Chinese Cookies

Passover is sort of like the visit from the grandchildren.

Both are joyous, thrilling and celebratory.

You love every precious moment.

It's also so nice when it's over. 

This is not a complaint. Just a statement of reality.

When the kids and grandkids leave after a visit, the house looks like the recycle guy made a mistake and dropped his truck full of stuff in your living room. Ah, the mess (despite your children's tidying up). But it's worth it. You wouldn't have it any other way and anyone who is a grandparent will tell you the same thing.

Besides, after they leave it's suddenly very calm and quiet and you can relax and sip a glass of leftover Passover wine.

When Passover is over you think over the hard work needed to get through the holiday. Cleaning the cabinets, the fridge. Getting out the dishes, setting the table, arranging the bridge chairs, making tons of food.  All the cooking, the matzo balls and chremslich, haroset and flourless chocolate cake were worth it. You wouldn't have it any other way and endless numbers of people will tell you it's worth it.

Besides, after it's over you can relax and sip a glass of leftover Passover wine.

And also, after Passover is over and you clean up from the visit and put away the new groceries, you can start to cook and eat all the foods you missed during the holiday. 

For me, that means cookies. Cookies are always what I miss most during Passover.

Like these almond cookies. When I was a kid these were known as Chinese cookies because they were served for dessert at so many Chinese restaurants in the New York Metropolitan area. Chinese cookies are tender and crumbly, redolent of almond, with a clump of sweet chocolate in the middle and a half almond in the very center.

This rich cookie, giver of childhood memories, is a perfect way to end a Passover diet.

“Chinese” Cookies

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup ground almonds
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 ounces semisweet chocolate
• sliced or halved almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the shortening, coconut oil and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium for 1-2 minutes or until smooth and well blended. Add the ground almonds, egg and almond extract and beat them in. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix for 1-2 minutes or until the dough is thoroughly blended and uniform. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/2-inch thick. Cut out circles with a 2-1/2-inch cookie cutter. Place the circles on (ungreased) cookie sheets. Bake for about 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the cookies from the oven and use a rigid spatula to place each on a rack to cool. Melt the chocolate. Spoon a small amount of melted chocolate into the center and swirl the melted chocolate to form a small circle in the center of each cookie. Place an almond half or slice in the middle of the chocolate. Let dry.

Makes about 24

Passover Rhubarb Crisp

We are big rhubarb fans in our family. And unlike many rhubarb lovers, we like the stuff on the sour side, without the sugar overload. It's the way we got used to it as kids, the way my Mom made it.

I suppose she cut down on sweetening food as part of the need during World War II to ration sugar, and then just never went back to the old ways. In any event, she used to cook rhubarb all the time and serve it like applesauce. It was always kind of tart and wonderfully refreshing as a side dish to roasted chicken or turkey. 

Rhubarb is a natural for Passover because that's when the first of the new crop appears. You can get fresh stalks everywhere. We always have so many side dishes at our Seder that I don't cook it up the way my Mom did, to serve with dinner. But it does make a good dessert. Like in this recipe for Rhubarb Crisp.

I usually add a little less sugar than the recipe calls for, just because that's the way we like it. You can cut the sugar to 1/2 cup OR, if you have a real sweet tooth, add a bit more.

You can make this dessert a day or so ahead. It's a nice choice after a typical meat Seder meal, because it's parve (unless you switch to butter), but is also a good choice throughout the holiday.

PASSOVER RHUBARB CRISP

• 2 pounds rhubarb

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 2 tablespoons potato starch

• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

• 2 cups crumbled coconut macaroons

• 1/2 cup chopped almonds

• 1/3 cup matzo meal

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/4 coconut oil or butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the rhubarb into 1/2-inch thick slices and place in a bowl. Add the sugar, potato starch, lemon peel and cinnamon and toss the ingredients to distribute them evenly. Spoon the mixture into a baking dish. In a bowl combine the coconut macaroons, almonds, matzo meal and brown sugar. Add the coconut oil and work it into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly. Place on top of the fruit. Bake for 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Makes 8-10 servings

The Gift

One of the loveliest, most heartwarming traditions of Purim is mishloach manot, the act of giving gifts of edible food (and drink) to our friends, neighbors and those in need.

Every year I bake or cook something to give away. This year it was Banana Double Chocolate Swirl Cupcakes. But other times I've given Dried Apricot, Pear and Raisin Chutney, Banana Mango Bread with Chocolate Chunks, Candied Kumquats and lots more.

Yesterday, I got mishloach manot from an unexpected source: NoMoo Cookies!

There, on my front porch was this box of one dozen giant Choco-lift with Cherry Cookies! Just for me.

