Here’s a recipe that comes from a challenge issued by

the New York Daily News. They wanted to find out if a

West Coast boy could duplicate the taste of an authentic

New York City knish. But, mind you, not just any knish.

This knish comes from one of the oldest knisheries in the

Big Apple; a place which also takes pride in the low fat

content of its knishes, versus the popular deep-fried variety.

When I tasted the famous Yonah Schimmel knish (the first knish

I had ever sampled), I realized that not only could a simple

clone recipe be created, but that the fat gram count could

come in even lower. The Daily News even went so far as to have

a lab analyze the fat content of not only the original knish

and the clone, but also the fat grams in a street vendor knish

and a supermarket knish, just for comparison. The results are

listed below. If you’d like to check out the original article

that ran in the Daily News, click here.

6 medium russet potatoes

2 1/2 tablespoons low-fat butter

1/4 minced onion

3 tablespoons fat-free chicken (or vegetable) broth

1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper, or more to taste

Seasoning blends, chives or pepper flakes to taste (optional)

6 sheets phyllo dough

1. Peel, halve and boil potatoes until tender, 15-20 minutes.

Mash in a large bowl.

2. Saut? onion in 1 1/2 tablespoons butter until translucent but

not brown. Add to mashed potatoes with broth, salt, pepper and

spices. Stir well.

3. Melt remaining tablespoon of butter. Pre-heat oven to 375

degrees.

4. Layer 3 sheets of phyllo dough and cut in half. Repeat with

remaining 3 sheets. Spoon 1 cup of potato mixture on each section

of phyllo, mold into a large ball and position off-center at one

end of strip of dough. Roll ball along the length of phyllo,

folding dough over bottom of filling and leaving some filling

poking through the top. (Trim and discard excess dough.)

5. Brush melted butter over edges of knish to seal the seams and

press down onto an ungreased baking sheet. Repeat with other

knishes. Bake 30-40 minutes, until golden brown.

Makes four knishes.