Matzo Never Tasted So Good

Mocha Nutty Matzo Cake

It’s Passover and my mom and I have another tradition of making this decadent matzo cake every year. Now if you are going to be a good Jew, by skipping out on the leavened bread and eating matzo, it doesn't get better than this cake because it’s coated in chocolate, coffee, liqueur and tasty hazelnuts!

 

Now those who know me well know I can’t just leave tradition as is, I always like to improve and build upon even my best recipes. So given my experience in Israel last summer, I decided to add some espresso bean halva (sweet, crumbly, sesame treat) to a second cake to replace the ground, toasted hazelnuts. I personally prefer Mocha Nutty Matzo Cake 2.0 but have fun and enjoy either way you make it!

 

Yield: 1 cake

Tools: Large casserole dish, double boiler, whisk, shot glass, large serving plate

Ingredients:

5 pieces	5 pieces	Matzo
6 oz.	6 oz.	Semisweet Chocolate
¼ cup	50 grams	Sugar
¼ cup	113 grams	Water
5 shots	220 milliliters	Coffee Liqueur
4 yolks	66 grams	Egg Yolks
1 stick	113 grams	Butter
About 1 cup	As needed	Ground Hazelnuts, toasted

Method of Preparation:

1.      Measure all ingredients and fill the bottom of a double boiler with an inch of water, put on low heat.

2.      Fill top of boiler with chocolate, sugar, water, and 1 ½ shots (66 milliliters) of the liqueur.

 

 3.      Heat and whisk chocolate mixture until smooth.

4.      Add yolks one at a time, whisk for three minutes until thick.

5.      Add butter and whisk till smooth, remove from heat.

6.      Pour the remaining liqueur into a casserole dish or plate large enough to fit a piece of matzo in.

7.      Prepare matzo by lightly soaking it in the coffee liqueur and setting it aside.

8.      Assemble the cake by starting with a piece of matzo and spreading about 3 tablespoons of chocolate over it.

9.      Sprinkle a few tablespoons of the toasted hazelnuts onto the chocolate and repeat the layers five times.

10.  Refrigerate for an hour before serving and store leftovers in the fridge as well. 

For the Mocha Nutty Matzo Cake 2.0 (a.k.a. the one with the tasty espresso halva)

Finely chop the halva and sprinkle it on top of the chocolate layer in place of the ground toasted hazelnuts.

Hamentashen Cooper Style

It’s Strawberry Pickin’ Season in Florida! Mom and Jon were at the ready to go pick some fresh ones right from the farm, on the stipulation that I would turn them into preserves that Mom could use for her Hamentashen. Fortunately the weather was beautiful on my day off and we headed to Bedner’s Farm in West Boynton.

We had so much fun filling our buckets; there’s nothing like picking your own produce right off the vine. Even if you come across the occasional bug infested berries that squirt bright red berry juice all over your arm, that’s just nature, bugs got to eat too! And apparently so do the crows because a flock of them were swirling in the sky above us, terrorizing my poor mother. Jon was there to protect us though and we went on picking. I definitely filled my bucket the fastest and at the register we took bets on how much our lot would ring in, Jon won this time. Can’t wait till next season!

Farm Fresh Strawberry Preserves

Yield: 1 ½ pints

Tools: Medium pot, whisk, small bowl, potato masher, stick blender (or stationary blender)

Ingredients:

4 cups	500 grams	Strawberries
1 Tbsp.	6 grams	Lemon Juice
½ tsp.	1 grams	Salt
1/3 cup	88 grams	Sugar
4 tsp.	15 grams	Sugar
8 ½ Tbsp.	29 grams	Pectin

Method of Preparation:

1.     Place strawberries, lemon juice, salt, and sugar into medium pot.

2.   Mash Berries on medium high heat and cook to boil.

3.     Mix second amount of sugar and pectin together in a small bowl.

4.     Blend a few seconds with stick blender to break up larger pieces.

5.     Pour back into pot.

6.     Whisk in pectin mixture.

7.     Bring to a second boil, pour into a heatproof tupperware container, cover the top with plastic. 

8. Allow to cool at room temperature for a half hour and then store in the refrigerator overnight and for up to one week.

Mamma’s Hamentashen

My mom pulls out a recipe from a small disheveled Jewish Festival Cookbook. 

The recipe isn’t hard to find given that the book is literally broken in half at the precise point where the “Queen Esther Cookies” recipe lays.

 These cookies are actually named after the villain of Purim, Hamen, but maybe there was some copyright issues back in the day? My mom used this recipe for the first time when she was a young girl in school because she had to bring in a cultural food item for a school project. I guess they were a hit, because she hasn’t stopped making these since!

Yield: 2 dozen

Tools: Hand mixer, medium bowl, sifter, rubber scraper, rolling pin, round cutter (or a 3” round rocks glass), wax paper

Ingredients:

1 stick	113 grams	Butter
1 tsp.	2 grams	Dried Grated Orange Peel
1 cup	200 grams	Sugar
1 each	50 grams	Egg, whole
2 Tbsp.	27 grams	Orange Juice
2 ¾ cup	275 grams	Flour, sifted (plus extra for shaping)
2 tsp.	7 grams	Baking Powder
¼ tsp.	2 grams	Salt

Method of Preparation:

1. Soften butter (Mamma says no more than 15 seconds).

2. Cream softened butter and orange peel on low speed for 30 seconds until just combined.

3. Add sugar and cream again until fluffy.

4. Add egg and orange juice to butter mixture and mix until combined.

5. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

6. Sift into the bowl.

7.  Mix with a rubber scraper until the batter comes together into a ball.

8. Wrap in wax paper, refrigerate until firm (Mamma say refrigerate for a few hours or put it in the freezer for 20 minutes).

9.  Roll out on a flat floured surface to about 1/8” thick (Mamma says use lots of flour and flip it, don’t let it stick).

10. Then cut into 3” circles with a cookie cutter (In Mamma’s house we just use a rocks glass, that’s just how we roll).

11. Place a teaspoon of jam in the center of the circle.

12. Fold up two thirds of the circle to meet in one corner and press together. Then fold the other third of the circle to meet and press the other two corners together.

13. Place the hamentashen onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for about 7 to 10 minutes until corners are golden.

14. Allow to cool in a safe place hidden from hungry brothers and dads who eat all the hamentashen as soon as they come out of the oven. Just kidding...sharing is caring.