Now, you may have read my review of NoMoo cookies a while ago. If not, take a look. These are fabulous, dairy-free and kosher.

The Choco-lift with Cherry is a limited edition cookie. I have to say, the cherry part made me think of blooming spring cherry trees, which is quite a lovely image today as more snow is falling on the already 2 or 3 feet of it in my backyard. The chocolate part was rich and not too sweet (over-sweet is one of my pet peeves with most packaged cookies).

I've already finished one. My husband finished one. The rest went right into the freezer because even though these cookies are terrific, fresh from the package, we also like them hard and cold.

That's a good cookie.

Thank you NoMoo. Chag Purim Sameach.

Dried Fruit Pie with Port Wine

My daughter Gillian and son-in-law Jesse gave me this unusual Hanukkah gift: a rolling pin carved with the words “handmade by Ronnie Fein.” The words are mirror-image backwards, of course, so that when you roll the pastry it comes out right.

I couldn’t wait to use this thing so I decided to make a pie to freeze and then serve on New Year’s weekend. I rolled out the dough using this new device.

Problem. 

With pie dough, you have to keep rolling until you get the proper thickness. That meant I had to go over the words several times and so they got all jumbled and on top of each other.

Okay, so I used the mixed up piece of dough for the bottom crust and rolled the top crust using a regular rolling pin, then gave it a final flourish with the carved one, to get the words onto the pastry.

The result: really cute, but I have to say, this thing has limited value. In addition to its use for the final roll only, you really couldn’t see the words on the finished, baked pie.

Sorry kids. 

Maybe it will work better on sugar cookie dough. I’ll try that next.

Meantime, the pie itself is worth making. It’s a riff on old-fashioned Prune and Apricot Pie, but no prunes. I used dates and raisins instead, and since dried fruit goes so magnificently with port wine, I included some in the filling. It’s a rich, sumptuous pie, perfect a New Year celebration and throughout the cold days of winter. 

Dried Fruit Pie with Port Wine

Pie Dough:

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cold butter
• 1/3 cup cold vegetable shortening
• 4-6 tablespoons cold milk, juice, water or melted ice cream

To make the dough: Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter and shortening into chunks and add the chunks to the flour mixture. Work the fat into the flour mixture until the ingredients resemble crumbs (use your hands, a pastry blender or the pulse feature of a food processor). Add the liquid, using only enough to gather pastry into a soft ball of dough (start with 4 tablespoons). Cut the dough in half and flatten each half to make a disk shape. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it stand at least 30 minutes.

Filling:

• 1 cup dried apricots (preferably California apricots)
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1 cup pitted, halved dates
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 cup port wine
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the pie dough. Let the dough rest while you prepare the filling. Cut the dough in half and roll out one of the halves on a floured board. Fit the dough into a 9-inch pie pan. Spoon the filling into the dough-lined pan. Cut the butter into smaller pieces and place the pieces over the filling. Roll out the second piece of dough. Place it over the filling. Crimp the edges to seal the bottom and top pieces of dough. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. 

To make the filling: Place the apricots, dates and raisins in a saucepan. Pour in the water and port wine. Bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10-12 minutes, or until the fruit is soft. Strain the fruit into a bowl, pressing down to extract as much liquid as possible. RESERVE the cooking liquid (about 1/2 cup). Place the sugar, cornstarch, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a small saucepan and whisk to combine ingredients completely. Add the reserved 1/2 cup liquid (add water if you don’t have enough but only add 1/2 cup if you have more). Cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until the mixture has thickened. Spoon the liquid over the fruit and mix ingredients thoroughly. Stir in the lemon juice. 

Makes 8-10 servings 

Baked Pound Sweet Apples

I discovered a new apple. New for me anyway. It’s called Pound Sweet (a/k/a Pumpkin Sweet) and it’s actually a very old heritage apple first known in Connecticut in the early 1800s.

I’d never heard of this one, but at Clarkdale Fruit Farm in Deerfield, Massachusetts, where I drove recently to buy my yearly supply of Rhode Island Greening apples for pies (my Connecticut source didn’t have any this year) they pointed them out and so I bought a bagful.

Turns out (as they told me at the farm) that Pound Sweet are not the best eating-out-of-hand apple — they’re mild tasting and not especially tart/acidic — but they are terrific for baking.

So I baked some. They certainly hold their shape very well and don’t become as mushy as some apple varieties. I found that baking them also took slightly longer than the more usual Romes and Cortlands do.

But the result was really good. If you can find a bunch of Pound Sweets, wonderful, but of course this recipe will be fine when made with any baking apple (if you use other varieties, do not cover and bake for the 10 minutes suggested).

