Shavuot: Sour Cherry Slice

This coming weekend we will celebrate the truly delicious Jewish festival of Shavuot.

We know it very very well as a time to eat dairy products.

It is a time where many Jewish people all over the world fress (eat with abandon!) cheesecake, cheese blintzes and pretty much anything with cheese in it, savoury or sweet. Any opportunity!

There are a number of reasons offered as to why.  The main one is that at the time Moses received the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, it was Sabbath in the desert, and the new rules meant the meat they had already prepared for eating was not in fact kosher (and therefore they were not permitted to eat it) and they had no choice but to eat a dairy meal. (There are several other compelling and not so compelling reasons which you can read about by googling the question).

But really, for us,  it’s always about the food. 

We’re excited to share with you a very special recipe from our second book, The Feast Goes On, from the kitchen and Hungarian heritage of Judy Kaye: Klarika’s Sour Cherry Slice. We call it a cross between a cheese cake and a butter cake as it is made with sour cream only (no butter, no cream cheese) and has a very lovely texture that is neither cheese-cakey nor butter-cakey but definitely reminiscent of both. We hope you love it as much as we do.

Our years of research, testing and eating (yes it was so difficult . . . but someone has to do it) has uncovered some of the best Shavuot recipes that can be found. Not to say that there aren’t still some great ones out there not yet discovered, but these ones are truly tried, tested and simply EXCELLENT. And we are honoured that ‘our’  wonderful cooks have chosen to share these recipes with us and with the world. See our Shavuot 2022 roundup post for all the info.

Chag Shavuot Sameach to those who are celebrating – and happy cooking to all!

Lisa xxx

Klarika's Sour Cherry Slice

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Course Sweet Things

Cuisine Jewish

Servings 10

Ingredients

  

• 250 g self-raising flour 1 2/3 cups
• 250 g caster sugar 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon
• 300 g Sour Cream
• 2 egg yolks
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 275 g drained pitted morello cherries (or frozen sour cherries which are even better!)
• icing sugar sifted, for dusting

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 170 C.
• Grease and line a 28 x 18 cm rectangular baking tin.
• Put the flour, caster sugar, sour cream, egg yolks and lemon zest in a bowl and mix together with a fork. You can also do this in the food processor.
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. The mixture is quite thick and hard to spread.
• Place the cherries over the cake, pushing them in a little.
• Bake for 35 minutes, or until cooked and golden.
• Allow the slice to cool in the tin. When cool, cut into squares and dust with the icing sugar.
• Makes 20–24 pieces