One cake wasn’t nearly enough for my husband Ed’s birthday. We actually had three, all with a chocolate theme. Yesterday I mentioned the fudge cake, which was an enormous success (he’s still nibbling that one). And my daughter Meredith and her husband Greg brought a store-bought chocolate-marzipan cake that was not only delicious but also gorgeous.

But I also had to try one more, and decided on a Chocolate Icebox cake. I added a few strawberries this time, but they aren’t essential to the recipe.

This is an incredibly easy cake to make and you don’t even have to bake it, so there’s no oven time. You can put it together in about 10 minutes, breaking up chocolate graham crackers and making some whipped cream. The only time issue is that it has to set in the fridge for 5 hours, so this is one you have to plan ahead. 

Still, it’s not too late for Valentine’s Day tonight, if you’re reading this in the morning or at around noontime. If not, do try it the next time you need a good dessert. 

Chocolate Icebox Cake with Strawberries

2 cups heavy whipping cream

8 ounces mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup orange flavored or coffee flavored brandy or dark rum

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

12 ounces chocolate graham crackers

1 quart strawberries, 2/3 sliced, the remainder left whole

Combine the whipping cream, mascarpone cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, brandy and cocoa powder in a bowl and beat using an electric mixer at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well combined and thick enough to stand in peaks. Set aside. Place 1/3 of the graham crackers on the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Break up cookies to fit into the unfilled spaces. Top with 1/3 of the whipped cream and 1/2 the sliced strawberries. Add another layer of cookies, whipped cream and the remainder of the sliced strawberries. Add a third layer of cookies, whipped cream and top with the whole berries. Refrigerate for 5 hours. Remove the sides of the springform pan and serve. Makes 8-10 servings

Prunes used to be the laughing stock of fruit. Really. Kids used to snicker at the thought of them because, you know, prunes are supposed to be for old folks who, um, need the fiber.

Well, confession here — I always loved prunes. Plump, moist, sweet prunes. Great snack. And when I was much younger I ate Dannon’s Prune Yogurt at least twice a week. It was made with whole milk and had a thick, pureed, stewed prune layer at the bottom.

But I think I was only one of two people who loved that yogurt (the other was my husband Ed, which is probably why we knew we were going to click romantically from the start). Because Dannon stopped making that flavor yogurt long ago.

Yeah yeah, there are some new prune yogurts out there but they’re not the old full-fat, thick-as-lekvar prune layer yogurt I remember. The only way to get that is to add some prune lekvar to some yogurt (or stew some prunes and puree them yourself).

But some good news has come for people like me who actually like prunes and don’t think they are funny at all. And who eat prunes because we like them and not because we, um, need them.

Here’s an article that speaks to the benefits of prunes. A great snack, it says because prunes are filling, sweet and satisfying and they are also high in antioxidants as well as fiber.

Give some prunes to your kids and see how they react. Don’t tell them prunes are for senior citizens. Snacks this sweet are sure to please children and their parents too.

And if you want to try prunes in recipes, start with this old fashioned dessert. It’s a winner in all respects. Great warm with a little ice cream (but plain is terrific too).

Prune and Apricot Crumb Pie

3 cups mixed dried pitted prunes and dried California apricots

water

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon butter

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Crumb Crust

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the prunes and apricots in a saucepan. Cover the fruit completely with water and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer the fruit for about 10 minutes or until the fruit is softened. Drain the fruit but reserve the liquid (should be about 1/2 cup; add more if necessary to make 1/2 cup liquid). In a saucepan mix the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add the 1/2 cup reserved liquid. Stir ingredients and cook over low-medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Add the cooked fruit, lemon juice and butter. Stir ingredients until the butter has melted. Spoon the fruit mixture into the pie crust. Scatter the crumb crust on top. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Makes one pie serving 8 people

Crumb Crust:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

6 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks

Mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl. Work the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or your hands until the mixture is crumbly. 

Politics and food? It’s incredibly annoying.

Take kiwi fruit, for example.

This brown, fuzzy-skinned fruit originated in China, which introduced it to New Zealand which wanted to market it here during the 1950s.

Unfortunately, at that time it was known as a “Chinese Gooseberry” and the U.S.A. was deep into McCarthy fever at the time. There were politicians who wanted nothing to do with anything that smacked of communism.

Huh?

