This past Sunday was my friend Cindy’s birthday. Instead of figuring out what to buy as a gift or making some jewelry, I decided to bake her a noodle kugel. Cindy loves kugel (a combination of noodles, cottage cheese, eggs, sugar, etc.), but no one in her family is a fan, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense for her to make kugel. Here’s where I come in

In fact, I made Cindy kugel last year, but according to Anna (my twin), it wasn’t very good. I decided to ask for help on Twitter, and was so glad when my friend Elyssa shared with me her grandmother Judy’s Noodle Kugel recipe (and allowed me to share it with all of you!).

Ingredients (Of course if you know me, you know I always make changes to the recipe: mine are in green)

2 fresh, peeled, and sliced apples (I used 1 Granny Smith apple, which I did not peel, and I chopped it)
8 ounce package of broad noodles
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs, well beaten
1 cup cottage cheese
5 Tbsp. butter, melted
½ cup sugar (I realized I probably did not have quite enough, but mine was vanilla flavored)
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 hand full golden raisins

Directions

1. Cook noodles as directed. Combine sour cream with eggs, cottage cheese, butter, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and salt. Mix well. Fold in noodles, apples and raisins.

2. Preheat the oven to 375. Butter or Spray your baking dish. {I used 3 small meatloaf pans.} Pour the kugel mixture into a 6 cup capacity baking dish.

3. Bake for 45 minutes.

5. You can eat this kugel either hot, at room temperature or even cold. Elyssa also said it freezes well.

I just had this for breakfast (cold) and really liked it! It wasn’t overly sweet, and the texture was smooth with bits of apples and raisins for some interest. And those brown pasta bits are great!

Note: I took the photos with my new camera at 10:30 pm last night, and I’m so impressed that they came out so well given I used kitchen overhead light (point and shoot would have never been able to do this!!!)

And here’s Cindy’s reaction after receiving and tasting the kugel: That was the second-best gift I received for my birthday this year! (Sorry, Laila still beat you out with her babysitting coupons.)

Have you ever made a kugel? If so, what do you like to add to yours?

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