Daphne Subar started Subarzsweets after practicing law for 26 years..

“I love to bake, I love to cook and I would always be experimenting in the kitchen,” Subar told the Journal. “It was really my [three] daughters who encouraged me–almost challenged me–to leave the practice of law and launch a bakery.”

Founded in 2016, Subarzsweets is a unique online bakery and gifting service. The business, which combines creativity, community and entrepreneurship, offers one signature treat in a variety of flavors and sizes. People can buy them as gifts for others, for themselves, as a subscription, all of the above.

“When I launched, I wanted to come up with a unique, awesome treat, something different,” Subar said. “I basically took a mandelbrot recipe [and] combined it with a cookie recipe.”

Subarz combines the sweetness and fun of a cookie with the crunch of mandel bread, which is often described as Jewish biscotti.

She started with a traditional chocolate chip version–which is still her family;s favorite. It was such a big hit, she decided that, rather than come up with other baked goods, it would be more fun to experiment with flavors.

“We have chocolate almond, peanut butter, matcha, lavender, all sorts of really fun flavors,” Subar said.

While Subar feels like the mandel bread component is a bit of a tribute to her heritage, her baking experiments were a result of her oldest daughter’s severe food allergies. She couldn’t have almond flour, crushed almonds or nuts.of any kind, and Suber wanted her to have something she could eat.

“When she got a little bit older and [went] to her friends’ bar and bat mitzvahs, birthday parties or anything, I always felt bad because she couldn’t have a lot of the food,” Subar said. So I always wanted to make sure she had a little sweet [treat] at home.”

Subar has three daughters: one had some medical issues and was on a restricted diet, another was just picky.

“I was convinced that I could find something that they all liked,” she said. She did!

The secret to cooking and baking is to have fun. Plus, Subar explained, you can’t be scared.

“Even if you make a mistake, it’s probably going to be edible,” she said. “Just go in there and experiment with it.”

There are of course exceptions. One time, for a cupcake baking contest at a block party, Subar remembers her youngest daughter substituted salt for sugar.

“It was like a cup of salt … and then a teaspoon of sugar,” she said. “That’s the only time I’ve ever had something go wrong, but … we still enjoyed the experience.”

When cooking or baking, don’t feel restricted by a recipe.

“If you’re following a recipe and you don’t have all the ingredients or you make a little mistake, just go with it,” she said.“Last night, I was making something and I kind of messed it up and I told] my husband and daughter, I said, ‘If you like this, that’s great, but I don’t actually know if I can make it again because I completely changed it.’”

It’s not tragic if you are missing an ingredient–do a search online and find a replacement–as long as it’s not the main ingredient.

For instance, Subar would not make brisket without using brisket.

“It may be one of the things in the sauce that I’m changing,” she said.

Even though Subar is a vegetarian, she still makes brisket four times a year, usually for Jewish holidays and celebrations. Subar’s brisket recipe, which she initially got from her assistant in her early lawyering days, is below.

“I still have it on a handwritten index card that I’ve now taped in a book,” she said. “I’ve changed it a little bit, because I tend to change things.”

Learn more at Subarzsweets.com and follow @Subarz on Instagram.

Get Rabbi Jo David’s vegan brisket recipe mentioned in the ep.

For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:

Daphne’s Famous Brisket Recipe

7-8 pound brisket (cut the extra fat off or ask the butcher to do that)

2 packets of Onion Soup Mix

2 cans of whole cranberry sauce

Approximately 20-24 ounces of Coke/cola

1 ½ cups of ketchup

Please note: This recipe can easily be converted for Passover as all ingredients are available Kosher for Passover. This recipe is best if cooked the day before you would like to serve it.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Pour a few ounces of the coke in the bottom of a large dutch oven or roasting pan with a lid. Then place the brisket on top, fat side up.

Mix all the other ingredients together and pour over the brisket. If you are using more than one brisket, make sure and pour plenty of the mixture between the two pieces of meat.

Cover and cook in the oven for at least 4 hours. After 4 hours, turn the oven off and leave in the oven for a few more hours, if you have time. Once I left it in the oven beginning at midnight until about 6 in the morning and it was probably the most tender brisket I have ever made.

Then, put the meat and the sauce in the refrigerator to cool. The next day, slice the meat and generously cover with the sauce to reheat and enjoy!

Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.