Good morning, everyone! Well, now that Passover is finished and our kitchens and homes are back to normal, I wanted to share some of our Passover goodies. As usual we experimented this year. We tossed one recipe, cookies and all into the trash, but we found one definite keeper: Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies from Everyday Food Magazine. I adapted it slightly for Passover and taste (see recipe below).
My biggest experiment for this year was to make Kosher for Passover Fondant. I admit, throughout the rest of the year I purchase premade fondant. It takes a lot of work to make homemade fondant and with so many delicious kosher options I just don't see the point. However, Passover is different, and it is impossible to find many items that have been certified Kosher for Passover, especially cake and cookie decorating products. But, for some reason, I always seem to make friends with people who have birthdays over Passover, and I always want to make a person's birthday special. This year a family we knew was celebrating two birthdays over Passover. The mother, and her baby's first birthday. Determined to provide beautiful birthday cakes, I set out on a mission: to make a homemade, tasty, kosher for Passover fondant. It was a challenge and the recipe needs a little work to make it less finicky, but as you can see, I succeeded!
The Cherry Blossom cake shown above was for the mother, and the adults shared this cake. And, since every baby needs a special cake to feed themselves, the cupcake below, was for the baby.
As promised, here is the wonderful cookie recipe we tried this year.
Flourless Double-Chocolate Pecan Cookies
Makes 12 large cookies.
- 3 cups kosher for Passover confectioners' sugar
- 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (spooned and leveled)
- Pinch of salt
- 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (or other type of nut)
- 4 large egg whites, room temperature
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, cocoa, and salt. Stir in chocolate and pecans. Add egg whites and stir just until incorporated (do not overmix).
- Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls, 3 inches apart, onto two parchment-lined rimmed baking sheets. Bake until cookie tops are dry and crackled, about 25 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer sheets to wire racks and let cookies cool completely. (To store, keep in an airtight container, up to 3 days.)
