Foods From The Motherland

When the kids were little and visits to our parents entailed crossing the Canada-US border, Sean would tell the people we were visiting the motherland - meaning the land where our mothers lived. Over the years, living in different places, we'd incorporate local foods and ingredients into our holiday meals. 

Local honeys for Rosh Hashanah evolved into an annual international honey tasting. Sukkot meant our favourite Israeli dishes. Pesach includes haroset from Brooklyn, Hawaii, and Canada. Shavot always includes Junior's cheesecake, a Brooklyn cheesecake so good that, when the restaurant burned, people famously ran towards the restaurant yelling, "Save the cheesecake!" (Welcome to Junior's Cookbook).

Last year, looking into Sephardic recipes to bring some of Rav Sean's family history, I discovered Pan de Siete Cielos - Seven Heavens Bread, a dairy bread made in Spain and places Spanish Jews fled, and mentioned in Inquisition records. We first made it last year, and it was an instant hit.

This year, I'm using this recipe from the Jewish Journal online. Here's an adaptation for a smaller recipe.

• ¾ cup water
• 1 tsp Active dry yeast
• ½ tsp Sugar (for yeast)
• 4+ cups Flour
• ½ cup Sugar
• ½ tsp Salt
• ½ cup Milk
• 2 Eggs: 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp Honey
• 3 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp Anise, Ouzo, or Arak liqueur (optional)
• 1 egg, divided, for egg wash

Looking forward to making this with others online and sharing it in person on Shavuot. To learn more, go to Beth Torah's website.