Peach Ginger Scones with Dried Cherries - Welcoming Guests

Scenario: You’re curled up the couch, determined to make serious progress on the endless list of tv episodes stored up in your TiVo cue.  The phone rings, sharply breaking your concentration just as Liz Lemon/Meredith Grey/Alicia Florick/Claire Dunphy (or insert a tv character of your choice) delivers a captivating line.  You pick up the received and a shrill voice hollers, “SURPRISE, we just landed in town and the plane is taxing to the gate.  We’ll have our bags claimed and be curbside within 25 minutes.  What are you up to???”  Oy – an unexpected visit from your aunt and uncle.  Which reply do you go for?

1. “Shame, I’m just on my way out of town myself and am running late to the other airport.  Hope to catch you next time!”
2. “Huh?!?  I can barely hear you.  Bad cell reception.” (and hang up)
3. “Wow – call me tomorrow once you’ve settled in at your hotel and we’ll find a time to grab a nosh at Yogurtland – my treat.” 
4.  “So cool!  I’ll fire up the coffee and then hit the road.  Look for the dark red SUV.  Can’t wait to catch up.”

There was a time when options 1 or 2 would have rolled off my tongue, and while I might still be tempted to go with 3, the example set by Avraham in Parshat Vayeira makes a compelling case for the red carpet treatment of hachnasat orchim (welcoming of guests).

Parshat Veyeira opens with God visiting Avraham just a few days after our patriarch’s circumcision.  Avraham is sitting at the entrance of his tent on a hot day when three strangers approach.  Abe immediately tells God to hang on and hastens to greet the strangers.  He offers them a foot bath, gets them settled under a shady tree, and collaborates with Sarah on a feast of treats. 

Back the truck up (to quote a former co-worker)!  What was it that Avraham did to God?  Rashi and several commentators explain that he asks God to hold on while he greets the guests.  If the value of hachnasat orchim is so important that it takes precedence over our relationship with God, then “kal v’chomer” (all the more so) the real or desperate housewife on TiVo can take a number while we properly greet our guests.

Easier said than done!  We’re busy.  We can’t be inconvenienced.  We want to know what we’ll get out of such hospitality.  One slice of Jewish wisdom lures us towards hachnasat orchim through the notion of karma.  A midrash from Rav Judah in Bava Metzia explains:

Everything which Abraham personally did for the Ministering Angels, the Holy One Blessed be God did for God's children [the Israelites]; and whatever Abraham did through a messenger, the Holy One Blessed be God did for God's children through a messenger [Moses].

This explanation has us schlepping to the airport so that when we next arrive in a foreign city we, too, will be greeted by a welcome wagon.  Perhaps this will be the case … but I’m sure we’ve all learned in some way or another that sometimes are good deeds do not come back to us ten-fold, or even at all.

What now?   We should bear the siren call of our cousin’s voice as we slug along to and fro on the traffic ridden 405 (or, insert crowded freeway of your choice) just because it’s the right thing to do?  Yup!  Pirkei Avot 5:13 outlines a series of attitudes we can take about how we give and take in this world, ranging from not sharing and not taking to taking and not sharing.  The mishna asserts, however, that the most righteous attitude is to give of yourself with no expectation of a return. 

Sure – it makes sense in a cerebral/do-the-right-thing type of way, but true hachnasat orchim is certainly easier said than done.  It takes a bit of effort, perhaps some sacrifice and sometimes a bit of inconvenience.  Need motivation to persevere?  Just think of Father Abraham.  He’s sitting at the entrance of his tent on a hot and humid day.  He’s talking to God.  He’s recovering from genital surgery.  …and, yet, his guests become top priority.

"Hasten three seah of meal [and] fine flour; knead and make cakes."

The Scone

I have grown to love working with dough.  It once seemed so daunting – terms like rise, knead, punch and flour were intimidating.  Slowly but surely I have curbed my fears and charged forward to the point where I’m now a dough lover!  I love watching as dry and wet ingredients mix together to morph from a lumpy, sticky mess to a neat, smooth ball which serves as a blank canvas.  I’m still amazed when a blob of dough rises, doubling in volume yet decreasing in weight.  Bread always seemed like a product you could only buy, and so baking your own can be an awesome feat.

Scones themselves seem to be a recipe blend together our Jewish learning + the name of this blog + trendy baking.  In Parshat Vayeira, Avraham told his guests that he would fetch a morsel of bread, and then requests that Sarah - wife and head baker - prepare cakes made from … KEMACH (flour, as in “Yeish Kemach”).  Scones are a cake-like product made from kemach.  Moreover they are deceptively simple to prepare, delectably classy to make your guests feel truly welcome.

