Delicious Passover Desserts that your Family will LOVE!

Matza Crunch

I just made a fresh batch of matza crunch!  How can anyone deprive themselves of sweet and gooey caramel covered matza with chocolate drizzle?  It's a simple recipe that you can make.  The worst part about it....the clean up.  Click on this link for a detailed matza crunch tutorial.

Frozen Lemon Dessert

Another dessert that I made last year was a frozen lemon cake.  Click here for a tutorial on how to impress your guests with a light lemony frozen dessert that you would never even know was kosher for Passover!

Sponge Cake

I'm sure that your mother or grandmother has their favourite sponge cake recipe that rises sky high when baked without any egg yolks. I still can't get it right! But, when my aunt showed me how to do it, (she has perfected this cake) her recipe and the moistness of her cake was delicious. Click here for a detailed tutorial on how to make my Auntie Helen's Sponge Cake.

Cheesecake Squares

If you are a cheesecake lover, like my husband and I, I improvised and made this version of cheesecake squares last year.  Since lemon is a staple in Passover desserts, this is yet another recipe that includes it!  But, why not change it up by omitting the lemon and adding chocolate? 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Attention all of you mommy's with kiddies...Ryan absolutely loved mixing up the batter for these kosher for Passover chocolate chip cookies we made together last year. This is an easy recipe to make with the kids over the weekend and believe it or not, these cookies are actually delicious!

Meringues

For those of you with a sweet tooth, (like me), meringues are always a sweet treat that are simple to make.  If you have a piping bag and a star tip, they look really pretty, especially if you add a little food color to brighten them up.  They taste just as yummy when the fluffy egg white mixture is spooned onto a cookie sheet and baked!

Wishing you and your families a SWEET Passover!

St Patrick's Day Cookies

What do you do on St. Patrick's Day?

Do you drink green beer? 

How about eat green cookies?

These shamrock cookies are simple to make and are super cute for any St. Patty's Day get together.

 

To make these cookies, follow my favourite sugar cookie recipe. Use the cookie cutter seen below which can be purchased at Crate and Barrel.

This cookie cutter is quite large so make sure you make enough dough for the number of cookies you wish to have.  I made about 25 cookies by doubling the recipe.

While the cookies are cooling, prepare the royal icing.

I used Kelly Green and Rose to add color to the cookies.

Pipe...

...then flood.

Letting the cookies dry overnight is typically what I do before adding a message on top.

Since these cookies were ordered for a bridal shower, the name of the couple was written on top of each cookie.

I used Clear Drop Flat bags that I purchased at Creative Bag to package each cookie.

Congrats Jaimie and Adrian.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Chanukah Desserts Part 1-Homemade Souvganiot

Happy Chanukah! The first night of Chanukah was on Tuesday night.  On Monday night, I received a personal lesson by a former student's mom who is from Israel. She taught me how to make homemade souvganiot!  Souvganiot is the hebrew work for jelly doughnuts. Jelly doughnuts are a traditional treat for the Chanukah dessert table, since on Chanukah, it is a tradition to fry all foods in oil to remember the oil that burned in the temple for 8 days.

 

If you want to make your own souvganiot for Chanukah, here are the ingredients you will need:

2 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups plain yogurt

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp lemon juice

3/4 tbsp baking powder

vegetable oil for cooking

strawberry jam

icing sugar

Below are the utensils/items you will need:

-a large mixing bowl

-towel

-stand mixer

-two spoons

-tall pot

-candy thermometer

-squeeze bottle

-sifter/metal strainer

-paper towel

-cookie sheet

 

Combine all ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixed attached with the paddle attachment. Mix all ingredients until just combined and dough has formed. Cover with a towel and set aside for about 15 minutes.

Fill a pot about one and a half inches high with vegetable oil. Turn on the burner just past medium, until the heat reaches between 350-360 degrees. This temperature will  create the perfect golden brown coloured doughnuts.

Using two spoons, spoon out the dough from the mixing bowl, forming a round ball.  Drop the dough into the hot oil and watch it sizzle!

