Charoset Recipe

Even though Passover has come and gone, I have been thinking about my recipes that were successful and those that were not.  One of the recipes that I use every year is my charoset recipe.  Charoset is an apple-nut mixture that symbolizes the mortar that the Israelites used to attach the bricks together when they were slaves in Egypt.  Charoset is a very important dish during the Passover seder.  

There are many different variations for charoset.  Some recipes are made into a paste while some are made with pieces.  Some recipes contain dried fruit while others do not.  This recipe was given to my mother when I was in middle school, and I have not found one that I like as much.  Here is my recipe.    

Charoset Recipe

6 apples (~1.5 lbs)

6 oz mixed dried fruit, chopped

4 oz dried dates, chopped

4 oz walnuts, chopped

1 tablespoon allspice

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 cup kosher wine

Dice the apples into 1/2-inch pieces and place in a big bowl.*  Add the dried mixed fruit, dried dates, and walnuts.  Then mix all of those ingredients together.  Add the allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the apple-nut mixture and mix together.  Lastly, add the kosher wine.  I used about 3/4 cup of wine, but I always eyeball it.  It is not necessary for this to be an exact measurement.  Then mix together one last time.  It is ready to be served.  

* Cook's Notes:  I have found that it is important to have a really big bowl when you are making this recipe.  There needs to be enough room to mix all of the ingredients together without spilling over the side.  I personally make a mess in the kitchen, so I prefer an over-sized bowl or stockpot.  

Also, I used my fruit and veggie chopper by Progressive to cut the apple for this recipe.  I love many kitchen gadgets, but I have been exceptionally happy with this tool.  It comes with three different blades, and I use all of them.  I have cut many different kinds of fruits and vegetables including:  pickling cucumbers, onion, peppers, and apples.  

I hope you enjoy making this for your next Passover seder.

~Cassidy

Gluten Free Coffee Cake Recipe for Passover

 

One of our favorite Passover breakfast treats is a Honey Pecan Swirled Coffee Cake.  It is so yummy, but it is not gluten free.  So, I decided to try to adapt this recipe to be gluten free.  Below is my adaptation of this recipe.  If you want to make the regular version, here it is.  I have made it many times, and it always comes out beautifully.  You can substitute any nuts for the pecans, and I used matzah cake meal instead of plain matzah meal.  The matzah grains are finer in the cake meal, so there is less of a grainy taste for the coffee cake.

Gluten Free Honey Walnut Swirled Coffee Cake

1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup honey
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
6 eggs, separated
1 cup almond flour
6 tablespoons potato starch

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Grease a bundt pan with shortening or oil.  Place a small metal mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer until you are ready to beat the egg whites.  (I have found that this will shorten the amount of time it will take to beat the egg whites into soft peaks.

In a medium bowl, mix together 1/2 cup honey, walnuts, cranberries, chocolate chips, and cocoa powder.  (This does not seems like a large enough volume to put in a medium bowl but you need the space to mix these ingredients together.  It is very sticky, so it is nice to have a larger bowl to prevent overflow.)

In a large bowl, combine 3/4 cup honey, egg yolks, almond flour, and potato starch.

Remove the small bowl and whisk from the freezer.  Place the egg white in the bowl and beat until they form soft peaks.  I like using my free-standing mixer, but a handheld mixer will work fine too.  When the egg whites have formed soft peaks, add the whites into the yolk mixture and mix together.  

Spread 1/3 of the batter on the bottom of the bundt pan and then spoon 1/2 of the walnut mixture on top.  Spread another 1/3 of the batter into the pan and top with walnut mixture.  Finish with the last of the batter.  Take a spoon handle, and gently swirl the filling around the batter.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a metal knitting needle comes out clean when inserted near the center.  

Let sit and cool until you can touch the bottom of the pan.  Remove from bundt pan.  Serve warm or room temperature.

I found that this version of the coffee cake stuck to the pan a little more.  I really greased my bundt pan, but it still had trouble coming out of the pan.  I think I might need a new bundt pan.  Even though this did not come out of the pan as I would have liked, the coffee cake was light and fluffy.  It was sweet but not overpowering.  It is something that you could eat during Passover or all year long.  I hope you enjoy making this in your kitchen.

~Cassidy

Fudge Brownies Recipe for Passover

Passover is a special time where we are supposed to remember what it was like to be a slave in Egypt, and rejoice that were are free.  We are never supposed to forget, so something like this never happens again.  My husband and I feel that this is a very important lesson to teach our children.  So, we try to set this week apart from the rest of the year.  We remove all of the chametz, bread or other leavened foods, from our refrigerator and cupboards.  Since we do not feel the need to throw away perfectly good leavened food, we just put the chametz in our freezer or in the back of the closet.  It remains out of sight until the end of Passover.  We also try to do a whole house cleanse before Passover begins.  It helps remind us how Passover is different from all other nights.

Since there are many foods that we have to abstain from eating, I try to make some special foods that are only made for Passover.  One of those recipes is a special fudge brownie.  It is not gluten free, but it has become a tradition in my family since the kids have been born.  So, I made it for my husband and children.  I am going to make macaroons for me.  I personally feel that I am getting the better end of that deal!

This recipe is from "A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking"  by Marcy Goldman (p.298).  I could not find my version of this book at Amazon, but here is a newer edition.

Decadent Fudge Brownies with Glossy Fudge Frosting

Brownies:

2 cups sugar

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

3 eggs

1 tablespoon coffee

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup matzah cake meal

Glossy Fudge Frosting:

2/3 cup coffee

7 ounces chocolate chips

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease a 7x11 inch casserole dish.  

