This year I am adding another fried dessert to our menu – my mother’s Kichels. I haven’t made them in years. It’s time. They’ll give us yet another reason to remember Nana and her special ways and her special treats. And her recipe is very easy.
The big trick for fabulous Kichels is rolling the dough as thin as possible. It takes some time and patience, but the result — crispy, puffy, delightfully light cookies with just a sprinkle of sifted confectioners sugar – is so worth it.
Kichels
Servings
24 Servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 1/4 teaspoon white vinegar
- vegetable oil for deep fat frying
- confectioners sugar
Instructions
- Place the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the beaten eggs and vinegar and mix thoroughly until a smooth dough has formed (use an electric mixer or food processor or knead the dough by hand). Let the dough rest, covered with plastic wrap, for 20-30 minutes.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until the dough is very thin, almost like paper (I usually roll it into a 14 to 15-inch circle). Cut into squares or rectangles or odd shapes. Heat about 2-inches vegetable oil in a deep saute pan (or use a deep fryer) over medium-high heat until the oil reaches about 375 degrees (a bread crumb or tiny piece of dough will sizzle quickly). Drop the cut-outs, a few at a time into the oil (they will puff up) on both sides until they are crispy and faintly browned. Drain on paper towels.
- Sift confectioner’s sugar on top.
Hi, Ronnie Fein (or Jamie), firstly, please note that I won’t be able to get E-Notified via Disqus of responses to this post, and here’s why: When I tried changing my Disqus-Settings Email Address to my new email, and then clicked SAVE (whereupon the SAVE-Button faded), I then Refreshed my browser, only to see that my email address never got changed, but rather switched right back to my old email address! When I accessed my current email address, I saw that Disqus did not send any email-change confirmation to my Inbox!
And now to the point:
I uploaded my below pic. of how Mrs. Tarshish (Monsey cook) used to form what she called “hazenbluzen”. BTW, I wish I knew what the truly-correct spelling is. Is it actually hosen blosen? Huzenbluzen? Hasenblosen? Or what??
Anyway… her recipe, wherein she slit 2-inch squares at center, called for 1 1/4 c. flour (and no vinegar). Thus my hazenbluzen turned out a bit heavy, and that’s why I have ZERO CLUE how on earth Mrs.Tarshish’s hazenbluzen were so Melt-In-Mouth SCRUMPTIOUS that you couldn’t stop eating them!
Therefore, I hope to try my luck next by using your lesser-flour recipe, then perhaps add 1/8 or 1/4 tsp. vinegar (if need be). And then see whether that dough will prove sufficiently malleable to be able to form them into the cute shapes shown below.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/590f8cb6a47a8ff98f39261a70513c2a29def506d64385d5777b4183688f242a.jpg