I’ve taken to a base recipe from the Canyon Ranch archives, which I adapt to fit the flavors I have in mind and the kashrut needs (pareve vs. dairy) of the rest of the meal.  For this batch I was determined to take advantage of the fading crop of peaches.  A peach scone should be good enough, but to quote famous chef Emeril Lagasse, why not “kick it up a notch”?  Peaches are often paired with a berry of sorts in crisps and pies, so I set my eyes on tart, bing cherries as the counterpoint to the sweet stone fruit.  Weary of incorporating too many juicy ingredients in my dough, I opted for dried cherries over fresh. 

The final touch – a mix of fresh and candied ginger.  “WHAT?  That’s insane!” you might say.  Well, a couple of summers ago I stumbled upon the combination of peaches and ginger in a scone while trying to play to the taste buds of a good friend when I made my very first batch of scones.  She ranks the scones from the Ojai Café Emporium as the best in the world, and I thought her favorite flavor was Peach Ginger.  Turns out her scone of choice is just plain Peach – but some combo of my own ADHD and poor hearing led to the mix-up.  Either way, said friend exclaimed that the combo worked.

PEACH GINGER SCONES with DRIED CHERRIES

Yields: 12 scones

Ingredients

3 cups pastry flour
3 Tbsp. evaporated cane juice (aka sugar), plus additional for sprinkling
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. sea salt
6 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter or margarine, cut into bits

1 tsp. fresh ginger, grated
¼ cup crystallized ginger (or dried fruit), chopped

1/3 cup dried bing cherries, chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped peaches (or other fruit)
1 cup buttermilk, plus additional for brushing

Instructions 

1. Preheat oven to 375˚ F.
2. In a small bowl, mix the peaches, cherries, crystallized ginger and cherries.  Set to the side, allowing the flavors to comingle.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, evaporated cane juice, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Blend in butter until mixture resembles a coarse meal.
4. Stir in peach mixture and buttermilk until a slightly sticky dough forms. 
5. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead dough 12 to 15 times. Divide dough in half. Form each half into a 6-inch circle with a slightly rounded top.  At this point you can either proceed to baking, or refrigerate the dough up to 24 hours until ready to bake.
6. Brush surface of dough with buttermilk and lightly sprinkle with sugar. Cut each circle into 6 wedges. Place wedges 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lightly coated with cooking spray.
7. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

SHE'ELAH: What is the next opportunity you have to practice hachnasat orchim? 

Conquering an Apple Honey Challah

Growing up my family always ate Shabbat dinner together. The Friday night meal was central to our celebration and observance of Shabbat, and included candle lighting kiddush, and motzi over challah. My memories of our Shabbat challah during my childhood are quite distinct. While an wonderful cook, my mom is a fearful baker and figured out a clever shortcut to producing home baked challah. Each week she purchased a Kinneret frozen challah dough, braided and packaged in a tiny blue box. All the baker had to do was pop it out onto a baking sheet, let it rise in the windowsill for an hours, cover it with an egg wash, and bake it. Presto - mom's version of homemade challah. Not to complain ... challah is challah, and the Kinneret frozen dough baked fresh was still better than the mass produced loaves we ate during oneg Shabbat at day school.

Years later my father decided to take over the challah preparations. Initially he tackled it by use of a bread maker, but has since abandoned the machine and does it all by his two hands. Typically I find any excuse to poke fun of my dad, and give him a hard time ... but not when it comes to baking challah. The man is a master. He can make just about any challah - varying numbers of braids, shapes, fillings, toppings, doughs. For years I was frozen in his shadow, not even daring to try and bake a challah on my own. About a year ago, however, I decided to conquer my fear and asked him for his recipe and insider tips. While my challot are just not as good as his, I was relieved to learn that I could do it!

With a year of practice under my belt, and a request from friends to bake challah for their sukkah dinner party, I decided to stretch myself and tackle a more complex recipe - a round Apple Honey Challah adapted from SmittenKitchen.com. The dough itself was fairly easy to make, and is hardly sticky (one of the more annoying aspects of many challah dough recipes). The filling is also rather easy to put together. My troubles began when it came time to roll the apple filled dough into ropes - OY! The recipe called for 2 peeled and chopped apples, but I recommend downsizing to 1 1/2 at most. There were just too many chunks for apples. You also have to read through the weaving procedure a couple of times to really take it in. It seemed confusing until I had the ropes in front of me and didn't have to pretend visualize.