Melt the butter in the microwave in a small bowl.  In a medium sized bowl, mix the sugar and butter together.  Then add the eggs, coffee, cocoa, salt, and matzah cake meal.  Mix all of the ingredients together.

Scoop the batter into the prepared dish.  Then bake for 20-25 minutes.  (The brownies only took 20 minutes in my convection oven).  Do not overbake them.  The brownies should be set and seem dry to the touch, but there should not be crust around the edges.  Then let them cool.

For the frosting, heat the coffee in a small saucepan.  As it comes to a boil, add the chocolate chips and reduce the heat.  Remove the pan from the heat, and stir until the chocolate is completely melted.  Cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  Whisk in the softened butter and spread the frosting on top of the cooled brownies.  Cut into squares and serve.

These brownies are really rich, but my family loves them.  I hope you and your loved ones enjoy them as well.

~Cassidy   

       

Prepping for Passover

Passover is coming up in a couple of weeks.  Passover is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the Jews' exodus from Egypt, where they had been slaves for many of years.  It is a celebration of freedom.  It is a time to remember the bad times so that we will never forgot, but we also have to celebrate our freedom.  I have always enjoyed celebrating Passover, and I sure that is partly related to the fact that this is my mother's favorite holiday.  Now I enjoy celebrating this holiday with my husband and children.  The picture below is from the first seder my husband and I shared after we were married.

Even though Passover is a celebration, we also honor tradition and do not eat any leavened foods.  This restricts many flours, pastas, and cereals that my family is used to eating the rest of the year.  So, my husband and I try like to start thinking about our menu a couple weeks before the holiday starts.  We create an Excel Document that contains all of the meals that we will be eating for the week of Passover.  We make a detailed list all of the meals, and then we compile all of the recipes that we need.  Then I go through and write down all of ingredients we need.  I also try to whittle away at the ingredient list, so it is not such a big shopping trip right before Passover.  I try to convince myself that our grocery bill does not go up during Passover, despite the fact that I know it will.

Since Passover requires us to not eat food that is leavened, we have Passover specific supplies that we need.  Thankfully we live close enough to a bigger city, and we buy these items there.  When I went shopping this year, I was impressed that there were more Passover specific gluten free products than usual.  I saw a Passover gluten free cake mix in chocolate and vanilla and Passover gluten free pasta.  I even found gluten free gefilte fish and gluten free matzah.  I usually do my own baking, but it is nice to see options for people who do not.

I am really looking forward to Passover this year.  I hope you and your family have a wonderful Passover too.

~Cassidy

Gluten Free Macaroons Recipe

This week I made some scrumptious gluten free coconut macaroons.  This recipe was inspired by Alton Brown from the Food Network.  I  made them for Passover last year, and I had to make a second batch because my friends and family were eating them too quickly.  Since these macaroons caused such a stir, I do not save the recipe just for Passover.  So, when I was invited to a Holiday Cookie Swap, I decided that that was a perfect excuse to make the macaroons.  Unfortunately, the party was canceled because the host's children were sick.  Then I was going to make them when my parents were visiting, but my kids wanted to make a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for my father's birthday instead.  So, I kept putting the macaroons off.  Then a few days before New Years, I decided that this was the perfect excuse to make them.  They are really easy to make, and they turned out amazingly!  I have also topped them with melted dark chocolate, but I decided not to do that this time.   


Gluten Free Macaroons Recipe


Ingredients:
16 oz sweetened shredded coconut
2 oz sweetened condensed milk
Pinch kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large egg white, room temperature
5 oz sugar


Place the small deep bowl with a rounded bottom from your stand mixer, along with the whisk attachment, in the freezer for about 15 minutes.  The eggs will whip more easily when the implements are cold.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine the coconut with the sweetened condensed milk, salt, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl.

Take the bowl and whisk attachment out of the freezer and place on the mixer stand.  Beat the egg whites first at a slow speed and then gradually move up to medium until the eggs are foamy.

I have found that if you bring the eggs to room temperature, you will get more volume when beating the egg whites.  Egg whites can be brought to room temperature by setting the eggs out on the counter for at least 30 minutes in advance of your preparation.  

Gradually add the sugar and continue to whip the eggs whites until medium peaks are formed.  Do not overbeat them, they will liquify again.  When egg whites are perfectly whipped, they remain stable, even if you tip the bowl upside down.

Gently fold the egg white into the coconut mixture.  Scoop tablespoon-sized mounds onto a parchment lines cookie sheet.  I baked the cookies in a convection oven for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned.  If you are not using a convection oven, I would recommend baking the cookies for 20-25 minutes.  Once you take them out of the oven, immediately take the parchment paper off the cookie sheet.  Leave the cookies on the parchment paper, because they will solidify as they cool.

These macaroons are amazing by themselves, but if you would like to fancy them up a bit you can top them with chocolate.  I have used 12 ounces semisweet or dark chocolate chips and 1 ounce vegetable shortening.  First you need to fill a 4 quart pot with enough water to come 2 inches up the side.  Put this on a medium heat and bring it to a simmer.  Combine the chocolate chips and shortening in a small glass bowl that can set in the pot without touching the water.  Stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted, and then remove it from the heat.  Dip the tops of the cooled macaroons in the chocolate mixture and place back on the parchment paper to set.  It takes about 30 minutes for the chocolate to set.  Either way you choose to make them, I hope that your family and friends will enjoy these as much as mine.


Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year!  Enjoy!

-Cassidy