Once the first side reaches the perfect golden brown color, flip the doughnuts over to cook the opposite side. (About 4 minutes per side.)

Test a few doughnuts initially by cutting them in half to see if the insides are completely cooked through.  This doughnut was not ready.  As you can see, it was still raw inside.

Once removed from the hot oil, set on a cookie sheet lined with layers of paper towel. This will absorb some of the oil. Use a knife to poke holes in each doughnut.  This will make it easier to fill the doughnuts with strawberry jam.

Stick the nose of the squeeze bottle directly inside the hole of the doughnut. Squeeze a fair amount of strawberry jam into each doughnut allowing a dollop to show on the outside of the doughnuts.

Garnish with icing sugar.

Arrange on a plate and enjoy!

Lemon Cheesecake Squares (for Passover!)

How would you rate these cheesecake squares for Passover originality? 

Who knew that Kraft even made a kosher for Passover line of Philadelphia cream cheese?  I happened to stumble upon these two packages at the grocery store the other day and found the idea for this recipe inside the package. With a little twist of my own, it appeared at my second seder for dessert!

First, I combined a little cake meal, matzo meal, sugar and margarine for the crust and pressed it into an 8x8 square dish.

Then, I followed the cheesecake recipe from the inside of the box, poured it over the crust and baked it in the oven for 25 minutes.

Shhhh...Don't tell anyone...it was so easy!

And so delicious!

Try it!

Passover Lemon Cheesecake Squares

(Adapted from the Philadelphia recipe)

Makes 16 Servings

For the Crust

2/3 cup cake meal

2/3 cup matzo meal

1/4 cup sugar

4 Tbsp. melted margarine 

For the Cheesecake

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. zest and 1 Tbsp. juice from one lemon
1/2 tsp. Passover vanilla
2 eggs (room temperature)

MAKE IT
Heat oven to 350.  In a small pot, melt margarine at medium-low heat. Remove pot from burner and add cake meal, matzo meal and sugar.  Mix together until combined. Press onto bottom 8-inch square pan sprayed with cooking spray.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, juice and vanilla in a large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing after each just until blended. Pour over crust. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until center is almost set.  Cool completely. Refrigerate for 3 hours.

Enjoy!

Hamantaschen Part 2 - Baking with Ryan

Warning...

Cute alert, cute alert! 

When Fay gave me extra dough and filling to make more of Bubbi Hanka's Hamantaschen, I knew that I needed some help. Ryan and I had a date!  We made our own version of Bubbi Hanka's Hamantaschen with poppy seed and blueberry filling, and a round, scalloped edge cookie cutter. I was impressed with the final product of a two and a half year old! We made a great team.

We began by working together to roll out the dough...

Until Ryan wanted to try it on his own! The rolling pin was bigger than he was!  I tried to buy him a kid's sized rolling pin and apron, but had no luck.  Any suggestions of where to go?

He did such a great job using a cookie cutter to cut out the circles of dough.

Then he spooned the filling into the center of each circle.

Although he thought it was a little messy, he managed to squeezed each corner together.

"Ready for the oven!"

"Yummy! I made hamantaschen!"

Thanks Ryan...I had so much fun baking with you!

For the recipe and step by step instructions of how to make Bubbi Hanka's Hamantaschen, click here.

Bubbi Hanka's Hamantaschen

Hamantaschen are triangular filled pastries which are traditionally served on the Jewish holiday of Purim. This year, Purim falls on Sunday, March 20, 2011. The word hamantaschen derived from two German words: mohn (poppy seeds) and taschen (pockets).  Hamantaschen means "Haman's pockets." Haman was the villain of Purim as described in the book of Esther. The most popular explanation of why people eat this three cornered pastry on Purim is that Haman wore a three-cornered hat.  Eating an image of Haman's hat is a way to symbolically destroy his memory.

Bubbi Hanka, my cousin's grandmother, passed along her recipe for hamantaschen to her daughter-in-law Fay. Today I learned how to bake hamantaschen with Fay and her daughter Shonna. They sure taught me!  Fay has been making her mother-in-law's recipe for the past 20 years. (It's the only thing she really bakes!) She has perfected the measurements and reminded me that no stand mixer is used in this recipe. 