Sort of reminds me of those today who make fun of anyone who speaks “French” as if knowing another language was something to be embarrassed about. As if anything French was bad (like “french fries” once idiotically referred to as “liberty fries.”). 

Huh?

So back to Kiwi. Because of some demagogues the country missed out on this delicious — and healthy — and beautiful fruit for decades.

Chinese gooseberries became really really popular in the 1980s after they were renamed kiwi fruit. So popular, in fact, that it was overdone, like so many food trends. Kiwi this, kiwi that. People got sick of them.

Today we’re all used to seeing kiwi fruit in the produce bins. They’re not exotic anymore.

But they are delicious. Beautiful and healthy. I sometimes add a few chunks to Chicken with Rice or use them on top of shortcake when strawberries are out of season (like now) or add them to salads (like rice or some whole grain with leftover meat or fish) or to garnish a cheesecake or custard tart.

I tasted kiwi fruit for the first time ages ago at a friend’s wedding. The dessert they served was Kiwi Melba. Plain, simple and refreshing after a 3-course dinner. The garnet-colored sauce, made from fresh raspberries was a stunning contrast to the emerald-green flesh of the kiwi fruit, like two precious jewels in a cup. It dazzled. I’ve served it at home, to company. It’s one of those desserts that takes almost no time to prepare and comes off as something very special to look at and to eat, as if you’ve fussed.

Here’s the recipe. If you want to elaborate, add a dollop of whipped cream and/or chopped toasted almonds on top. And/or place the fruit and sauce inside a meringue shell.

Kiwi Melba

6-8 kiwi fruit

2 boxes fresh raspberries (2 to 2-1/2 cups)

2-3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons orange flavored brandy

whipped cream, optional

chopped toasted almonds, optional

Peel the kiwi fruit, cut them into quarters or chunks and place the pieces inside 6 dessert serving dishes. Crush the berries in a food processor or by hand. Add the sugar and brandy and mix thoroughly. Let rest for at least 10 minutes. Spoon over the kiwi. Top with whipped cream and/or toasted almonds if desired. Makes 6 servings

Creative People aren’t usually creative just about one thing. They think in unusual and varied ways about a lot.

Like my niece Rachel, who writes children’s books (such as Sometimes I’m Bombaloo and Justin Case) and young adult fiction (such as Lucky and Brilliant).

She decided she wanted to bake the Plum Torte recipe I posted a few months back. But plums aren’t in season now. So she made the cake with pears, and added a little vanilla to the batter, because pears and vanilla, well, it’s a perfect duo.

So here’s her recipe. We had this as one of the MANY desserts on Saturday night at her mother and father’s (my brother) annual Hanukkah party. It was DE-LISH!

Pear Torte

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup plus one tablespoon sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ripe pears, unpeeled, cored, sliced

lemon juice (about one tablespoon)

cinnamon (about 1/4 teaspoon)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and 3/4 cup sugar on medium speed for 3-4 minutes or until creamy and well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, lemon peel and salt and mix briefly to blend ingredients slightly. Add the eggs and vanilla extract beat at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Spoon the batter into the prepared springform pan. Arrange the pear slices on top, pressing them slightly into the batter. Sprinkle the cake with the remaining tablespoon sugar. Squeeze some lemon juice over the cake and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until browned, set and crispy. Let cool. Makes 8 servings

Time to brag.

My daughter Gillian won a pie baking contest yesterday. And it was the first pie she ever made too. And all for a good cause — raising money for P.S. 29 in Cobble Hill, in Brooklyn.

She doesn’t even own a rolling pin, so the dough got flattened using a seltzer bottle wrapped in plastic wrap.

The recipe was a takeoff on one that I posted, but she used cashews instead of hazelnuts, and a 10-inch tart pan rather than pie pan, so it looked more glamorous and the consistency was somewhat firmer. She also baked it for a shorter period of time than a deeper, standard 9-inch pie.

She won two cookbooks. You can see her holding one of the books in the photo; she’s next to judge Gail Simmons (special projects director at Food and Wine and also a judge on Top Chef and the host of Top Chef Desserts).

I never won a cooking contest but I remember entering one once many many years ago. My entry was for Chicken in Champagne Sauce, which my husband and I loved and I had just learned to cook. Everyone thought the dish was a winner, so why not enter it into a cooking contest.

