This style of kugel is called "Jerusalem kugel".
Egg noodles in caramel, cinnamon, ginger, plenty of black pepper. Baked, in a low oven all night long in order to give it this signature brown color and flavor.
Traditionally made on Friday night and served on Saturday morning. The kugel is best served warm as a warming wintery breakfast, but it can also be served at room temp during warmer months.
Most kugels are cooked with no dairy for kosher reasons, but I much prefer the taste of butter. Sub it with natural oil if desired.
Raisins can be added if you like.
Feeds 8 as a hearty breakfast or much more as a first/last course.
It's usually made much larger, and you can scale the recipe both up and down with no adjustments.
- 400g good quality dry egg noodles or dry egg pasta. I prefer thin noodles, slightly thinner the spaghetti (~3mm).
- 50g cold butter, cut into pieces
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 flat teaspoon dry ginger, or a full teaspoon if you like more ginger flavor
- 2 to 3 teaspoons black pepper, ground finely (make sure to use freshly ground pepper)
- 1 tablespoon milk, cream or water
- 50g walnuts, roughly chopped
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200-250g white sugar (I use about 225g, preferring my kugel not too sweet. you can use up to 300g for a really sweet kugel)
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Pick a somewhat narrow and tall pot that can just hold the cooked noodles/pasta. A cake pan can be used instead, as long as it can be tightly sealed.
- Make sure to slice the butter and keep it cool.
- Heat oven to 200 degC.
- Mix together eggs, milk (or cream/water) salt, spices and almonds. Keep refrigerated.
- Cook noodles in slightly salted water until almost al-dente, drain well. You can cook the pasta in the pot used later for baking.
- Meanwhile, in a good, wide pan, cook sugar to very dark caramel. I prefer the dry caramel method, but do use wet method if you like it better.
- When very dark, immediately remove from heat and add butter to cool the caramel and stop it from burning.
- Add cooked noodles and mix well to coat in caramel. If caramel starts to harden, place pot on medium heat and push the chunks to the bottom until they melt.
- Let the noodles chill slightly then add egg and nuts mixture.
- Mix until well combined.
- if your pot or pan used for baking is not non-stick, then grease it.
- Pour noodles into pot or pan and slightly flatten the top to look even.
- If you see any nuts poking above, push them down slightly so that they don't burn.
- Tightly cover the pot or pan with aluminium foil to keep moisture inside.
- Cover with a lid and place in hot oven for about 15 minutes.
- Reduce heat to 100 degC (210 degF) and bake overnight, about 10 hours.
- To serve, remove foil and invert kugel on a tray. Serve with pickled cucumbers (not everyone likes this combination, but try).
- Leftovers can be chilled and reheated later (microwave or oven both works, the later might dry it too much if you are not careful). You can also pan fry leftover slices.
