STUFFED MONKEY (yes it’s a cake!)
When I was a child, one of the most favourite smells I had from my grandmother‘s kitchen was when she made stuffed monkey, I have no idea how this delicious cake or some people make it into biscuits kichels, got its name, but it was one entertained a mind of a five-year-old when I knew there was a slice of stuffed monkey at teatime!
Fast forward 11 years, when I took my cook and hostess GCSE (the only subject I really excelled in) we had to cook and prepare and serve a three course meal before arriving back from a from day out in London. (How I remember this I don’t know, ) I made French onion soup with homemade croutons, klops with coleslaw, followed by a staff monkey and a cup of lemon tea. Hardly MasterChef, but not bad for a 16-year-old who intrigued the examiner with the name of her cake.
This week I’ve been clearing out my mother‘s flat and among the things I found was her much fingered copy of Florence Greenberg , which was the Bible for post-war Jewish brides and their alongside the recipe for stuffed monkey in my 16-year-old handwriting with all the adaptations I had made to the original recipe.
I’m happy to share with you today with acknowledgement to Florence Greenberg, my version of stuffed monkey the one that got me my highest ever GCSE school.
Ingredients please note these are in imperial measurements
For the dough
6 ounces of plain flour, you can use gluten-free
4 ounces of plant based butter
4 ounces of soft brown sugar
Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg
A quarter of a teaspoon of ground ginger
One egg white
One free range egg
For the filling
2 ounces of ground almonds
1 1/2 ounces of plant butter
2 ounces of dried fruit this can be raisin Sultana‘s chopped peel chopped dates whatever you have at home, the note say that I used Sultons on the auspicious day of my exam
1 ounce of soft brown sugar
The yolk of an egg
Half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
Method
For the dough
Mix the flour and the cinnamon together, then add in the margarine as one would do if making pastry. You can do this by hand or in a food processor.
Add the egg and sugar and need it to pliable dough
Line and 8 inch sandwich tin, with baking paper
Set the dough aside in clingfilm in the fridge for about 10 minutes
Make the filling
Praise your chop, fruit caster sugar ground almonds, and egg yolk in a bowl, melt the plant butter, and pour it into the mixture stir it and mix it well it should be a paste like consistency.
Remove the dough from the fridge
Preheat your oven to 375°F 180 C gas monk 4
Roll the dough out, and cap out to 8 inch circles, place one in the bottom of the sandwich tin, add the the filling, then placed the second on top ensuring that all the edges are sealed. I remember my grandmother doing this with the handle of a teaspoon making an indentation or you could pinch the two sides together by your thing with your fingers or use a fork.
Brush the egg white over the top of the cake and place in the oven .
This takes about 30 minutes to cook
Cool in the tin .
Cut yourself a slice with a cup of tea and have a taste of traditional old-fashioned Jewish baking.