Baked Pound Sweet Apples

4 large Pound Sweet baking apples (or use any baking apple)

half a lemon

1/3 cup raisins

1/3 cup dried cranberries

3 tablespoons cinnamon sugar

2 teaspoons coconut oil

1 cup mango juice 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Wash the apples and remove the core with an apple corer or small knife, leaving about 1/2” of the core on the bottom. Peel the apples halfway down from the top and rub the peeled surfaces with the cut side of the lemon. Put the apples in a baking dish.  Mix the raisins and cranberries and stuff them into the apple hollows. Sprinkle the apples with the cinnamon sugar. Place 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil on each apple top. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for another 15 minutes. Pour the juice over the apples. Bake for another 40-45 minutes, basting occasionally with the pan juices, or until the apples are tender. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 4 servings

Plum Cake with Oat Streusel

Plum Torte with Oat Streusel 

It wouldn’t be the Jewish High Holiday season if you didn’t see at least one recipe for Plum Torte.

I suppose it’s because the holidays come at around the same time as the harvest for those small, dark purple Italian prune plums and what could be better than dessert made with the newest, freshest, soon-to-disappear seasonal fruit? (Although the torte recipe is so versatile that my niece Rachel Vail, renowned children’s book author, once made it with pears.)

I’ve made several versions over the years, including the NYTimes recipe and my Aunt Beck’s famous apple cake made with plums.

This year I’m baking a new variation for the holidays. If Plum Torte is so delicious, can’t it be even better — and lovelier looking — with a streusel top?

Yes!

Here it is:

PLUM CAKE WITH OAT STREUSEL

CAKE: 

• Streusel (recipe below)

• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoons grated fresh orange peel

• 2 large eggs

• 1 cup milk

• 12 Italian prune plums, pitted and sliced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Make the streusel and set it aside. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and orange peel in the bowl of an electric mixer. In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk and melted butter. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and beat for about one minute, until smooth. Turn the batter into the prepared cake pan. Top with the plum slices. Cover with the streusel. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove the outer ring from the pan and let the cake cool completely.

Makes one cake serving 8 people

STREUSEL:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Mix the oats, flour, brown sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and work it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.

Lemonade Cookies

I read that in some places the local  government has either banned or regulated lemonade stands.

They say it has to do with the stands (run by kids of course) being next to or too near commercial vendors who by law had to pay some sort of fee. In some cases they say it’s about health issues.

Because this is a food blog I’m not going to touch the political issues. But I have to say I love the idea of entrepreneurial kids — and lemonade stands are sort of tradition in this country, right?

On the other hand, lemonade at lemonade stands isn’t what it used to be back in the day. I’ve seen way too many where they sell what I think of as fake lemonade made by mixing water with some awful chemical tasting crystals from a cardboard container. Call me fussy, but it’s not a beverage I would drink, so for me, it’s not a government thing and although I love the kids’ grit and spirit, I ban fake lemonade as a matter of taste.

C’mon kiddos! Fresh lemonade from homemade lemon syrup is so easy to make. You can make pitchers-ful and stock it in the fridge for a week. All you have to do is add water or seltzer to some of the syrup and you’ve got some pretty tasty stuff to drink. Or sell.

And if you have any extra syrup leftover you can can use it for splendiferous things like these cookies. In fact, why not sell the cookies too?

Lemonade Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons lemon syrup

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel

1/4 cup lemon syrup

granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt and add to the butter mixture, alternating with 10 tablespoons lemon syrup. Mix in the lemon peel. Drop the batter by the heaping tablespoonful onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for about 9-10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. While the cookies are still warm, brush them with the remaining 1/4 cup lemon syrup. Sprinkle with sugar. Let the cookies cool.

 Makes about 60 cookies

To make Lemon Syrup: 

1-1/2 cups water

1-1/2 cups sugar

1-1/2 cups lemon juice (6-7 lemons)

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel

Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Boil the liquid for 5-8 minutes or until thicker and syrupy. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and peel. Refrigerate for at least one hour or until very cold. Strain the mixture into a storage container.

Makes just under 3 cups

Poached Figs with Apricot and Cinnamon Sauce

Remember a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I bought some fantastically delicious peaches at Costco? Well, this week I saw a boxful of fabulous-looking, velvety-skinned figs that were so picture perfect that I had to buy them.

Mostly we ate them out of hand. I cut some up for my morning yogurt. I ate one or two garnished with crumbled blue cheese.

The rest? I poached them, reduced the sauce until it was nice and thick, set the fruit up in a pretty plate, added a dab of whipped cream and a sprinkle of chopped toasted almonds and VOILA! a fancy dessert.

So easy.

