Russian Honey Cake
Samin Nosrat, Michelle Polzine
1251 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
1,251
4 hours, plus overnight chilling
Advertisement
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch springform pan with 2 tablespoons of the oil.
Peel the pears and cut all but one of them into 1-inch cubes.
Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of the oil over a medium-high heat in a skillet. Lightly sauté the onions until they are translucent. Remove from the heat and salt lightly, allowing them to cool slightly.
Soak the bread for a few seconds in lukewarm water and squeeze dry. Put in a large bowl, and, using a wooden spoon or spatula, mix with ¼ cup of the sugar and the butter or pareve margarine. Stir in the eggs, onions and half of the diced pears, setting aside the remaining pears for the sauce.
Pour the batter into the spring form pan and bake for 2 hours.
While the kugel is cooking, make the sauce. In a heavy saucepan set over medium-high heat, put 1 cup of water, the remaining ½ cup of sugar, the prunes, cinnamon, lemon juice and the remaining diced pears. Cook this compote mixture uncovered for 30 minutes.
Finely grate the remaining pear and stir it into the cooked compote.
When the kugel is done, remove from the oven and set on a rack to cool for about 20 minutes. Unmold from the pan onto a serving platter, and spoon half of the compote over it. Serve the remaining compote on the side.
This recipe is originally from Joan Nathan's cookbook Quiches, Kugels and Couscous. Just want to make sure such an amazing recipe gets proper credit!
Is the two hour cooking time correct? Two hours at 350 degrees seems excessive.
I made this mostly as directed despite my misgivings with the two hour cooking time, and it came out great. The only substantive change I made was to omit the sugar from the prune sauce as the sauce didn't need it. My neighbor asked me to bring it to the next neighborhood get-together after she tried it. My husband called it "quite a treat." It was quick and easy to put together. Wonderful recipe - thanks Tara!
Been meaning to make this for years: it was delicious and will add this to many meals including at Thanksgiving for the many vegetarian diners. It looked pretty dark when I took it out at 1 hour 50 minutes, but it didn't taste burnt. We had extra and I added more liquid, sugar, and lemon for serving the next night. My husband and guests LOVED this!
what type of loaf bread should be used? sweet or non-sweet. please give me an example --- thx!
I thought the kugel was tasty enough, but the texture suffered from the pears which became mushy despite that they weren’t overly ripe. If I make this again, I would use only prunes as suggested in the tip and add more pears and less sugar to the compote.
Does this freeze well?
This recipe is originally from Joan Nathan's cookbook Quiches, Kugels and Couscous. Just want to make sure such an amazing recipe gets proper credit!
Is the two hour cooking time correct? Two hours at 350 degrees seems excessive.
I made this mostly as directed despite my misgivings with the two hour cooking time, and it came out great. The only substantive change I made was to omit the sugar from the prune sauce as the sauce didn't need it. My neighbor asked me to bring it to the next neighborhood get-together after she tried it. My husband called it "quite a treat." It was quick and easy to put together. Wonderful recipe - thanks Tara!
Advertisement