Tag: Jewish food

Passover Treats

Sadie1 Comment

I have two key recipes for Passover: Macaroons and Chocolate Toffee Matzo (aka Matzo Crack).  I’m not usually tasked with cooking any of the main dishes for the seder, so as usual, I stick with dessert.  If you have any experience with the Kosher for Passover display at the grocery store, you might be aware of the coconut macaroons that come in a can.  I don’t know why these cookies come in a can, it doesn’t make sense to me.  The reason they are Kosher for Passover is because they have no leavening agent.  Coconut Macaroons are essentially coconut with some sugar and a binding agent (egg).  They don’t have a lot of the other traditional cookie ingredients.

The problem with the macaroons that come in the can (and most Kosher for Passover food) is that they are extreemly dense.  Make your own, it makes a tremendous difference!

Coconut Macaroons

from Bon Appetit

Yields about 45 1 inch cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • dash salt
  • 2 tsp orange peel zest
  • 3 eggs
  • 24 oz. coconut
  • 6 oz. chocolate (optional)

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 325.
  2. Beat room temperature butter with mixer until smooth.  Add sugar and salt, use mixer to combine.
  3. Add zest and eggs one at a time.  When ingredients are combined, add coconut and mix so coconut is well incorporated.
  4. Drop batter in 1 inch portions onto parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake 25-30 minutes until pieces of the coconut are golden brown.
  5. After cookies have cooled you can melt the chocolate and drizzle it over the macaroons (I opted out of the chocolate this year, but I do recommend it).

This next recipe is the perfect solution for the inevitable leftover matzo.  Beware, it’s addictive.

Chocolate Toffee Matzo

From Martha Stewart

Ingredients

  • 4-6 sheets of Matzo
  • 2 sticks of butter
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 12 oz. chocolate chips
  • Nuts for topping

Methods

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment then matzo.
  2. Melt butter in saucepan on stove.  Add brown sugar to butter.  Stir so the sugar dissolves.  Allow the mixture to bubble and simmer until it starts pulling away from the sides of the pot.
  3. Pour hot toffee evenly over the matzo.  Bake in oven about 20 minutes.  It should bubble and get deep brown, but do not let it burn.
  4. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Allow chips to melt and use an offset spatula to spread the chocolate evenly across the toffee covered matzo.  Sprinkle desired nuts or other toppings and allow to cool.  (I usually let it cool for a bit on the counter then move it to the freezer)
  5. Break apart into manageable pieces and enjoy!

Cookies for Purim

Sadie2 Comments

I’m going to be honest with you.  I’m Jewish, and I’m not always thrilled with the ethnic and holiday food that comes with that territory(Exhibit A: Gefilte Fish).  And actually the Jewish side of my family spends more time worrying about important things like the Mets, and doesn’t spend much time recreating the classics in the kitchen.  Have you ever heard the joke:

What do Jewish women make best?

Reservations

My grandmother in a nut shell.  Perhaps that’s why I tend to be sort of a free agent when it comes to family ethnic food.  I grew up with a lot more Italian, and classic American food than the Eastern European/Israeli dishes of my ancestors.

I can probably count the Jewish food that I find eatable on one hand: latkes (duh), Challah bread, Matzah ball soup, Charoset, and Hamantaschen.

Hamantaschen is a cookie made for Purim, which was last week.  They are simple and fantastic.  They always remind me of pre-school at my temple when we dressed up in costumes for Purim, and ate hamantaschen like there was no tomorrow.  It’s similar to a mild, soft shortbread with jam.  Martha Stewart posted a recipe for it last week, so I thought I would get into the Purim spirit and give them a try.

Hamantaschen

Yields about 2 dozen(maybe less if you make them big), from Martha

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1/2 lemon juice and zest
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • fruit preserves for filling

Method

  1. Mix together eggs and sugar.
  2. Add oil, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla.
  3. Combine flour with baking powder and add gradually to wet mixture.
  4. Allow dough to chill for an hour or overnight.
  5. Preheat oven to 350.  Roll out dough and use about a 3 inch circle cookie cutter to cut the cookies.  Place the circles on parchment lined baking sheets.  Put a small amount of preserves in the middle of each circle.  Paint the perimeter of the circle with a little water. Fold three sides of the circle into the center to form a triangle with a view of the preserves in the middle.  Make sure the joints are joined.
  6. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.  Remove when slightly golden brown, allow to cool.  The preserves will be hot and bubbly when it comes out of the oven, you want to make sure the cookies set a little before you move them around too much.  Otherwise it’s a hot mess, literally. I used mixed berry preserves on half, and apricot preserves on the other half.

(I sent these to my grandparents, because I know my grandmother isn’t making them…)