Passover Recipes
Passover is coming up soon, so if you’re looking for some tried and true Passover dessert recipes here are some of our seder attendees’ faves: 
- Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies
- Passover Mandelbrot
- Chocolate Chip Meringues
- Flourless Chocolate Cake
- Matzo Brittle
- Apple Crisp
- Brownies
If you have a Passover recipe that you think I should try, please share!
Passover Apricot Bars
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Because the Passover Mandelbrot recipe was such a hit, I decided to try another Passover treat from the same cookbook. And since we already had so many chocolate desserts, I was happy to find this apricot one. (If you don’t like apricot, substitute with any flavor preserves.)
The bar has a buttery cookie base with a chewy fruit center and crumbly top. It got rave reviews at the seder, and I think it will definitely become part of the Passover dessert rotation for years to come.
Ingredients
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted nondairy margarine or butter, at room temperature plus extra for greasing the baking pan
1 cup sugar
Yolks of 2 large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups matzoh cake meal
1 jar (12 ounces) apricot preserves
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease a 13 x 9-inch glass (I used aluminum) baking pan.
- Cream the margarine (or butter) and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks and continue beating until well combined, scraping the bowl as necessary. Then add the lemon zest, vanilla, and salt. Reduce the speed to medium-low and add the cake meal, beating until combined.
- Press about two-thirds of the mixture over the bottom of the prepared baking pan and bake on the center oven rack for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and spread the preserves evenly over the crust. Sprinkle the walnuts over the preserves, and crumble the remaining dough over the top. Bake until the topping feels set and is beginning to turn golden, 30-35 minutes (mine was done in about 20). (Check the bottoms. They should be just beginning to turn golden too.) Cool in the baking pan set on a wire rack. Then cut into squares and serve.
Recipe adapted from Cooking Jewish.
Passover Mandelbrot
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Passover mandelbrot is usually something my mom makes, but this year I decided to give a new recipe a whirl. Unlike Aunt Helen’s (non-Passover) Mandelbrot, this one is made using a mixer rather than a bowl and wooden spoon, but let’s just not tell her that, OK? Thanks!
This recipe was easy to make and work with, and the end result is crispy, chocolately, and pretty damn good! (Of course, the real test will be when we taste test them against my mom’s recipe. Stay tuned.) I left mine in the oven for about an hour once it was turned off, but if you don’t want yours so crispy, just take them out earlier.
Ingredients
1/2 pound unsalted butter or nondairy margarine, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups matzoh cake meal
3/4 cup potato starch
4 cups (two 12-ounce bags) semisweet chocolate chips
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray it.
- Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl several times. Then beat in the vanilla Reduce the speed to low, and add the cake meal and potato starch. Scrape the bowl, and blend just until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. (If the dough feels too sticky to handle even with floured hands, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate until it is stiff, 30 minutes to several hours.)
- Divide the dough into four portions. Flour your hands with cake meal, and form each portion into a log the length of the baking sheet. Space the logs evenly on the prepared baking sheet, and bake on the center oven rack until they are golden and the tops are firm to the touch, about 30 minutes.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the logs cool for three minutes. Then, using a serrated knife, cut each log on the diagonal into 3/4-inch thick slices. Place the slices, cut side down, on the baking sheet and bake on the center oven rack until golden brown, 10 minutes. Turn the cookies onto the unbaked side. Turn the oven off and put the baking sheet back in the oven. Leave it there for 15 to 30 minutes for softer mandelbrot, longer for crisper ones. Let the mandelbrot cool completely on the sheet set on a wire rack before serving.
Recipe from Cooking Jewish.
Flourless Chocolate-Walnut Cookies
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Quick note: Tuesdays With Dorie will resume in a couple weeks, once Passover has ended!
It used to be that if I were to show up to a Passover seder without chocolate chips meringues, I would be forced to sing the Four Questions, in Hebrew, by myself. OK not really, but trust me, it wouldn’t be a pretty sight. Then a few years ago I brought matzo brittle (in addition to the meringues and other Passover desserts), and that too, became a holiday must-have. Well, this year I do believe I have found a third recipe that will now be included in every Passover seder, thanks to Deb!
Hmm, I suppose I should have begun this post by explaining that many Passover desserts elicit the following response: It’s good (for a Passover cookie/brownie/cake). Well, I’m happy to report that with these cookies, I heard, These are sooo good! Everyone who tasted them went back for seconds, and said they were oh so yummy! Then again, I guess that’s what happens when you take a regular, flourless recipe and just make it for Passover, go figure.
This cookie is thick, chewy, and slightly crunchy, thanks to the nuts. We made three batches–two with pecans and one with walnuts, and they were all a huge hit. I should note I used regular cocoa powder, not Dutch-process.
Update: For those of you having problems with the cookies being too thin and runny, I noticed this comment from someone in Payard’s test kitchen. The suggestion is to not add all the egg whites at once–begin with two egg whites and check the consistency, it should be brownie batter like, and scoop-able. If it’s still too thick, then add more egg whites.
Ingredients
2 3/4 cups walnut halves
3 cups confectioners’ sugar*
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
*Passover Confectioner’s Sugar
1 cup minus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon potato starch
Pulse in a food processor or blender. Makes 1 cup Passover confectioners’ sugar.
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350. Spread the walnut halves on a large-rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 9 minutes, until they are golden and fragrant.
- Let cool slightly, then transfer the walnut halves to a work surface and coarsely chop them. Position two racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and lower temperature to 320. Line two large-rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk (or combine in an electric mixer on low speed) the confectioners’ sugar with the cocoa powder and salt followed by the chopped walnuts. While whisking (or once you change the speed to medium), add the egg whites and vanilla extract and beat just until the batter is moistened (do not overbeat or it will stiffen).
- Spoon the batter onto the baking sheets in 12 evenly spaced mounds, and bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until the tops are glossy and lightly cracked; shift the pans from front to back and top to bottom halfway through to ensure even baking. Slide the parchment paper (with the cookies) onto 2 wire racks. Let cookies cool completely, and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Recipe from New York Magazine via Deb.
Passover Recipes
In case you’re on the lookout for some good Passover dessert recipes (sorry not all of them have pictures), I can help you out:
Also, I’m going to try a recipe for chocolate brownies topped with toffee, then topped with chocolate chips, then sprinkled with almonds, then sprinkled with sea salt. If it’s a success I’ll add it to this list.
Now, to answer questions that I always get: Yes, you can use margarine rather than butter to keep the recipe pareve. Yes, you can make the brownies in advance and freeze them. Yes, you should keep the matzo brittle in the fridge because the chocolate isn’t tempered and it tends to melt a little. And yes, you can use imitation vanilla instead of real vanilla.
Stayed tuned for a cookbook giveaway in the next couple of weeks!
