Rebecca's Sweet Noodle Kugel

Wishing everyone a happy new year, a few weeks late!

Turns out the end of grad school and wedding planning hasn’t meant as much time as I’d like to get stuff done over this way. Apologies! Maybe one day I’ll either accept that this is going to be a post when I feel like it sort of place or I’ll finally get myself in gear to find a more consistent schedule. 

I intended on posting this at the beginning of the month for Rosh Hashanah, which would have been appropriate for the beginning of year five considering a Rosh Hashanah dinner was one of the first things I ever posted about here, but alas, no use crying over spilled milk. 

Or broken eggs. There are quite a lot of them to make this tasty treat.

Kugel is a baked casserole pudding. It’s a dish that has a lot of variations, and it can often be found on the table at holidays or on the Sabbath. Like British puddings, the first kugels were a firmly savory dish. Unlike the kugels of today, they were made with bread and flour and were essentially dumplings rather than a baked dish. During the 1200’s in Germany, the bread was replaced with noodles, beginning the slow evolution to the modern kugel. Eggs, cottage cheese, and other milk products were eventually added, creating a creamier pudding side dish. Family recipes for kugel can vary pretty extremely. Some prefer keeping it savory as an accompaniment to other staples on the dinner table, and can include ingredients like onions, carrots, potatoes, cheese, spinach and Matzah. Other families prefer sweeter versions, even going for full on dessert kugels like the one I made to share with you guys. Some modern recipes even include cornflakes for an extra crunchy topping. 

The recipe I used for this post came from Tori Avey’s blog, one of my absolute favorite sources to turn to for new ideas. She’s a fabulous writer and takes awesome pictures, giving you a truly step by step look at each recipe she features. I love when bloggers do this, as it helps me know if I’m doing a step wrong. Admittedly that’s gotten a little less crucial now that I’m five years into cooking for myself, but it’s still really helpful for a recipe you’ve never tried before or for a beginning cook or baker. 

Fortunately, you don’t need to worry too much about messing up this kugel. It’s extremely easy to put together and requires almost no fuss. To start, you’ll want to soak 1 cup of raisins in hot (but not boiling!) water to get them nice and plumped up. Tori used golden raisins, but I used regular purple ones, so feel free to use whatever you have on hand. You can also use a different dried fruit if you prefer.

Next, boil 12 ounces of egg noodles for 5 minutes. Drain them and put them back in the warm pot. (Make sure the burner is turned off when you do!)

In a large bowl (or in a food processor), blend together 6 eggs, 2 cups of sour cream, 1 cup of cottage cheese, 1 cup of cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 of a cup of melted butter, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. This is going to make up the custardy part of the pudding. Or the pudding part of the pudding.

Pour the mixture over the egg noodles and mix everything together. Drain the raisins and then mix them in too.

The mixture then gets poured into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish and sprinkled liberally with sugar and cinnamon. It gets baked at 350 degrees for about an hour. I checked on mine at 50 minutes and decided it needed the extra ten minutes to really finish cooking. I’m still learning the quirks of my new oven.

The top should be golden and crunchy, and the middle should be set – basically no wiggle. Tori recommends letting the kugel sit for at least 15 minutes before cutting into it to make sure everything’s baked all the way through.

This recipe makes a very sweet kugel, making it a great dessert option, or honestly a tasty breakfast snack as well. The base is also simple enough for you to really go out and experiment with flavors you like: don't like cinnamon? Try a different spice! Add nuts, different fruit, whatever you think would taste good. 

One reason this dish has remained so popular over the years no doubt has to do with how flexible it is. It’s easy to store, transport, and can be eaten hot or cold. It also keeps for a while in the fridge, so you can enjoy leftovers for a few days – if you have any! 

So that's sweet noodle kugel. Hope everyone who celebrates had a lovely Rosh Hashanah, complete with lots of tasty food. Hopefully our next holiday post won't be so late!

Although I should learn not to make promises about timing...