macaroons

Passover Recipe Roundup!

in , , , ,

Whazzup! I'm just popping in to say a quick hello before we down some extremely chametzy pizza and then zip off to Whistler for our Passover ski trip!! This is gonna be a great Passover, not only because we're going to be spending it on a cozy mountain, but also because there's a new haggadah up in here (!!!), a new seder plate from lily (bonus: lily is also a new member of #teamsavory matzo brei. welcome, lily!), and some of my favorite new Passover recipes are in the April issue of Rachael Ray Magazine. Pick up a copy, there's a Passover tater tot hotdish!!!! 

Below are a bunch of my fave Passover recipes, old and new. Enjoy! Happy Passover!

-yeh!

photos 1, 4, 11, 12, 13, and 14 by chantell and brett quernemoen!

sprinkle macaroons

in , , ,

Sup, homies! Happy spring and also happy snow day (!) which leaves us with the best case scenario: a beautiful wintery day where the sun stays up long enough to enjoy it on the drive to (and maybe even from) the gym. These kinds of days are delicious because you get the coziness of the snow and the energy of the extra light, and the light has that perfectly diffused snowy quality that is all fluffy and cloud like. Is there a name for this type of winter weather that seeps into spring? Like Indian Summer, but for winter? And don’t say something like Annoying Winter, that’s not the point of this exercise. 

Speaking of exercise, I’ve been on a remarkable health kick, spawned by a sudden urge to eat kale four times a day. I’ve been eating kale and eggs for breakfasts, kale grilled cheeses for lunches, kale tacos for snacks, kale salads for dinners, I’m definitely going to get sick of it really soon but for now I’m riding it out and feeling excellent. The Adventures of Kalegirl and Eggboy!! Also, World Championship Ice Skating is on! Which is great, obviously, but did you also hear about the 13-year-old Russian figure skater in Junior Worlds who became the first female to land two quads in a program in competition??? Bonkers! The future is now! Additionally, I’ve gotten into so many awesome books recently, like Alon Shaya’s new cookbook, Jessica Merchant’s new cookbook, Stephanie Izard's Gather and Graze, and Call Me By Your Name, so if there was a sunny side of the street to be walking on right now, and if I actually walked anywhere, I'd be there. That's what's going on in my world!

But enough about kale and books, let’s talk about sprinkles. I feel a little funny that I’ve never funfetti’d macaroons before. I don’t know why it took this long but the other day a giant box of sprinkles from Beautiful Briny Sea arrived and I immediately felt compelled to fold them into egg whites, condensed milk, and coconut to make the first macaroons of the season. They were so tasty! Crisp on the outside, rich and moist on the inside. And how do you make a tasty thing tastier? Dip it in chocolate. It felt like the right thing to do, and then it felt more right to coat the chocolate with sprinkles. Eggboy said it was too many sprinkles! Can you believe he let those words exit his mouth?! I was stunned. I love the extreme amount of sprinkles because they add a fantastic crunchy quality that you don’t often find on a macaroon. And they’re fun to look at. And sprinkle flavor is good!! These ones are at least. (Use sprinkles you’d want to eat by the spoonful because you’re essentially doing that here.) I used these chocolate sprinkles in the batter and these rainbow sprinkles on the bottom.

All general sprinkle-flavor dessert rules apply here: do not use sanding sugar in the macaroon mixture because the colors will bleed and use clear imitation vanilla for that nostalgic birthday cake flavor that will also keep your batter bright white. As with almost all of the macaroons that I make these days, these are based on Danny Macaroons' delicious basic macaroon recipe. And speaking of macaroons, I wrote a little piece about them for this cool new huge Tablet feature that you should check out, 100 Most Jewish Foods. 

Happy almost Passover!

sprinnkle macaroons

makes 16

ingredients

1 c (283g) sweetened condensed milk (reserve the rest of the can to add to your morning coffee!)

