Shavuot is always associated with the eating of dairy dishes. Dishes such as cheesecakes, blintzes, kugels and cheese bagels, rich in milk, cheese, sour cream and butter, are typical Shavuot fare.
Without a doubt, the queen of cheesecakes is Marcy Goldman, a Montreal-based cookbook author and freelance food writer. Her popular website BetterBaking.com has 20,000 regular subscribers and about one million visitors a month.
Her best-selling baking bible, The Best of BetterBaking.com, is now back in print – and it’s better than ever. You’ll still find all the original fail-safe, triple-tested recipes in the new edition, along with 30 new recipes and new photos that will make you hungry for more! Recipes range from contemporary to classic, traditional to trendy, with one common ingredient – excellence! Tips on baking techniques and quality tools and ingredients as well as a Source Guide will provide you with the confidence, skills and resources to get perfect results every time.
Goldman has also updated her kitchen classic, A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking: 10th Anniversary Edition (Whitecap). Briefly out of print, this new edition includes a bonus chapter with 35 new recipes that will make any holiday celebration complete. The book is a culinary treasure certain to be handed down, passed around and enjoyed by many generations to come.

 
This is perfect for Shavuot or a Shabbat luncheon, as a dairy main dish (served with a soup and salad) or for break-the-fast on Yom Kippur. The recipe doubles easily and can be offered with sour cream, fresh fruit or even warm blueberry sauce. The vanilla gives it a contemporary flavour and makes it lean toward a dessert dish.
 
2 (10-12 oz.) packages egg noodles
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter or oil
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
1 cup dry or pot-style cottage cheese (without curds)
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
 
Cornflake Streusel Topping:
1 cup cornflake cereal
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp. sugar
 

Prepare the noodles according to package directions; drain and place in a large bowl. Spray a 9×13-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350.

When the noodles have cooled to almost room temperature, combine with the butter, eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, vanilla, sugar and salt. Spoon the noodles into the prepared pan.

Place the cornflakes, cinnamon and sugar in a Ziploc bag and roll over it with a rolling pin to crush the cereal. Sprinkle the “cornflake streusel” over the noodles. Bake until the top lightly browns, about 1 hour. Serves 8 to 12.

I love marshmallows with anything and raspberries anytime. This is a gorgeous, creamy, New York-style cheesecake, with hunks of white chocolate, marshmallow cream, and a ribbon of raspberry preserves floating through a cheesecake dream. It’s finished with yet more raspberries and a stippling of white chocolate and/or warm marshmallow fluff. It’s like a raspberry sundae, only better – it’s pretty enough to serve as a knockout dessert. It also won’t melt away like a sundae, but it does vanish pretty quickly.
 
Crust:
1 1/4 cups shortbread cookie crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
 
Cake:
2 1/2 lb. cream cheese at room temperature
1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 eggs
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup raspberry preserves, preferably seedless
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup white chocolate chunks
 
Sour Cream Topping:
1 1/4 cups sour cream
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar
 
Finishing Touches:
1/2 cup raspberry preserves, preferably seedless, warmed
1 pint fresh raspberries
apricot jam, warmed, to glaze
1/2 cup marshmallow fluff or white chocolate, warmed, for drizzling
 

Preheat the oven to 375. Mix together the crust ingredients and pat into a 10-inch springform pan.

Cream the cheese in an electric mixer on the lowest speed until smooth. Blend in the condensed milk, then the sugar and flour. Add the eggs, cream and vanilla and blend on slow speed until smooth, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl often.

Pour half of the batter into the pan. Spread on half of the raspberry preserves and swirl a bit with a knife or fork. Add half of the marshmallows and swish them around. Cover with the remaining batter, white chocolate chunks, and add the remaining preserves and marshmallows, swirling with a fork again to marbleize the batter and immerse the marshmallows in the cheesecake.

Place the cheesecake carefully in a water bath. Bake for 15 minutes at 375, then lower the oven temperature to 350 and bake another 50 minutes.

Meanwhile, for the Sour Cream Topping, combine the sour cream, vanilla, and confectioners’ sugar. Spread on the cake and bake another 12 minutes.

Turn the oven off. Open the oven door and let the cake cool in the oven for 1 hour before removing. Cover the cake lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

For the finishing touches, before serving (or several hours earlier), warm the raspberry preserves and brush them on the cake surface. Then place fresh raspberries in concentric circles and brush them with warmed apricot preserves. Drizzle or stipple with warmed marshmallow fluff or melted white chocolate. Makes 1 cheesecake; serves 14 to 20.

 
This dough is flaky and delicate. If you are in a hurry, substitute store-bought puff pastry dough. This recipe is similar to one in Second Helpings, Please! These bagels freeze well.
 
Mock Puff Dough:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
 
Filling:
1 lb. dry cottage cheese (see Note)
1 egg
2–6 tbsp. sugar (to taste)
Pinch of salt
squirt of lemon juice
1 tbsp. flour
 
Topping (optional):
1 egg
Fine sugar, for sprinkling
 

Dough: Place the dry ingredients in a food processor. Pulse to blend. Add the butter chunks and pulse to cut the fat into the flour. Add the sour cream and egg and process to form a soft dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for about 20 minutes.

Filling: In a bowl, blend all the ingredients and chill for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

To form cheese bagels, divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured board, roll out one portion in an oblong 1/4-inch thick. Place half of the filling along one edge. Roll halfway, then cut the roll you have formed away from the remaining body of the dough. Repeat. Cut into 8-inch lengths and place on the baking sheet. Curve the rolls into horseshoe shapes, pinching the ends together to seal a bit.

Topping: Brush (if desired) with beaten egg and sprinkle very lightly with fine sugar.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the cheese bagels are lightly browned. Makes about 1 dozen cheese bagels

Note: For baking, Marcy uses a no-curd, or dry cottage cheese. It is relatively low in fat. Here are some aliases: baker’s cheese, pot cheese, dry cottage, no-curd and small curd cottage cheese. Try to find a cottage cheese that looks like a drier version of cream cheese – no curds, not wet or floating in dairy whey. It is the ideal ingredient for Danish and coffee cake cheese fillings, blintzes, or strudels, and cheesecake.

Norene Gilletz is a cookbook author, teacher and food consultant in Toronto. For updated information, call 416-226-2466 or visit her website at http://www.gourmania.com.