That being stated, I was pretty darn impressed with how it came out for my first try, and definitely recommend the recipe!

APPLE HONEY CHALLAH

from www.smittenkitchen.com

Yields: 1 challah

Bread Ingredients:
2 ¼ tsp. (1 standard 1/4-ounce packet) active dry yeast
1/3 cup plus 1 tsp. honey
1/3 cup neutral oil, plus more for the bowl
2 large eggs plus 1 large yolk
1 ½ tsp. table salt
4 ¼ cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for your work surface

Apple Filling:
1 ½ medium baking apples (ex: MacIntosh), peeled, cored and in ½- to ¾-inch chunks
Squeeze of lemon juice, to keep them from browning

Egg Wash:
1 large egg
Coarse or pearl sugar

Instructions:

1. Whisk yeast and 1 teaspoon honey into 2/3 cup warm water and let stand until foamy, a few minutes.
2. With a stand mixer: In the bowl of a stand mixture, whisk together yeast mixture, oil, remaining honey (1/3 cup), eggs and yolk. Switch to dough hook and add 4 ¼ cups flour and salt. Use dough hook on a moderate speed until it pulls all of the flour and wet ingredients together into a craggy mass. Lower the speed and let the dough hook knead the dough for 5 minutes, until smooth, elastic and a little sticky. OR, By hand: In a large bowl, whisk together yeast mixture, oil, remaining honey (1/3 cup), eggs and yolk. Add flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon until you get a craggy mass of uneven dough. Turn dough out onto a floured counter and knead it into a smooth, elastic dough, about 5 to 8 minutes. Try to use as little flour as necessary when kneading the dough; you don’t want to toughen the bread. A bench scraper can make it really easy to remove it from the counter if it gets stuck in a spot.
   
3. Both methods: Transfer dough to large oil-coated bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour, or until almost doubled in size.
4. Add apples to dough: Turn dough out onto a floured counter and gently press it down into a flat, oblong shape. The shape does not matter so however it goes, it goes. Spread 2/3 of apple chunks over 1/2 of the flattened dough. Fold the other half over the apple chunks and press the dough down around them, flattening the now lumpy dough. Spread the remaining 1/3 apple chunks over half the folded dough. Fold the other half over the apples, pressing the dough down again. Your dough packet will likely be square-ish. Fold the corners under with the sides of your hands and form the dough into a round. Upend your empty bowl over and set it aside for another 30 minutes.
5. Weave your bread: Divide dough into 4 pieces. Roll and stretch each one as carefully as you can into a rope — don’t worry about getting it too long or thin, just 12 inches or so should do. If any apple chunks fall out as you form the ropes or at any other time in the forming of the loaf or risings, just poke them back in with your finger. Arrange two strands in each direction, perpendicular to each other, like a plus sign. Weave them so that one side is over, and the other is under, where they meet. So, now you’ve got an 8-legged woven-headed octopus. Take the four legs that come from underneath the center and move them over the leg to their right, i.e. jumping it. Take those legs that were on the right and again, jump each over the leg before, this time to the left. If you had extra length to your ropes, you can repeat these left-right jumps until you run out of rope.
6. Just as you had with the folded packet of apple dough above, tuck the corners/odd bumps under the dough with the sides of your hands to form a round.Transfer the dough to a parchment-covered heavy baking sheet. Beat egg and sugar until smooth and brush over challah. Let challah rise for another hour but 45 minutes into this rise, preheat your oven to 375° F.
   
7. Bake your loaf: Before baking, brush loaf one more time with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds (optional). Bake in middle of oven for 40 to 45 minutes. It should be beautifully bronzed; if yours starts getting too dark too quickly, cover it with foil for the remainder of the baking time. The very best way to check for doneness in any bread but especially on ones like this where the wetness of the apples can slow down the baking time a bit, is with an instant read thermometer —center of the loaf should be 195° F.

SHE'ELAH: During the high holiday season it is tradition to eat challot with a round shape.  There are many interpretations for this practice.  One draws the meaning of the Hebrew word "shanah," most often translated as "year."  The root of the word "shanah" has two specific, conflicting meanings: 1) "repeat/cycle" 2) "change".  Each year our cycle repeats, but each year is also filled with great change.  As you look at the round challah give thought to these questions: In what significant way did my life change this past year?  What change do I want to pursue in the upcoming year?