2 tsp clear imitation vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 (14 oz) bag sweetened shredded coconut

2 large egg whites

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 c (48g) rainbow sprinkles, plus about 1/3 c (63g) more for topping and dipping

3 oz (85g) chocolate (any kind!)

clues

preheat oven to 350ºf. line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

in a large bowl, combine the condensed milk, vanilla, and almond extract. mix in the coconut and set aside.

in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. 

fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture and then gently fold in the 1/4 cup of sprinkles. spoon lightly packed 2" balls of the mixture onto the baking sheets, 1" apart and sprinkle the tops with more sprinkles.

bake until golden brown; begin checking for doneness at 18 minutes. remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes on the pans. transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

place the remaining 1/3 cup of sprinkles in a shallow dish. melt the chocolate in a microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each, or in a saucepan over low heat, stirring often. dip the bottoms of the macaroons in the chocolate, scrape off any excess, and then dip the chocolate in the sprinkles. place back on the parchment paper and let cool at room temp or in the fridge. enjoy!

these can be kept at room temperature for about 3 days or in the fridge for up to a week.

malabi macaroons

in , , ,

happy almost passover!! i spent the weekend in new york trying to get as sick of chametz as possible by way of dizengoff pita, breads bakery bourekas, xi’an dumplings, and sprinkle cake!! spoiler: i didn’t get sick of chametz and i don’t think i’ll ever get sick of it.

it was a 1 1/2 day trip that was supposed to be more like three. oops! but if you’re going to have an unintended 30-hour layover due to batshit weather delays, i couldn’t possibly think of a better way to spend it than with my minneapolis homies, over pizza and pastries. so in the end i had the loveliest unexpected few days.

i was in new york for the cherry bombe jubilee, which was just as sweet and delightful as it sounds. is the word jubilee not the best? it was packed with hugs, with old friends, with new friends, and with friends i’d internet fangirled over for such a long time but had never actually met. i demoed a sprinkle splatter cake with my new friend jen, and then also sat on a panel about blogging with daphne, joy, jocelyn, lyndsay, and deb! it was nerve-racking to be in front of such a huge room of people and i almost dropped a glass bottle of kombucha up on stage but we had a great time and decided we should probably start a band. 

one of the questions that daphne asked was about our go-to hostess gifts. i had macaroons on my mind because i’d just come down off of a week of making them every single day, so i said macaroons. they travel well, they come together extraordinarily quickly, they’re fit for gluten free and k for p friends, and they don’t have to be eaten immediately if by chance you're way too stuffed for dessert. like all of the macaroons that i make these days, they are inspired by the recipe in danny macaroons’ book. danny’s were the macaroons that made me love macaroons and get over those canned manischewitz plops that i grew up with. they are crispy on the outside, chewy and moist on the inside, and a standard for passover desserts that is so high, you won’t even want to stop making them once passover ends.

these guys are flavored like malabi, the middle eastern rosewater milk pudding. i like mine with toasted pistachios and a bit of cinnamon and cardamom, and here i’ve added a little bit of sour fruitiness from some raspberry purée (bonus: it turns the glaze millennial pink-ish). they are rich, floral, warm, and bright, all at the same time and they are exactly what you need to fuel a fierce afikoman hunt! 

alright, i'm at mum's house in chicago now and we have a billion people coming over tonight, so i gotta go start the brisket! 

malabi macaroons

makes 16 - 18

ingredients

1 c sweetened condensed milk (reserve the rest of the can to add to your morning coffee!)

1/8 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp rosewater

2 tsp vanilla

14 ounce bag sweetened shredded coconut

2 large egg whites

1/4 tsp kosher salt

 

for the glaze

2 ounces fresh raspberries (or sub 2 tb raspberry jam)

About 1 c powdered sugar

1/8 tsp rosewater

a pinch of kosher salt

 

chopped toasted pistachios, for topping

clues

preheat oven to 350ºf. line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

in a large bowl, combine the condensed milk, cardamom, cinnamon, rosewater, and vanilla. mix in the coconut and set aside.

in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form. 

fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture and then spoon 2" balls of it onto the baking sheets, 1" apart.

bake until golden brown, begin checking for doneness at 18 minutes. remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes on the pans. transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

for the glaze:

Place raspberries in a fine mesh sieve and give them a rinse. Place the sieve over a bowl and use a stiff rubber spatula or wooden spoon to smash them and press the juices and purée through the sieve into the bowl until you’re just left with the seeds in the sieve. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the sieve to get the stuff that’s sticking to that down into the bowl. You should be left with about 2 tablespoons of seedless puree. If it’s a tiny bit more or a tiny bit less, that’s fine. Add 1 c powdered sugar, rosewater, and salt and mix to make a thick glaze. If it's too thick, add a few drops of water to thin it out, and if it's too thin, add a few more spoonfuls of powdered sugar. it should be the consistency of a thick glue. 

spoon the glaze over the tops of the macaroons and top with a sprinkle of pistachios. enjoy!

they can be kept at room temperature for about 3 days or in the fridge for up to a week.

-yeh!