Here are the ingredients you will need to make this recipe.

Hamantaschen are made with different fillings.  We used prune, lemon and blueberry fillings for the center of our hamantaschen.

Cracking the eggs was the easy part!

Then I got down and dirty!  Fay made me use my hands to mix the ingredients together into a ball!

This is what the dough looked like after it had chilled in the fridge for 3 hours.

To roll out the dough:

1) Cover your work surface with a generous amount of flour.

2) Divide dough into four balls. Roll out one ball at a time to a thickness of about 1/8 inch.

3) Using the top of a glass or a cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as you can.

Fill the hamantaschen with a generous teaspoonful of the desired filling.

Fold in three edges of the circle to form triangles.  Take note of the placement of my two thumbs.  Shonna had to demonstrate this for me a couple of times. I was not very good at this part!  Be sure to squeeze the corners together before baking.

Repeat this process with the remaining dough and filling.

Line on prepared pre-greased cookie sheets or parchment lined cookie sheets.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven at 350 for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool and serve!

Bubbi Hanka's Hamantaschen

(Makes 4-6 dozen)

Dough

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 tbsp vanilla

2 eggs

Approximately 4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

Fillings

Poppy seed

Lemon

Blueberry

Prune: For every pound of prune filling, add one cup of orange juice, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and combine.

Overall, we used only about 3/4 of a pound of filling for all of the hamantaschen.  However, at a kosher grocery store like Sobey's, fillings are pre-packaged and sold in 1 pound containers. The fillings can be frozen or, more hamantaschen will need to be made! 

Directions:

In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, combine all of the ingredients except the flour.  Add flour one cup at a time and mix with hands.  Knead together until fully combined and a soft but firm ball of dough is formed. Wrap in foil and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. Let it rest on the counter for 5-15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray baking sheets with non stick spray or line with parchment paper. 

Divide dough into 4 balls.  Roll out on lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Cut out 3 inch circles using the top of a glass or a cookie cutter. Fill with a teaspoonful of filling and shape into an open triangle. Bake until lightly golden, about 20 minutes.

Enjoy! 

Thanks Fay and Shonna for teaching me how to make Hamantaschen.

Stay tuned for a kids version of this recipe later on this week when I bake with my adorable, little Ring Bearer Ryan.

Valentine's Day Cake Pops

It's time to start thinking about Valentine's Day!  To give you some ideas, I will be posting a few Valentine's Day recipes over the next few weeks!

"Happy Valentine's Day sweetie, from one heart cake pop to another!"

Pictured above are most of the materials you will need to make these pops.

Materials you will need:

20 uncoated cake balls

wax paper

baking sheet

1 pound red chocolate candy coating

Deep, microwave-safe plastic bowl

20 lollipop sticks

40 white heart sprinkles

6-12 pink heart sprinkles (optional)

Styrofoam block

Black edible-ink pen 

For basic cake pop instructions click here.

I used these jumbo heart sprinkles that can be found almost anywhere around Valentine's Day.  I used the white hearts for the eyes and the pink hearts to make the bows.

I used the larger heart shaped cookie cutter as a guide to frame the heart pop.  The heart was not quite as big as the large cutter but not as small as the small cutter. To form the heart, I rolled out a regular ball and flattened it slightly. I then used the top part of the cookie cutter to shape the top of it and the bottom of the cutter to shape the bottom. 

Here's what they looked like pre-dipped. I used a vanilla cake and my own chocolate butter cream icing for these pops. After they set in the freezer for about 20 minutes, I dipped each lollipop stick into the red candy melts and inserted a stick about half way into each one.

I transferred the melted candy coating into a smaller narrower container.

Which made it easy to dip...

And remove!

After a little tap, tap, tap, I immediately adhered the heart eyes to the pops. Once they dried, I used my edible ink pen to add all of the details: the eyelashes, eyebrows and smiles.

All of the pops rested in a styrofoam block to continue drying before being packaged.

How cute...a family of heart cake pops!

All packed up and ready to be delivered! 

Happy Valentine's Day!