Passover Approved Pastries And Desserts

Keeping kosher for Passover is an important tradition, but it makes the dessert course of your Seder a little tricky. Because you have to avoid leavened products, many baking and pastry arts staples are out the window. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you have to hang up your apron during Passover. Here are a few kosher desserts to satisfy your taste buds and observe the holiday:

Flourless torte

Tortes are a type of cake that typically use ground nuts in place of wheat flour. As such, you won’t have to worry about your grain being in contact with water for more than 18 minutes because you won’t have any flour. However, because tortes use different ingredients, they are denser than a traditional cake.

Traditional torte flavors include, of course, nuts as well as chocolate. However, you can get creative with your flavors. For instance, combine chocolate and strawberries with a pistachio flour. Or, mix hazelnuts with chocolate. Finally, if your torte recipe calls you to cover your pan and grease and flour, swap the normal stuff for matzo meal.

Macarons

Another pastry icon that is traditionally wheat-free, macarons are a natural choice for Passover. The basic recipe requires egg whites, almond flour, cream of tartar and powdered sugar. From there, you can add unique flavors and create a filling. You can even swap out almond flour for other nuts – just make sure they are very finely ground. As for color, use gel food coloring over liquid, as the latter could alter the consistency of your batter.

Other tips for achieving the perfect cookies include not over-folding the egg whites (50 folds is usually good), rotating the pan in the oven to get an even bake and piping carefully to achieve consistency. Whatever filling you use, whether it’s frosting or jam, balance it with the flavor of your cookies.

Macarons use almond flour, and are a tasty treat for Passover.

Dacquoise

Dacquoise can be a layer cake or the individual meringue cookie. Either way, the meringue is the star and features chopped nuts folded into the traditional batter. Going the cake route will give you layers of nutty meringue punctuated by pastry cream and other additions, such as fruit. You can also serve the meringue as a cookie sandwich along with ice cream, produce or cream.

If you build layers, make sure your merinques are identical and your layers are even. Otherwise, choose flavor combinations that complement the rest of your meal or highlight the season. Strawberries and rhubarbs are ripe this time of year, as are some melons.

Matzo

Matzo is versatile and can be the perfect platform on which to build dessert. Whether you make it yourself or use store-bought options, spruce it up with other ingredients. For instance, you can make matzo bark by covering it in chocolate and nuts. Or, turn it into a layered ice-cream cake with scoops of your favorite flavors. Use matzo in place of leavened bread in a bread pudding. Be creative with this ingredient to have a kosher dessert.