Desserts

Home made ice cream is just exceptional, generally speaking, but it's also generally kosher for Passover. This is handy, especially for those of us with spring birthdays. I can't subscribe to lousy excuses for cake on Pesach, but at least with ice cream, no sacrifice in quality is necessary. We use an ice cream maker - just follow the directions for whatever device you are using.

We gave up on trying to make this super healthy. It’s probably healthier than ice cream in that it is lower calorie and higher in protein, but don’t kid yourself… it’s still high in sugar and fat. It’s just not possible to make it lower in sugar and fat without making it turn out like a sour block of ice.

This is designed for dressing up an autumnal treat - perfect dessert for a milchig Sukkot meal. Serve over a butter pecan or coffee ice cream.

Here's my all time favorite pareve dessert - its really easy and it's great fun to see people's faces when you tell them what's in it!

Filling:

Here's my mother's world famous recipe! It's got a cookie type rather than a pastry type dough.

One of our favorite Passover desserts. From "The Jewish Kids Catalog"

Note from Jewish Cuisine Host: This recipe comes from a book published in 1958. We were unable to find out if the book is still under copyright. The recipe is so interesting that we decided to publish it in the archive anyway, but if it is still under copyright we sincerely apologize to the authors and publishers in advance. Copyright holders - if you wish to see this recipe removed from the archive, please email me and I will remove it promptly. The Heart of the Settlement Cook Book, 1958. This recipe assumes you have a challah dough recipe of your own that you have ready. If you need a challah recipe, there are a few in this archive to choose from.

I promise this is easy. You will look like such a badass to your friends when you serve them this. In fact, the hardest part is making sure you have a 9-10" pan you can take from the stovetop to the oven. I use a skillet that is all metal including the handle, but a braiser, a low-sided cast iron pan, or a loop handled skillet would be a bit more convenient. (I'm sure you'd be less likely to burn yourself because the skillet's long handle is hot and sticks out!) I have a particular take on pears: nothing beats them in pastry (or in fall cocktails) even though I don't particularly like to eat them raw. Pears have such a delicate and interesting flavor profile, and baking addresses the gritty (and unpleasant, to me) texture very well. They're very seasonal, so I like to take advantage of them when they're available. If you want to make this pareve, Pepperidge Farms makes a pareve puff pastry dough, and you can use fake butter to make the caramel. Yes, I know fake butter will never be as good as the real thing, and yes, I know that it doesn't "set" right. But it works well enough, if you're stuck doing that. Of course I recommend the milchig version if you have the choice - it's unquestionably better. But the pareve version is still delicious. The downside to this recipe is the downside to all recipes that have liquid mixed with puff pastry - it does not hold up well to being made far in advance. That said, it is fast to make, and does not take much time to set up. In planning a dinner, you can make this last, put it in the oven to bake while you are eating, and don't forget to set a timer to flip it out of the pan 10 minutes after you take it out.

This dessert is wonderful late in summer, when the peaches are still in the market... but maybe they're starting to be of lesser quality. I think of it as sort of a last hurrah for peaches for the year. You do not need to peel the peaches (as you would for a pie). I do my best to avoid substitutions with inferior ingredients to meet dietary restrictions. I think it's better to find recipes that naturally exclude the problem ingredient because the outcome is tastier. A crumble really doesn't need wheat flour by definition and actually benefits from the flavor of almond flour, which makes this recipe taste like it was always meant to be this way... because it was.

Recipe 1