First prize went to Beef Stew. Which I like. But didn’t think, at the time, that plain old beef stew should be a contest winner.

I was wrong about that.

But not wrong about this: Gillian’s Cashew Pie is really delicious. A winner, for real.

Congrats Gill!

Gillian’s Honey Cashew Pie 

2/3 cup honey

1/3 cup sugar

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped hazelnuts

1 cup chopped dried apricots

1 unbaked 10-inch tart crust

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the honey, sugar, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract in a bowl and blend them thoroughly with a whisk. Stir in the flour, salt, cashews and apricots. Pour the mixture into the tart crust. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crusty. Makes one tart serving 8 people

Our family Thanksgiving dinner always used to end with apple pie, because it would have been unthinkable not to have my mom’s perfectly perfect apple pie, and also pecan pie, because my sister-in-law Eileen, who claims she isn’t a good cook, nevertheless makes one spectacular pecan pie.

Unfortunately, my daughter Gillian is allergic to pecans, so we haven’t served pecan pie on Thanksgiving for decades. 

No problems. I love to fuss and fix recipes. So I came up with nut pie versions that didn’t cause a health problem and were also really tasty. Like this one for Honey Hazelnut pie. Which you could also make with cashews or pistachios.

Honey Hazelnut Pie 

2/3 cup honey

1/3 cup sugar

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped hazelnuts

1 cup chopped dried apricots

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the honey, sugar, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract in a bowl and blend them thoroughly with a whisk. Stir in the flour, salt, hazelnuts and apricots. Pour the mixture into the pie crust. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crusty. Makes one pie serving 8 people

Anyone over a “certain” age and living in the New York Metropolitan area will remember Horn & Hardart Automats, those grand cafeterias where you could get on the usual line and buy the usual stuff from the steam tables. But it was always more fun to buy the individual portions of food that were set in little alcoves on the wall, each covered by a glass window. You would put the required number of nickels in a slot and poof! the glass window would open and you would take your food and before you knew it the window closed, and another identical portion of food would circle around and take its place.

If you didn’t have enough change you could get some from the “nickel lady,” in charge of the change booth. As I recall, the nickel ladies were always plump.

My Aunt Roz and Uncle Mac used to take me and my cousin Leslie to the Automat when we went ice skating in Manhattan. The two of us always had the vegetable plate: macaroni and cheese, hash browns and spaghetti.

Dessert depended on the season, but in the autumn I always picked pumpkin pie.

I remember Automat pumpkin pie as a miracle. It was tender, moist and not too spicy. It had a golden sheen on top and nice, crumbly crust. It was the best pumpkin pie ever, even better than my Mom’s.

And so, even after the ice skating days were done and trips to the Automat over, I would sometimes make my way over to one to pick up a slice of pie. 

Then the Automats closed, pushed out of the gastronomic mainstream by the likes of the McDonald’s and Burger King of the world.

Neither of those eateries have pumpkin pie.

Wow, do I wish I had that Automat recipe.

I make a different pumpkin pie every year. I don’t know if the one below is better than the Automat’s. Memories can be deceiving. But I can say it is delicious. Tender, moist, and with a glossy sheen on top. Perfect for Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Pie

1-3/4 cups mashed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1-1/2 cups half and half cream, evaporated milk or nut milk (such as MimicCream)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Beat the eggs, sugar and brown sugar with a whisk or electric beater set at medium for a minute or until well blended. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the cream until well blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt and beat ingredients for a minute or until well blended. Pour into the pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and let cool. Makes one pie serving 8 people

Oh for goodness’ sake! Don’t we fight about enough things? Now do we have to argue about whether “ethnic” food is a real “concept” or a pejorative term?

This article in the Wall Street Journal got me all agitated. The writer says there’s no definition of “ethnic food” in the Oxford dictionary and that the term means food eaten by people poorer than we are. And apparently there was a debate on this topic at the London Restaurant Festival this year. Someone said the French coined the term to describe food that isn’t French or Italian cuisine in the Michelin guide. And another person said that the term “favors segregation over inspiration.” 

But someone else said that ethnic food describes foods that exist in one place that no one else eats.

And so on, blah blah blah.

The writer then concludes that because contemporary chefs are inspired by global influences, ethnic cuisine will soon be “redundant.”

