The recipe for matzoh crunch/matzoh brittle (or matzoh crack as some rightfully call it) is all over the internet, but this site purports to be the originator: http://www.betterbaking.com/viewRecipe.php?recipe_id=978
I use semisweet chocolate and sprinkle toasted slivered almonds over the melted chocolate. Because I have no patience, I throw the pan in the freezer to cool/solidify the matzoh crunch quickly, then break it up into bite-size pieces. Easy peasy recipe, and can be made well in advance (so long as you have the discipline not to devour it all before the seder even starts). Just make sure you don’t let the caramel burn in the oven.
I find that most Passover cake/brownie recipes end up being disappointing, so I just avoid them. The recipe below has been sitting in my bookmarks for years, but I’ve never gotten around to trying it since we have enough chocolate from the matzoh crunch, but it sounds good and has a ton of positive reviews (even though it looks pretty grim in the photograph). I like that it doesn’t use any flour substitutes, like matzoh cake meal, which I think are what make a lot of Passover dessert recipes problematic. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/16291/passover-chocolate-torte/
My other seder must-haves (recipes available if anyone is interested) are Ellyn Goodrich’s gefilte fish terrine that even gefilte fish haters think is great–it’s a pain to make, because you have to grind the fish in the food processor, kind of a yucky experience (the little fish store that used to do it for me closed down–sigh); and Passover rolls from a recipe that was in a collection published by the local B’nai B’rith which I received as a bridal shower present 42 years ago–they are all eggs, matzoh meal and Crisco and could be the most unhealthy thing I make all year, but they are beloved at our table.
The chocolate torte looks easy and very good. I think that when I look up the recipe for the almond cake, it is one we did have to adjust and use matzah cake flour.
We just got a bulletin from our rabbi that rice, beans, and corn (kitniyot) are not hametz and are permitted for Passover! Actually they were never technically forbidden (as evidenced by Sephardic Jews eating them), just a thousand year custom of following tradition. To clarify, the Committee of Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement just issued papers permitting Ashkenaszic Jews to eat kitniyot during Passover. There are some rules to make sure no hametz is mixed in, but the bottom line is that rice, beans, and corn are kosher for Passover!
Conservative Rabbis everywhere are sending out the word. Our former Rabbi essentially said that sometimes Jewish traditions can take the force of law for those who follow them. So he advised that many people will continue to refrain from eating kitniyot, and to be alert to avoid offense to those who are keeping their traditions.
My wife has been making a really wonderful clementine cake with almond flour and runny chocolate frosting/glaze. I think she got the recipe from Smitten Kitten, but it may have been the NYT. She’s never made it for Pesach – she just found the recipe about 18 months ago, and we didn’t need it last year – but it seems like it would be perfect.
Back in the day, my family’s go-to Pesach dessert was big ol’ meringues with fresh berries and whipped cream.
We just stick with simple desserts, as usually pretty full from Page 19 (meal is served). Mandelbread and farfel cookies (I may have posted the recipes way back in this thread), fruit, chocolate, and grandma’s sponge cake.
Everyone almost ready? Soup is done, charoseth made, eggs boiled, shank bone and egg roasted, and most of dessert prepared; just has to be assembled. And we tested Skype for the teleseder with DS and brother.
Oh yes, and the house is clean.
Most fun in our new home is the little fridge in the outdoor BBQ; that’s where we moved our refrigeratable chametz.
Wow, Marilyn. You are way ahead of me. I just said yesterday that I can’t believe it’s almost here. In my defense, though, we’re not doing a seder tonight, but tomorrow night instead so S1 and DIL can teleseder from across the country.
We’re only doing second Seder so I’m not doing the green beans until tomorrow - but I did shop for them today. I cook my beans with white wine so I also stopped at liquor store and picked up a kosher for Passover Chardonnay.
Happy Passover to all! About to start our Seder a bit early in deference to my 93 year old MIL. I know what the slaves must have felt like, having spent the last couple of days in the kitchen cooking up a storm for tonight and tomorrow night. I still have so much to do that I have to start cooking again tonight after tonight’s guests leave!
Hope everyone had wonderful seders. Our family did, was just the four of us on Friday night, late start after services. On Saturday night we were sixteen. There was a lot of cooking and baking and last minute supermarket trips and yesterday we were pretty tired especially after all the clean-up and laundry. There are lots of leftovers… so should be an easy week before we break Passover on Saturday night.
Slightly off topic but seems like a good place to ask: We have been invited to a seder at our friends’ house Monday. What would, and wouldn’t, be a good hostess gift? Thanks in advance.
@garland Don’t bring food - Passover is fraught with peril! A kosher-for-Passover wine - look for symbols on the wine bottle like OU-P (that’s a u in a circle with a p outside of it) or “kosher for Passover” written on it. “Kosher” wine may not be kosher for Passover. Flowers.
If you do fresh fruit, bring the actual fruit, not fruit cut up (because it might have been cut with a non-Passover knife). I don’t know how observant your friends are… this can get complicated quickly!
If you go to the Passover section of your local supermarket (depending on where you are) there will be boxes of chocolates and desserts you can get.
When in doubt, wait until after the holiday to give them a gift.
My local liquor store showed me their K for Passover wine and vodka. I had also,purchased, at Macy’s, some very nice storage containers for food. I know my host will give away food, so will be nice to have new plastic containers.
Thanks. I know not to bring food–good reminder about cut fruit! I really can’t do wine because the husband is a huge wine expert and has an impressive collection. I am thinking a plant.
I cook my beans with white wine so I also stopped at liquor store and picked up a kosher for Passover Chardonnay.