Passover Thumbprint Cookies

I found this recipe in my Mom's hand written cook book a while back and I thought I would try them this year for Passover. As I said in an earlier post next week is going to be really crazy and I will not be able to make anything right before the Seder, so I made these today and into the freezer they will go when they cool completely.

Ingredients:

-1/2 Cup oil
-1 Cup sugar
-4 eggs
-1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
-1 Tablespoon grated lemon peel
-1 1/2 Cups cake meal
-1 Cup potato starch
- 1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
-About half a jar of jam (I used a four fruit preserve)

Yields about 5 dozen cookies

Steps:

1. Cream sugar and oil together.

2. Beat in eggs one at a time.

3. Add lemon juice and lemon peel

4. In a separate bowl combine cake meal, potato starch and cinnamon.

5. Gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture. Mixture will be semi stiff.

6. Let dough sit in the fridge for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

7. Make bite sized balls of dough and place on a cookie sheet (these do not spread so don't worry about how close you put them.)

8. With your thumb make a depression into the center of each ball. (I usually make the depression a little larger because I like a larger Jam to cookie ratio)

9. Fill each depression with any flavor jam.

10. Bake 12 minutes in a 400 degree oven until lightly brown. (Use a lighter colored cookie sheet otherwise the bottoms will get dark before the tops get lightly brown.)



My Grandmothers Cucumbers

Years ago before my grandmother passed away she would always make these cucumbers for our Passover Seder. It's actually a very simple recipe, and I have been making for our Seder even since she passed away (to carry on the tradition of course).



Ingredients:
-Cucumbers (This year I decided to use English cucumbers since they are not waxy & I could leave the skin on. Also the number of cucumbers you use depends on the number of people you want to feed. I used 3.)
-Distilled white vinegar (I used about 5 cups. See below for more information.)
-White sugar to taste (I use Spenda)
-Time. Yes I said time. It's best to give it 4-5 days to sit and soak up the flavor.

Steps:

1. Slice the cucumbers with a thickness of about 1/8 of an inch.

2. Place cucumbers in a Tupperware that has a lid.

 

3. Pour enough white vinegar over the cucumbers to cover them completely. For the size container I used, it took about 5 cups.

4. Sprinkle sugar (or other sweetener) over the cucumber vinegar mixture. Use a little bit at a time. Let it sit for a day then add more as needed over the next few days. Don't add too much at the beginning because the flavor changes as it sits. Over all I will end up using between 1/4 cup & 1/2 cup of Splenda.

Enjoy!

Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies

With passover being 2 weeks away I really wanted to get some baking in a head of time. I have never tried to freeze these cookies but my week leading up to the Seder is going to be crazy so I thought I would give it a try this year.

I'll be having the first night Seder in Philly with my cousins and the second night Seder in Richmond with my parents.

Today was a rainy Saturday so I took my new Kitchen Aid mixer out of the box.

I found this recipe 4 or 5 years ago and have been making them ever since. One year (2009) I even made it into a large chocolate chip cookie cake (we were celebrating 2 family members birthdays that year, see below).

This recipe is parve, but my family doesn't follow meat/dairy dietary laws so I make mine with butter.

Ingredients:

2 sticks margarine, room temperature (I use butter)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbsp. orange juice (Every year I have to purchase a small container of OJ just for 1 Tbsp. So a few months ago when I had some OJ in my fridge I froze some in an ice cube tray and then transferred them to a Ziploc bag knowing I would make these cookies again this year.)

1 1/2 cups matzo cake meal
1 tsp. potato starch
1 tsp. salt
8 oz. chocolate chips

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease cookie sheets. The best way to do this is to use the wrapper from the butter after you add it to your mixer bowl.

3. Cream margarine (butter) and sugar.

4. Add eggs and mix well. You should have a very creamy consistency.

5. Add all remaining ingredients except chocolate chips and mix well. It will look (and taste) a lot like normal cookie dough.

6. Stir in chocolate chips with a spoon. Don't use the mixer because it could break up the chocolate.

7. Drop by teaspoons onto greased cookie sheets. Every year I forget that these cookies don't spread at all and I keep them balled up like a normal chocolate chip cookie. After the first batch came out I remembered. So for all the remainder ones I just lightly pressed them down with my fingers, and put them a lot closer together. This picture is of the first batch, I forgot to take a picture of the revised version.

8. Bake 20-25 minutes, until light brown. Like all cookies you should rotate the cookie sheets in your oven. I rotate the sheets on each rack as well as switching them from top and bottom. Most ovens are not even and things tend to cook unevenly if you don't keep an eye on them.

Original recipe says it will yield about 4 dozen but I make larger cookies. This time since I am going to 2 Seders (and need extras for the rest of the week) I doubled the recipe. I got about 6.5 dozen.

The cookie on the left is the one that I didn't press down and the one on the right is the one I did press down.

Happy Baking :)

 

A little about me

Hi, my name is Becky, I'm a 32 year old single woman living just outside of Washington, DC. I have always enjoyed baking, but not necessarily cooking as I am a very picky eater. I don't eat red meat or fish, and there are a lot of veggies I don't enjoy. I am really big on the consistency of my food, hence why mushrooms are on my no-no list. I have always loved art and ended up going to college for it. I am a part time high school youth advisor for a local synagogue and a few months ago I was let go from my full time job as a restaurant manager. I have been spending the time since then looking for a job in the art field. I love kids and my ideal job would combine the 2.

I started this blog because of my recent love of Pinterest and I thought, I have stuff I want to share. Also my aunt recently got me a Kitchen Aid Mixer (2 years after moving into my condo I finally decided what I wanted her to give me as a house warming present).

If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Thanks for reading,

Becky