Gourmet's Best Dessert Recipes for Passover

byGourmet

Spruce up your Seder with these delicious kosher dessert recipes from the editors of Gourmet. Learn how to make tasty treats like almond thumbprint cookies, lemon cheesecake and a chocolate hazelnut torte that mixes moist, light and crunchy textures. Passover has never been sweeter.

Related: Top 10 Seder Faux Pas

Passover Lemon Cheesecake

Serves 8-10 | Active time: 30 min | Start to finish: 5 hr

Almonds and matzo cake meal make a wonderfully textured crust for this refreshing, citrusy cheesecake. After Passover, instead of pulling out the graham crackers again, experiment with other cookie crusts such as one made with shortbread.

For crust
• 3/4 cup sliced blanched almonds, toasted and cooled
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup matzo cake meal
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

For filling
• 3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Equipment:
a 9-inch springform pan

Garnish:
julienned lemon zest

Make crust:
• Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.
• Pulse almonds, sugar, matzo cake meal, and salt in a food processor until finely ground. Transfer to a bowl and stir in butter until combined well. Press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of springform pan. Bake until crust is firm and a shade darker, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool crust completely in pan on a rack.

Make filling and bake cheesecake:
• Reduce oven temperature to 300°F.
• Beat together cream cheese and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs 1 at a time, mixing until incorporated. Mix in zest and vanilla.
• Put springform pan in a shallow baking pan and pour filling into cooled crust. Bake until filling is set 1 1/2 inches from edge but center is wobbly, 45 to 50 minutes (filling will continue to set as it cools). Transfer cake in pan to a rack and immediately run a knife around edge, then remove side of pan. Cool completely, 2 to 3 hours.

Cooks' note: Cheesecake can be made 2 days ahead and chilled, loosely covered.

Parisian Passover Coconut Macaroons

Makes about 60 cookies | Active time: 40 min | Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

The secret to these macaroons' texture is the Italian meringue, composed of egg whites and a boiling sugar syrup. When baking these for Passover, dust the sheets with matzo cake meal; you can use flour at other times.

Ingredients
• Matzo cake meal for dusting
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 large egg whites at room temperature
• 3 cups finely grated unsweetened (desiccated) coconut (8 oz)

• Special equipment:
a standing electric mixer, a candy thermometer

Preparation
• Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease 2 baking sheets and dust with cake meal, knocking off any excess.

Make meringue:
• Cook sugar and water in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Boil syrup, without stirring, until it reaches soft-ball stage (or registers 238°F on a candy thermometer).
• While syrup boils, beat whites in standing mixer on low speed until stiff peaks form. Gradually pour hot syrup in a thin stream down side of bowl into whites, beating constantly on high speed. (Be careful not to let syrup touch beaters when pouring, or it will spatter and harden.) Continue to beat until meringue is room temperature.
• Stir in coconut and spoon rounded teaspoons of meringue into mounds about 1 inch apart on baking sheets. Shape mounds into pyramids with wet fingertips.
• Bake macaroons 1 sheet at a time in middle of oven 12 minutes, or until just firm enough to be removed from baking sheet without losing their shape. Carefully transfer to a rack to cool. (Macaroons will harden as they cool.)

Cooks' note: Macaroons keep in an airtight container 1 week.

See also: Gourmet's Modern Passover Menu

Almond Thumbprint Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen | Active time: 20 min |
Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

These delicate little almond cookies are perfect for entertaining; the contrast between the crisp cookie and gooey-sweet jam will keep guests coming back for more. And it takes less than 30 minutes of hands-on cooking time to whip up a batch.

Ingredients
• 3/4 cup sliced blanched almonds, toasted and cooled
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup matzo cake meal
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• About 2 tablespoons fruit jam, such as raspberry, strawberry, or apricot

Preparation
• Pulse almonds, sugar, matzo cake meal, and salt in a food processor until finely ground. (Be careful not to grind to a paste.) Transfer to a bowl and stir in butter, egg, and extracts until combined well. Chill dough, covered, until firm, about 30 minutes.
• While dough chills, put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
• Drop level tablespoons of dough 1 inch apart onto 2 ungreased baking sheets. Roll dough into balls, then chill until slightly firm, about 10 minutes. Make a 1/2-inch-wide (1/3-inch-deep) indentation in center of each ball using your thumb, index finger, or the rounded end of a wooden spoon. Fill each indentation with 1/4 teaspoon jam and bake, 1 sheet at a time, until tops are pale golden and undersides are golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack and cool completely.

Cooks' note: Cookies keep in an airtight container at room temperature 3 days.

Chocolate Hazelnut Torte

Serves 8 | Active time: 25 min | Start to finish: 2 1/2 hr (includes cooling)

This torte is a masterful mix of textures: The top crust bakes up with a hint of crackly crunch, giving way to a moist, light interior studded with tiny bits of hazelnut.

For cake
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter plus additional for greasing pan
• 1 cup hazelnuts (5 oz)
• 6 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened; not more than 60% cacao)
• 2 tablespoons potato starch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature for 30 minutes
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• Special equipment:
a 9- to 9 1/2-inch (24-cm) springform pan; parchment paper

• Garnish:
Passover Confectioners Sugar

Preparation
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
• Generously butter bottom and side of springform pan, then line bottom with a round of parchment paper and butter parchment paper.
• Toast hazelnuts in a shallow baking pan in oven, shaking pan once or twice, until golden, about 12 minutes. Place nuts in a kitchen towel and rub off any loose skins while nuts are still warm, then cool nuts completely.
• Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
• While nuts cool, melt butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water.
• Pulse hazelnuts in a food processor with potato starch, salt, and 1/4 cup sugar until finely ground. (Be careful not to grind to a paste.)
• Whisk together yolks and 2 tablespoons sugar in a large bowl. Whisk in chocolate mixture, then add nut mixture and vanilla and whisk until combined (mixture will be slightly grainy).
• Beat whites with a pinch of salt in another bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until they hold soft peaks. Add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar a little at a time, beating, and beat until whites just hold stiff peaks. Fold one fourth of whites into chocolate mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly. Pour batter into springform pan, then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs adhering, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool completely in pan, about 1 hour. Run a knife around edge of torte to loosen, then remove side of pan. Dust with Passover confectioners sugar.

Cooks' note: Torte can be made 1 day ahead and cooled completely, then kept in pan, covered with plastic wrap, at room temperature.

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