Ginger Coconut Macaroons for Passover

Every year at our potluck Passover, my cousins are responsible for bringing the coconut macaroons.  The whole family (except me) raves about these particular macaroons - purchased from a neighborhood bakery.  Sure, the bakery macaroons are better than the ones from the can that I grew up eating, but I knew I could do better.  This year, I told my mom (our Passover host) that I'd like to take care of all of the Passover desserts - including the coconut macaroons.

Matzoh Brei Cupcakes for Passover

Passover is not a cupcake kind of holiday.  However, there's no reason not to sneak them onto the Passover menu in unexpected places.  In past years, I've brought you charoset cupcakes and gefilte fish cupcakes, and given you a recipe for flourless chocolate cupcakes that are worth crossing the Red Sea for.  This year, I've created Passover breakfast cupcakes - matzo brei cupcakes.

What Are Matzo Brei Cupcakes?

How To Make Matzoh Brei Like My Mom's

Every Jewish family has their own take on how to make matzoh brei - the classic Passover breakfast of eggs mixed with fried matzoh.  In this post, I share the matzoh brei recipe I've eaten every Passover since I could eat solid food.  Below the matzoh brei recipe, you'll find a barrage of variations.  If your family has a special way to make matzoh brei, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.  Also, be on the lookout for my matzoh brei cupcakes, coming soon!

Honey, I'm Nuts for You - Easy Honey Nut Valentine's Day Cookies (Gluten-Free)

If you're nuts for a nut lover, this is the Valentine's day cookie to make them.  These honey nut Valentine's Day cookies are super simple to make - they have only three ingredients (an assortment of nuts and seeds, honey, and a couple of egg whites to help hold it all together in a chewy granola bar sort of way) - and they are gluten-free!  The best thing about these cookies is that you can use whatever nuts your Valentine loves.  Does your hubby crave cashews?  Use them!  Does your child pine for peanuts?  They'll work too!

Gefilte Fish Cupcakes with Horseradish Whipped Cream

You won't have to warn people that these gefilte fish cupcakes with horseradish whipped cream are not typical sweet cupcakes.  The smell of fish and onions will do all of the talking for you.  An adorable cupcake shape, however, might be just the hook that gefilte "fish" needs to be the catch of your Seder.

Homemade Pan-Fried Gefilte Fish for a Haute Passover Seder

Pan fried gefilte fish are the gefilte fish for gefilte haters.  Think of them as Kosher crab cakes (is it sacrilegious to even imagine Kosher crab cakes?) or Seder salmon croquettes. There is no jar jelly to contend with (anyone who's been tasked with plating gefilte fish for their family's Seder knows about this gross gefilte byproduct); and you can make homemade gefilte fish using high quality, socially responsible fish (check Seafood Watch before shopping for the best choices).  Bubbie might miss the traditional cold gefilte (a Jewish staple that, like the jello mold, should have gone out of style in the 70's) but everyone else, Elijah included, will appreciate the change.

Kosher for Passover Cupcakes - Charoses Cupcakes

Kosher for Passover cupcake Photo disclaimer: The Kosher for Passover cupcake featured in the photo above was taken by the esteemed St. Louis food photographer J. Pollack Photography. However, the photshopping of the cupcake onto the Seder plate was done by me and he does NOT approve of such photo mutilation.

Charoses cupcakes will surely be the "wow" dessert on any Passover table. They are lemon-flavored Kosher for Passover cupcakes with baked-in charoses and topped with brown sugar charoses frosting!

Last year, I featured Kosher for Passover chocolate cupcakes. I got many comments from people complaining that they couldn't eat the cupcakes after a traditional Passover Seder because the cupcakes were dairy.

These charoses cupcakes can be served two ways. Without the frosting, these cupcakes qualify for a Kosher for Passover fleishig meal (no dairy); don't worry, even without the frosting, they are still better than macaroons. With the frosting, you could serve the cupcakes with a dairy meal.

Charoses Cupcake Recipe

I found the recipe that I used for the charoses cupcakes from Key Ingredient. I modified it slightly to make it a cupcake. I'm listing the recipe with my modifications below.

Makes about 16 cupcakes

• 5 eggs, separated
• 1 1/4 C sugar
• 3/4 C safflower oil
• Juice of 2 lemons (4 to 5 T)
• Grated zest of 2 lemons
• 1 1/4 C matzo cake meal (not matzo meal)
• About 2 C charoses (Use my charoses recipe if you don't have your own go-to one.)
  

1. Mix egg yolks and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy.
2. In a separate bowl, combine oil, lemon juice and zest.
3. Add matzo cake meal to yolk and sugar mixture alternately oil mixture.
4. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry.
   
5. Using rubber spatula, fold 1/4 of the beaten egg whites into egg yolk mixture until well blended.
   
6. Fold in remaining beaten egg whites.
7. Fill cupcake liners about halfway with batter.
8. Put a spoonful or more, of charoses on top of the batter on each cupcakes.
9. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Charoses Frosting Recipe

For my charoses frosting I used a basic penuche frosting (brown sugar frosting) and just added charoses to it. It's a bit gooey (kind of like the frosting on a German chocolate cake) - only even yummier (if you love charoses)! In fact, I just ate an apple and totally enjoyed dipping it in all the leftover frosting. I'm typing with sticky fingers now.

