Tag: Passover

Passover Desserts

Passover begins on Friday evening. Like all Jewish holidays it’s focus is on community, family and food, especially the food. I was born Jewish and raised in an ecumenical household that celebrated both Christian and Jewish holidays. I never kept a kosher home, although my first and current mothers-in-law did.

My favorite part of most meals is dessert. I’ve been the desert lady since I started a catering company some years back as a hobby. Here are some recipes for Passover deserts that I recently found and I’m trying this year.

Chocolate Caramel Macarons

Chocolate Caramel Macarons photo imagesqtbnANd9GcQk4mvSAVJHrPbzMijJ6_zpsc660d142.jpg

Instead of the typical buttercream or ganache filling, there’s a crunchy caramel candy layer in between the cocoa layers. These are fudgy little confections more like candy than cookies. They also happen to be both gluten-free and can be kosher for Passover, if you use kosher-for-Passover confectioners’ sugar.

Matzo Toffee With Candied Ginger

Matzo Toffee With Candied Ginger photo 09APPE1_SPAN-articleLarge_zpsb6ca2f26.jpg

Traditional matzo toffee – a Passover-friendly spin on saltine toffee – is an addictive three-layer confection of crackers, brown sugar toffee and melted chocolate. In this version, the chocolate gets a spicy boost from the addition of both fresh ginger juice and chewy candied ginger.

Hazelnut Citrus Torte

Hazelnut Citrus Torte photo 09APPE2-articleLarge_zps3094b755.jpg

A touch of quinoa flour gives this hazelnut torte an underlying smokiness that makes it more complex than most. It also makes it both gluten-free and kosher for Passover.

Double Chocolate Pavlova with Mascarpone Cream & Raspberries

Double Chocolate Pavlova with Mascarpone Cream & Raspberries photo z9oMgKrr9OxT3WAtDIF2ZjenCwNhwxDPs6g.jpg

Created by a hotel chef in the 1920s in honor of the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova during one of her tours to Australia or New Zealand, a pavlova is a cake-shaped meringue with a soft and marshmallowy center and crisp outer shell, usually topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit.

In this gorgeous chocolate version, cocoa powder and bittersweet chocolate are folded into the meringue – which makes it deliciously fudgy – and mascarpone cheese (Italian cream cheese) is added to the whipped topping. It’s a wonderfully light, gluten-free dessert.

The Breakfast Club 4/13/2014 (Passover Desserts)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

But like ek horbeck

I would never make fun of LaEscapee or blame PhilJD.  And I am highly organized.

Actually, I’m better organized. 😉

<The Breakfast Club Logo photo BeerBreakfast_web_zps5485351c.png

Passover begins on Monday evening. Like all Jewish holidays it’s focus is on community, family and food, especially the food. I was born Jewish and raised in an ecumenical household that celebrated both Christian and Jewish holidays. I never kept a kosher home, although my first and current mothers-in-law did.

My favorite part of most meals is dessert. I’ve been the desert lady since I started a catering company some years back as a hobby. Here are some recipes for Passover deserts that I recently found and I’m trying this year.

Chocolate Caramel Macarons

Chocolate Caramel Macarons photo imagesqtbnANd9GcQk4mvSAVJHrPbzMijJ6_zpsc660d142.jpg

Instead of the typical buttercream or ganache filling, there’s a crunchy caramel candy layer in between the cocoa layers. These are fudgy little confections more like candy than cookies. They also happen to be both gluten-free and can be kosher for Passover, if you use kosher-for-Passover confectioners’ sugar.

Matzo Toffee With Candied Ginger

Matzo Toffee With Candied Ginger photo 09APPE1_SPAN-articleLarge_zpsb6ca2f26.jpg

Traditional matzo toffee – a Passover-friendly spin on saltine toffee – is an addictive three-layer confection of crackers, brown sugar toffee and melted chocolate. In this version, the chocolate gets a spicy boost from the addition of both fresh ginger juice and chewy candied ginger.

Hazelnut Citrus Torte

Hazelnut Citrus Torte photo 09APPE2-articleLarge_zps3094b755.jpg

A touch of quinoa flour gives this hazelnut torte an underlying smokiness that makes it more complex than most. It also makes it both gluten-free and kosher for Passover.

This Day in History

Ten Drops of Wine

Photobucket

Turkana has a post up speaking to the many deficiencies of the soon-to-be-passed (or not) health insurance legislation.

In comments, a poster, GN1927 speaks to something that hit a chord of memory in me:

Blessings to your family

But with all due respect, can we please celebrate what’s on the table for two seconds; everyone knows that this legislation is a start, not a finish.

God bless your cousin and sending healing energy that way.

The memory was of Obama’s election and Proposition 8’s passing in California, all at the same time.

Passing Over

Tonight we do service, taking the day as a convocation to that which led us out of bondage.  We are meant to know and to understand that it is a service that we do, and not a celebration, although in the common meaning that is what we are told it is.  We know this because it is written:

Exodus 12:25

And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as He hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.