pot and remove the kugel pan lid.
- For Finishing
- 1 Sprinkle the top of the kugel with the ¼ cup brown sugar.
- 2 Place the kugel in the center of the oven and broil using medium heat for 5-7 minutes. The top of the kugel will turn a little brown and the sugar will become slightly bubbly.
- 3 Serve warm or cold.
- Tips:
- Taking this kugel out of the pan can be a little tricky. When the kugel has cooled, run a knife around the edge of the kugel to loosen. Place a dinner plate on top of the kugel. Place one hand under the kugel pan and one hand on top of the dinner plate. In one fluid motion, flip the kugel onto the dinner plate. To get the kugel on the serving plate, repeat with a serving plate upside down on top of the inverted kugel.
Hi, I spoke to the author and she isn’t sure what may have happened, she had several people test the recipe and had no issues. She never needed two pans, the pan was just full to the top, only wondering if maybe your pieces of fruit were too large. Sorry we don’t have any other thoughts.
I’m afraid to say, this recipe really did not work at all.
One huge issue: using the amounts specified, the recipe makes enough for not one but two 7″ diameter 3″ tall pans.
The second main issue: the resulting kugel is not remotely cooked and not even a little bit firm. After taking the two pans out of the Instant Pot (where I’d given them some extra time, because there were two of them), I put them in a preheated oven for twenty minutes. They still weren’t really done well, the kugel was more gooey than firm, and wasn’t really crispy even on the (exposed, sugared) top.
I tried this recipe because I have an Instant Pot, I had plans for my oven, and I had made a very similar egg noodle kugel involving crushed pineapple many years earlier in the oven. This recipe would seem to leave my oven mostly free, and it seemed to obviate parboiling the noodles, as my old recipe required. But, this recipe just doesn’t deliver anything like a finished, usable kugel.
The ingredients in this recipe are fine (I’d add some cinnamon). After baking for a long time in the oven after pressure cooking, the result was okay (not as good and especially not as firm as the all-oven kugels of my memory). The mixed fruit was a nice touch (though some chunks from the can were larger than I liked, I spent annoying time cutting them down). Maybe there’s even something to be said for pressure-cooking the noodles in sugary fruit water instead of parboiling them in salt. But it’s just not a usable recipe, as it stands.