In my opinion, that would be awful.

I have been a food writer for decades. I am fully aware of “modernist cuisine,” which has no ties to any particular culture. I love it if it’s done well and look forward to creative dining and lovely, delicious foods made with intriguing, multi-national ingredients and concepts. (Though I must say, there are far too many restaurants that make too many precious looking dishes with too many ingredients and think they are modernist but it’s really just a hodgepodge).

On the other hand, I also love foods that are particular to a region or culture. I want Egyptian food when I’m in Egypt, German specialties in Germany, Pennsyvania Dutch food in Pennsylvania. I am not insulted when people refer to my grandmother’s recipes as “ethnic” Jewish cooking. Frankly, I would hate it if “modernist” blintzes or “California-style” stuffed cabbage or “artisanal” challah, whatever that could mean, replaced my old favorites. 

I remember taking a trip many years ago with my husband and children to Quebec. I’d been there years before and enjoyed “Cuisine Quebecoise.” Good, “ethnic” cuisine. I looked forward to it again (OH for some of that Pain du Sucre: homestyle white bread with maple sugar and cream!! So simple. So wonderful!). Unfortunately, it was not to be. All the restaurants that were recommended had “modernist” Canadian. Huge disappointment. When you have a hunger for traditional Pain du Sucre, multigrain bread with cocoa-encrusted maple sugar with rambutan-scented mascarpone foam just doesn’t cut it.

I like “ethnic” food. And I actually don’t care if people want to create riffs on the old favorites. In fact, it’s what I do.

But I still would like to feast on those old favorites too. Russian Borscht. Cantonese Egg Rolls. Polish Potato Pierogi, Israeli Falafel, Irish Colcannon, Jewish Mandelbrot.

Please tell me they will not be “redundant.”

Mandelbrot

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon brandy or apple juice

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1/3 cup cut up candied cherries

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1/3 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a mixer set at medium speed for about 2 minutes or until creamy and well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add 2-1/2 cups of the flour, baking powder, brandy, almond extract and salt and beat at medium speed until the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Blend in the remaining flour if the pastry is very sticky. Fold in the nuts, cherries, chocolate chips and raisins. On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into thirds and shape each piece into an oval loaf about 1-1/2 to 2 inches thick. Place the loaves on the cookie sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool. Serve sliced, as is, or toast the slices for extra crispness. Makes 3 loaves. 

Sukkot, which begins at sundown tomorrow (October 12th) is very much like Thanksgiving. Both holidays celebrate the harvest and there’s a feast of good food to eat. 

The difference is that on Sukkot, according to Rabbinic tradition, you’re supposed to eat all your meals in a sukkah (a “hut” or “booth”), outside. Which is probably the way the colonial Pilgrims ate their Thanksgiving dinner, now that I think of it.

A lot of Jewish families build sukkahs. Of course you have to have a backyard or some sort of property. Or a fire escape. Or some place where you can build a makeshift hut, even if it is just a “representation” of a real sukkah. If you belong to a synagogue you can go to a communal sukkah of course. 

In any event, I don’t know anyone who actually eats all their meals outside in a hut. I know maybe one or two who build a sort of sukkah and they have dessert out there on the first night of the holiday. My family never built one when I was a kid. The closest I ever got to eating in a sukkah was when my cousin Leslie and I hung a bedspread over a card table, crawled inside and ate potato chips.

To tell the truth, my husband and I didn’t build one for our kids either. They visited the one at their Sunday school.

But Sukkot food is really good no matter where you eat it. Because it follows the season and the harvest, like all good food. Sukkot food features end-of-summer and beginning-of-autumn fruits and vegetables: apples, pears, squash, pumpkin, eggplant and stuff like that.

Sukkot foods are also usually easily transportable too — for those people who will be carrying the food out to the hut.

Here’s a seasonal dessert that’s yummy, easy and you can take anywhere:

Pear and Ginger Crisp

6 ripe pears

juice of half lemon

1-1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

Crust:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel, core and slice the pears into a bowl. Add the lemon juice, ginger, cinnamon, 1/3 cup brown sugar, flour and salt. Toss the ingredients and place in a baking dish. Make the crust: Combine the 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the butter in chunks and work into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Scatter over the pears. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Let cool slightly before serving (or serve at room temperature). Makes 6-8 servings