recipes

Chocolate Pesach desserts to make year-round

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Passover is fast approaching, and French trained chef and best-selling cookbook author Paula Shoyer is offering Passover recipes that you will want to make year-round! Shoyer, whose mission is to modernize traditional recipes with healthier ingredients, believes people don’t have to choose between blowing their diet and giving up beloved, favorite foods and tasty desserts, especially during the holidays.

For more of Paula’s Passover recipes, check out her fabulous cookbook, The New Passover Menu.

Happy baking!

Chocolate Quinoa Cake

Recipe excerpted from The Healthy Jewish Kitchen

Cake

3/4 cup quinoa

1-1/2 cups water

Cooking spray

2 Tbsp. potato starch

1/3 cup orange juice

4 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup coconut oil

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 oz. bittersweet chocolate

Fresh raspberries for garnish (optional)

Glaze

5 oz. bittersweet chocolate

1 Tbsp. sunflower or safflower oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract 

Place the quinoa and water into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover the saucepan, and cook the quinoa for 15 minutes, or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Set the pan aside. Quinoa may be made 1 day in advance.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Use cooking spray to grease a 12-cup Bundt pan. Sprinkle the potato starch over the greased pan and then shake the pan to remove any excess starch.

Place the quinoa in the bowl of a food processor. Add the orange juice, eggs, vanilla, oil, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt and process until the mixture is very smooth.

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, or place in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and put in a microwave for 45 seconds, stirring and then heating the chocolate for another 30 seconds, until it is melted.

Add the chocolate to the quinoa batter and process until well mixed. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake it for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes and then remove it gently from the pan. Let it cool on a wire cooling rack.

To make the glaze, melt the chocolate in a large microwave-safe bowl in the microwave (see above) or over a double boiler. Add the oil and vanilla and whisk well. Let the glaze sit for 5 minutes and then whisk it again. Use a silicone spatula to spread the glaze all over the cake. Serves 12.

Keto Chocolate Avocado Cake

www.thekosherbaker.com

Cake

1-1/2 cups almond flour

3/4 cup dark cocoa, plus 1 tablespoon for greasing pan

1/4 cup coconut or almond flour

1/2 cup xylitol

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup coconut cream, from canned coconut milk

1/2 cup almond milk

3 large eggs

1 Tbsp. coconut oil, plus 1 tsp. for greasing pan

1 tsp. vanilla

1 large ripe avocado

Ganache

5 Tbsp. boiling water

1/2 cup dark cocoa

1/4 cup xylitol

1/2 cup coconut cream 

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8-inch round pan with 1 tsp. coconut oil. Add 2 to 3 tsp. cocoa and shake all around to dust the bottom and sides. Tap out excess. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the almond flour, cocoa, coconut flour, xylitol, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Place the coconut cream, almond milk, eggs, coconut oil, vanilla and avocado into a food processor or blender and blend for two full minutes, scraping down the sides a few times, so that the mixture is completely smooth. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk together. Use a silicone spatula to scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. 

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and the remove to a wire rack.

To prepare the ganache topping, place the cocoa and xylitol into a small bowl. Add the boiling water and whisk well. Add the coconut cream and vanilla and mix well. Spread all over the top of the cake.

Triple Chocolate Biscotti

www.thekosherbaker.com

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp. vanilla sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 Tbsp. potato starch

1 1/2 cups ground almonds

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Melt the chocolate. Remove the chocolate from the heat source, add the sugar and oil, and whisk well. Add the eggs and mix. Add the vanilla sugar, cocoa, potato starch, ground almonds, and salt and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and mix to distribute them.

Divide the dough in half and shape into two loaves, each about 9 by 3 inches. Place both loaves on the lined jelly roll pan and bake for 30 minutes. Let the loaves cool for 10 minutes (do not turn off the oven). Cut each loaf crosswise into 3/4 to 1-inch thick slices. 

Place the cookies, cut side up, on a parchment-covered cookie sheet (or the jelly roll pan again). Bake for another 14 minutes, or until the cookies are firm to the touch on the outside but still feel soft on the inside. Check after 10 to 12 minutes so that you don’t over-bake.

Let cool for 5 minutes on the pan, then slide the parchment and cookies onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Yields 24 to 36 cookies.