pesach cooking

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Passover Mandel Bread

My grandmother Mollye’s recipe card box is a family heirloom.

As my grandmother Mollye got older she would ask me to come over to help her bake. Her Passover favorites were mandel bread, rocks, teiglach and ingberlach. Instead of flour, the Passover mandel bread recipe calls for potato starch and matzo cake meal, which give the cookie an extremely fine texture.

 

Ingredients

  • ½ lb. butter
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 Tbs. grated orange rind
  • 1½ c. matzo cake meal
  • ½ c. potato starch
  • 1 c. chopped pecans

Directions

  1. Cream butter and sugar.
  2. Add the eggs and orange rind.
  3. Mix together the cake meal and potato starch and add to the wet ingredients.
  4. Stir in the nuts.
  5. Refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight.
  6. Hand roll into eight 1″ rolls, placed about 4 inches apart onto greased cookie sheets, then flatten using the palm of your hand.
  7. Bake at 350° for 20–25 mins, or until very slightly browned.
  8. Remove from oven and cut into ¾” diagonal slices; turn each cookie 90° onto a cut edge and return to oven to bake for another 8–10 mins.
  9. Remove from oven and flip each cookie over onto the other cut edge; return to oven for another 8–10 mins.
  10. If you like, sprinkle the warm cookies with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.

For favorite Passover recipes from my kitchen, please see Essential Passover from Scratch: Recipes and Stories from My Mother’s Kitchen

passover promo shot

 

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Counting down to Pesach: Matzo Granola and Matzo Pizza

This is an exceptionally delicious granola, and tastes great dry as a snack, or with milk as a breakfast cereal.

Ingredients

  • 4 c. matzo farfel
  • ½ c. nuts
  • ¾ c. shredded coconut
  • ½ c. honey
  • ½ c. oil
  • ½ c. raisins, dried cherries, dried cranberries, or a combination

Directions

  1. Mix together the matzo farfel, nuts and coconut.
  2. Mix together the honey and oil.
  3. Mix together the two mixtures.
  4. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet, bake at 350° for 15–20 minutes, stirring frequently.
  5. When cool add raisins or other dried fruit. Seal in airtight container.

Rae and I were at it again at temple this morning, showing the high-schoolers some Passover recipes. First we stirred up a batch of granola, and then, while the granola was in the oven, we made some matzo pizzas.

Matzo makes a pretty terrific pizza crust!

Its easy to customize these single-serving pizzas.

For favorite Passover recipes from my kitchen, please see Essential Passover from Scratch: Recipes and Stories from My Mother’s Kitchen

passover promo shot