Must-Make (Matzo-Free) Passover Desserts
Passover-friendly pistachio and tart cherry chewy cookies Image by Tami Weiser
Reuters — Every year, for the first few days of Passover, matzo seems somehow so new. A fat shmear of Temp-Tee ultra-whipped cream cheese and a tart and fruity jelly on top. Or soaked and fried into a matzo brei, crunchy with sugar and cinnamon. These are the foods of memory to me.
But the problem is that Passover is a weeklong festival. And when it comes to cooking and eating, it is a very long week indeed. Matzo is eaten all the time. I mean ALL the time. It’s in every food, every dish, every treat and in every course. It’s ground into breading, pulverized into cake flour, crushed into farfel and layered into mini “lasagnas.”
Matzo fatigue and the dreaded matzo-pation set in. Desperation takes over by around day four. But frankly, what bothers me the most is when matzo invades desserts. Folks often cook more on Passover than all year long, often pulling out heritage recipes. Even I, a modernist, will cook up a heritage dish or two along with my flights of imagination and globally influenced dishes.
When it comes to desserts, though, many holiday cooks reach for box mixes. Virtually none taste good. These mixes are often packed with processed ingredients and artificial flavors. As a professional cook and culinary instructor — and honestly, a person with taste buds — I don’t make them and I don’t buy them.
If I want heritage desserts, I buy Passover chocolates. That does the trick.
But making desserts at home? What can you do that tastes great and is still Passover-worthy? Matzo in desserts always makes itself known in taste and texture — and I don’t mean that in a nice way whatsoever.
My advice? If you can put the time and effort into cooking desserts, fear not. Here is a solution.
Delicious Passover desserts
Offer up some treats that are deliciously Passover-ready AND matzo-free and grain-free. Try a Pavlova, a macaroon, a flourless chocolate cake, ice cream, chestnut-flour crepes, custards, crème brûlée or nut paste-based cookies.
A world of matzo-free desserts awaits you. Here’s one of my favorites:
Pistachio and Tart Cherry Chewy Cookies
Makes 24 cookies
14 ounces pistachio paste, King Arthur or another all-natural brand preferred
1 cup sugar
2 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
Scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean pod
1 cup dried tart cherries
½ cup pistachios, lightly crushed
1) Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2) In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the pistachio paste until it resembles big cookie crumbs, 20 to 30 seconds. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly. Add the egg whites, cardamom and vanilla. Mix until completely smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the tart cherries.
3) Drop 2 teaspoons of batter per cookie on the sheet, leaving 1½ to 2 inches between the cookies. Sprinkle the pistachios over the top of the cookies.
4) Bake until light brown but still soft, 12 to 13 minutes. (The cookies will firm up considerably as they cool). Store at in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Tami Ganeles-Weiser is a food anthropologist, recipe developer, writer and founder of TheWeiserKitchen.com.
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