Light and fluffy sweet Kugel noodle pudding
2020 has been a strange year to say the least. Avoiding going out, fearing grocery store trips and at the same time trying to maintain a sense of norm for my family led to the creation of an adapted version of my favourite holiday kugel. I was at my friend Marni’s house and she was telling me about her mom’s kugel which has Ritz crackers as a topping when I realized I forgot to order the ingredients for my kugel. I didn’t have the wide egg noodles I usually use but Marni had a bag of fine egg noodles and assured me they would be just as good. I got home and realized I only had whipped cream cheese instead of regular, only had half the sour cream but had yogurt and no graham crumbs but I found a box of Townhouse crackers which taste very similar to Ritz crackers, and this is how my ‘new-favourite, lightest, fluffiest sweet noodle kugel’ came to life.
For the Kugel
16 oz fine egg noodles
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups (16oz) 4% small curd cottage cheese
8 oz whipped cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup white sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the Topping
2 cups butter crackers (Ritz or Townhouse)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup white sugar
Preheat oven to 350F and spray a large casserole dish with baking spray or grease with butter.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil. Add noodles and cook according to package directions (approximately 4 minutes). Drain noodles and put in a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup melted butter, toss noodles and set aside.
Meanwhile, add cottage cheese and cream cheese to mixmaster or blender and blend until smooth. Add sour cream, yogurt, sugar, eggs and vanilla; blend until well combined. Pour cheese mixture over noodles and mix well. Add to prepared casserole dish.
To prepare topping, place crackers in mixer and blend until crumbs are fine. In medium bowl mix together the cracker crumbs, butter and sugar. Mix until it resembles large crumbs. Sprinkle topping evenly over noodle mixture (recipe for topping below).
Bake at 350F for 15 minutes, then reduce to 325F And continue cooking another 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool 10-15 minutes before cutting.