I got the penuche frosting recipe from Southern Food on About.Com. I used this same frosting minus the charoses on my Gluten-free quinoa cupcakes. The recipe made twice as much frosting as I needed. Unless you want extra frosting around for snacking, you could definitely cut this recipe in half.

• 1/2 C butter
• 1 C brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 C milk
• 2 C sifted confectioners' sugar (I only used about 1 1/2 C)
• 2/3 C charoses (Use my charoses recipe if you don't have your own go-to one.)

1. In a saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter.
2. Add the brown sugar.
3. Bring to a boil and lower heat to medium low and continue to boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Add the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
5. Cool to lukewarm. Gradually add sifted confectioners' sugar. (I would highly recommend sifting this confectioners' sugar. It's such a pain to sift, but it ensures that the frosting will be extra smooth.)
6. Beat until thick enough to spread.
7. Mix in charoses.
8. Pour over cupcakes.
   

Speaking of Passover

Don't expect many new posts over Passover. I'll likely be passing over the blog during that time, but, you never know.

Charoses Recipe - Mom's Recipe

Charoses is a reason to look forward to Passover. I would eat charoses year round, but then I wouldn't enjoy it as much over Passover. I could eat it by the bowl - cold or hot. Charoses is almost always served cold, but it's actually great after 30 seconds or so in the microwave - try it!

While I typically experiment and drastically change recipes, there is no messin' with Momma's charoses. Well, except for the fact that I used up this charoses in a Kosher for Passover charoses cupcake.

Charoses Recipe

Mom's charoses recipe is actually from The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook. As I look at this digital picture of the cookbook, I can picture the more worn out version of it sitting in Mom's kitchen and feel all warm and fuzzy. If you want your own worn out version, you can get used copies of this book for only $4 on Amazon!

Here is the recipe twice removed from the book - emailed by my mom and then edited with notes by me:

• 1 C chopped apples (Mom uses a couple of different apples to make it
• interesting.)
• 1/4 C chopped nuts (We always use walnuts.)
• 1 t sugar or honey (This is not a choice. Use honey!)
• Grated rind of 1/2 lemon (I ended up using a whole lemon. The more lemon, the merrier.)
• 1/2 t cinnamon or more to taste
  
• 2 tablespoons red wine (about) (Don't go for fancy wine here. You want Manischewitz Concord Grape. I can't imagine charoses with any other wine. It's really an essential ingredient.)

1. Mix all ingredients.
   
2. Add enough wine to bind the mixture.

Kosher for Passover Chocolate Cupcakes: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Moses raised his staff and parted the Red Sea. The Kosher for Passover chocolate cupcakes began their journey to the promised land. Since they didn't have time to wait for bread to rise, the only food they brought along was - themselves.

If you're only going to have one dessert at your Passover table, don't make it a macaroon from a can, make it a flourless chocolate cupcake that is so good that you'd want to eat it even if it were not Passover. If you want a second desert, try these Passover charoses cupcakes.

I would highly recommend making the flourless chocolate cupcakes as mini-cupcakes. They are incredibly rich (they essentially taste like and have the consistency of chocolate fudge) and if there are any other desserts on the table, people will not be able to eat an entire cupcake.

The Kosher for Passover Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

I got the flourless chocolate cake recipe from Allrecipes. I am reprinting it here with my notes describing how to make it into cupcakes.

If you take your "kosher for Passover" to more serious levels than I, you will want to use kosher versions of all of these products. If you are of the mindset that chocolate doesn't rise so it's kosher for Passover, then just go for the best ingredients you can find. The quality of the chocolate really matters in this recipe since it's all about the chocolate.

Makes 18 cupcakes

• 1/2 C water
• 1/4 t salt
• 3/4 C white sugar
• 18 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped into small pieces
• 1 C unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 3 eggs
• 3 egg whites

1. Combine the water, salt, and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside.
2. Either in the top half of a double boiler or in a microwave oven, melt the bittersweet chocolate.
3. Pour the melted chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer.
4. Cut the butter into pieces and beat the butter into the chocolate, 1 piece at a time.
5. Beat in the hot sugar-water.
6. Slowly beat in the eggs and the egg whites one at a time.
7. Pour the batter 3/4 to the top of lined cupcake tins. These don't rise (hence the kosher for Passover status) so you can go higher if you'd like.
8. Have pans larger than the cupcake tins ready. Put each cupcake tin in a larger pan and fill the pan with boiling water halfway up the sides of the cake pan. (You can get an idea of how I did this in the picture at the right. Mine could actually be filled a bit higher. I filled it more in my second batch.)
9. Bake cupcakes in the water bath at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 30 minutes. The center will still look wet.
10. Do not take the cupcakes out of the tin! Wait until the tins are cool enough to handle with your bare hands, then put the entire cupcake tin in the fridge until it is cool. Then remove the cupcakes from the tin and frost. If you take the cupcakes out of the tin while they are still hot, they will lose their shape.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

I used my favorite chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe on these cupcakes.