Just about every Ashkenazi Jewish family has its own recipe for noodle kugel, and just about every Ashkenazi Jewish family knows that its recipe is the best. But you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy this sweet, creamy casserole. And while it’s commonly served at Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, and other Jewish holidays, it’s simple enough to make that you can savor it just about any time.
Some kugel recipes call for raisins, apple slices, applesauce, or cream cheese. Savory kugels exist as well. They’re all delicious, I’m sure. But below is our family recipe for sweet noodle kugel—which of course is the best.
Ingredients
16 ounces extra-wide egg noodles
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
5 eggs (egg substitute works too)
1/3 cup milk (skim, low-fat, almond, or full-fat)
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar (brown or white)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
16 ounces sour cream (low-fat will work)
16 ounces large-curd cottage cheese (again, low-fat is fine)
cinnamon and brown sugar to sprinkle on top
Fortunately noodle kugel tastes much, much better than it looks!
Directions
Boil the noodles in a large pot until they’re just shy of fully cooked. Drain, return to pot, and stir in butter or margarine.
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and sour cream. The mixture can be somewhat lumpy and not homogeneous.
Add the mixture into the noodles, coating the noodles thoroughly. Then fold in the cottage cream. Stir, but do not flatten the cottage cream lumps.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish. My go-to baker is roughly 7 inches by 11 inches; an 8 x 8 dish works too. Sprinkle cinnamon and brown sugar across the top, then cover with aluminum foil.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Remove the foil from the top and bake for another 15 minutes.
And that’s it. Enjoy—as a side dish, dessert, breakfast, leftovers…
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