Here’s the recipe:

Poached Figs with Apricot and Cinnamon Sauce

• 1 cup apricot nectar

• 1 cup water

• 1/4 cup honey

• 1 cinnamon stick, about 3-inches long

• 2 strips orange peel, each about 2-inches long

• 12 large fresh figs

• 1 cup whipped cream

• finely chopped toasted almonds

  Combine the apricot nectar, water, honey, cinnamon stick and orange peel in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the figs and simmer for about 8-10 minutes or until the figs are tender but not overly soft. Remove the pan from the heat. Remove the figs to a dish and let cool. Remove and discard the cinnamon stick and orange peel from the pan. Boil the liquid over high heat for about 5 minutes or until syrupy. Let cool. Spoon some of the cooled syrup onto 6 dessert plates. Cut the figs in half and place 4 halves on each of the plates. Spoon a dollop of whipped cream on top of each fig half. Scatter the nuts over the figs.

Makes 6 servings

Nut-free Chocolate Chunk Grand Finale Cookies

I have just a few minutes until I turn everything off, including work, so I can watch the World Cup match between the U.S. and Germany.

It will be a nailbiter, especially because of what happened in the last 20 seconds of the last game between the U.S. and Portugal.

So, I wanted to wish our team good luck and send them off with a terrific recipe: the all-American chocolate chip cookie. This is my latest version of my family-favorite Grand Finale cookies, but this one is nut-free and has chocolate chunks.

NUT FREE CHOCOLATE CHUNK GRAND FINALE COOKIES

•    1 cup all-purpose flour

•    1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

•    1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

•    1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

•    1/2 teaspoon salt

•    3/4 cup unsalted butter

•    3/4 cup packed brown sugar

•    3/4 cup sugar

•    1 large egg

•    1/4 cup orange juice

•    1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

•    2 cups quick cooking oats

•    12 ounce package chocolate chunks

•    1 cup shredded coconut

•    1/2 cup golden raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and sugar at medium speed for about 2 minutes or until smooth, creamy and well blended. Add the egg, orange juice and vanilla extract and beat them in, blending thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Add the oats, chocolate chunks, coconut and raisins and mix them in. Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough and place on the cookie sheets, leaving some place between the blobs for the cookies to spread. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Let cool on the cookie sheets for 3 minutes then remove to a cake rack to cool completely.

Makes 36-42 cookies

Red Velvet Cake

Last week a New York Times article bemoaned the fate of Red Velvet, which, like so many other American products, got twisted and turned and commercialized beyond repair and has been reproduced in so many gimmicky ways — red velvet candles, red velvet body mist, and so on — that it has become preposterous.

We’ve all seen this happen before. When something, anything is popular, there are going to be those who want to cash in on it in ways never intended.

They can sell it, but of course we don’t have to buy it. And if we don’t buy it, they will stop selling it and we can move on.

But that doesn’t mean that the original product was outlandish. There is a reason that Red Velvet Cake has endured. People love how it tastes. It has a miraculously soft texture. In its article, the New York Times, while ridiculing the commercialization, deemed Red Velvet Cake a classic.

Truth to tell, I never understood the wow in the whole red velvet cake thing. To me the versions I tasted seemed as if they couldn’t make up their minds about whether to be a vanilla cake with too much color and too-little cocoa to make a flavor difference or a devil’s-food cake.

But after experimenting somewhat with recipes, I came up with one that’s mighty good! So, now I get it. It isn’t vanilla cake. Or devil’s-food. Or chocolate cake. It’s its own thing. A classic. Here’s the recipe, plus a recipe for frosting that’s way less sweet than most:

Red Velvet Cake

• 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  1/3 cup cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
  1 teaspoon salt
  2 cups sugar
  1-1/2 cups vegetable oil
  3 large eggs, at room temperature
  1 ounce red food coloring mixed with 6 tablespoons water
  1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  1-1/4 cups plain yogurt
  2 teaspoons baking soda
  2 teaspoons white vinegar
  Lemon-Cream Cheese Frosting 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 3 9-inch cake pans. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a bowl and set aside. Beat the sugar and vegetable oil together at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the food coloring mixture and vanilla extract and stir the ingredients at low speed until thoroughly blended. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the yogurt, beating the ingredients after each addition. Mix the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl, pour it into the batter and blend it in thoroughly. Spoon the batter equally among the cake pans. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake layers cool for about 10 minutes, then insert them onto a cake rack to cool completely. Before serving, frost the cake.

Lemon-Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
  1/2 cup butter at room temperature
  2 cups confectioner sugar
  1 tablespoon lemon juice
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel

Beat the cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract and lemon peel together at low-medium speed until smooth, creamy and well blended.

Makes 10-12 servings

Tagged: red velvet cake, cake, dessert

Share