Pan pals share their favourite recipes

At this time each year, most cooks start searching through their cookbooks and recipe clippings, ask friends and family for suggestions and get busy searching the Internet for Passover recipes. Pesach desserts are always a special challenge.I love to share the special recipes that my “pan pals” have shared with me. So here are some delightful desserts that I hope you will prepare and share with your friends and family this Passover – and in the future! Some of my favourite cookbook authors shared these with me from the cookbooks they’ve authored. I’ve also included one of my favourite recipes as well. Enjoy!So, if you are invited to a friend or family member’s home for Passover, why not bring them a copy of a cookbook authored by one of my special “pan pals”? There’s no better way to say thank you!

 My friend Estee Kafra of Toronto is a talented, creative cook and food photographer, and we often share recipes and ideas with each other. Here are two terrific recipes from her latest cookbook, Cooking with Color, which she recently published. The first recipe is fruit-based and the second is somewhat decadent, but both are quite easy to prepare.
 

 
This refreshing dessert is inspired by charoset, a staple of the Pesach seder. You can try adding some pears for a nice variation. The recipe can be doubled or tripled as many times as necessary, but don’t use more than 2 or 3 cinnamon sticks.
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine (dry or semi-sweet)
1 1/2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
4 Cortland apples, peeled and cut into small wedges
Candied Walnut Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
2 to 3 tbsp. water
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 cups chopped walnuts
 

Bring water, sugar and red wine to a light boil in a saucepan. Add lemon juice and cinnamon stick and lower heat. Add apples, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes or until apples just begin to fall apart.

Turn off the heat and let apples cool inside the covered saucepan. Remove cinnamon stick and refrigerate apple mixture until ready to serve. Serve chilled with candied walnuts.

For the Candied Walnut Topping, preheat oven to 350. Stir together the sugar, water and cinnamon in a bowl. Add walnuts and use a wooden spoon to mix lightly until walnuts are evenly coated.

Spread walnuts on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Toss or mix lightly to recoat the nuts, and bake for 5 to 10 minutes longer. Mix again immediately after taking out of the oven. Sprinkle over compote at serving time. Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

 
Coconut and chocolate seem to be a match made in heaven. This delicacy is perfect for Pesach, but of course can be used as a special treat all year round. While these appear to be fancy and intricate, they are actually quite simple to make and freeze well. For the best flavour, try to ensure that your ground coconut is fresh.
 
Macaroon Cups:
2 1/4 cups desiccated or shredded coconut
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg whites
Ganache Filling:
4 oz. chocolate (bittersweet)
1/2 cup margarine
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa

Preheat oven to 280. Grease compartments of a non-stick mini-muffin pan very well.

For the Macaroon Cups, mix the ingredients together in a bowl. Press mixture against the sides and bottom of each muffin compartment. Cover each compartment evenly and fully, and try to ensure that the bottom isn’t too thick. (You can wet your fingers occasionally to help you press the coconut mixture in easily.)

Bake for 30 minutes, then let cool completely before removing Macaroon Cups from the pan. You may need to run a sharp knife around the top edges of each cup to loosen.

For Ganache Filling, melt chocolate and margarine together in the top of a double boiler, and stir to mix. Remove from heat and let cool for 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in egg yolks while whisking thoroughly to prevent them from cooking. Add cocoa and mix well. Pour mixture while it is still warm into coconut cups and leave at room temperature to set. Store in airtight container. Yield: 12 cups.

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I met Joanne and Harvey Caras when they were in Toronto recently at an evening sponsored by Chabad on Bayview. Joanne shared a recipe from The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook, a very special fundraising project that has raised over half a million dollars to date for Jewish charities.

Joanne wrote, “If you are having the seder at your house, prepare one or two of the Passover recipes in The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook. Then do what my family does, have someone at the seder read aloud the story of the survivor whose recipe was used. What a wonderful and meaningful addition to your seder this will be!

 
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate
1 oz. cocoa
2 egg yolks
6 oz. butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
5 to 7 matzahs
5 oz. liquid (wine or coffee)
 

Melt chocolate and cocoa together on low heat, stirring often. Let cool. Beat egg yolks with butter and sugar. Mix chocolate and cocoa into the beaten butter mixture to form a spread.

Brush each matzah with coffee or wine. (Place matzah on a plate first for easier handling.) Then spread with a layer of chocolate spread mix. Add next matzah to the top and repeat.

Continue until all chocolate spread mix is used, ending with chocolate. Cover and refrigerate.  Serves 6 to 8.

Note from Norene: I’ve edited this recipe slightly to clarify some details. People with compromised immune systems (e.g., the elderly, pregnant women) are hesitant to eat recipes made with raw eggs. However, the recipe survived and the contributor survived, so that says a lot!

My “pan pal” Barbara Wasser of Niskayuna, N.Y., shared this excellent dessert recipe – it’s one of her favourites. Barbara is the co-author of Divine Kosher Cuisine: Catering to Family and Friends. This award-winning cookbook is a fundraising project for Congregation Agudat Achim in the upstate New York town of Niskayuna.

Barbara wrote, “This dessert is pareve and gluten-free too, so it can be made all year round. These rolls are not hard to make but do take a little patience. I’ve been serving this dessert since 1980, and we can’t have a seder without it. One year I didn’t make it and had very unhappy guests and family. Even those who don’t usually eat much in the way of desserts wait all year for this one!”

Filling:
6 large egg yolks
10 tbsp. margarine
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate
 

Beat yolks at high speed with electric mixer 10 minutes or until thick and lemon colored. Melt margarine with chocolate. Stir until smooth and cool slightly. Add chocolate to yolks and beat until thick.
 
Cake:
7 large eggs, separated
14 tbsp.confectioners’ sugar, divided
6 tbsp. potato starch
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp. kosher for Passover baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
cocoa, kosher for Passover confectioners’ sugar and potato starch for rolling
 

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 12x18x1-in. baking pan. Line with parchment paper and grease again.

Beat yolks on high speed with electric mixer 10 minutes until thick and lemon-coloured. Add 8 tablespoons sugar.

Combine potato starch, cocoa and baking powder. Fold mixture into yolks.

Whip whites with salt in separate bowl on high speed with electric mixer until foamy. Add remaining sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Fold whites gently into chocolate mixture and spread into pan. Bake 6 minutes, rotate pan 180° and bake additional 5 to 6 minutes or until cake pulls away from sides. Cool 2 minutes and run knife along sides of pan.

Spread large dampened linen towel or tablecloth on surface and sprinkle with equal amounts of cocoa, sugar and potato starch. Remove parchment and roll from 18-inch side. Cool slightly.

Unroll cake, cut away any hard edges, and spread with three-fourths filling, leaving 1/2-in. border on sides and 1 inch at top. Roll-up cake and decorate with remaining filling. Chill and slice when filling is firm. Freezes well. Yield: 14 to 16 slices.

And of course, this article wouldn’t be complete without adding one of my favourite Passover recipes. It comes from my book The Food Processor Bible (first published as Pleasures of Your Processor). I usually omit the nuts when I make it because my son Steven is allergic to them. My seven-year-old grandson Max really loves marshmallows and so do I. Whenever I visit my family in Montreal, Max usually exclaims, “Bubbie Norene’s coming – quick, hide the marshmallows!”
 

 
Guaranteed to please the kids, both big and small!
 
1/4 cup butter or margarine
5 cups Passover marshmallows
1 cup walnuts or almonds
5 cups matzah farfel
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips, melted
 

Melt butter or margarine on low heat in a large pot. Add marshmallows and stir until melted. Remove from heat.

Steel Blade: Chop nuts with quick on/off pulses, until finely chopped. Add half the nuts to marshmallow mixture. Reserve remaining nuts for garnish. Stir in matzah farfel and cinnamon. Mix well. Spread evenly in sprayed 9×13-inch pan. Wet your hands and pat down evenly.

Drizzle melted chocolate over farfel mixture. Sprinkle with reserved nuts. Cool until chocolate is set. Cut into squares. Yield: 4 dozen squares.  Freezes well.