Pascale's kitchen: Passover desserts

We prepared three desserts with delightful fillings and creams.

APRIL 13, 2017 12:10

Passover desserts (photo credit: TAL SIVAN TZIPOREN) — Passover desserts

(photo credit: TAL SIVAN TZIPOREN)

Now that Seder night is behind us, we can focus on preparing some nice desserts for our families for Shabbat Hol Hamoed and the last day of Passover.

When it comes to the holidays, I think it's nice to serve a dessert that not only tastes good, but looks like it was prepared in a bakery. So I met up with pastry chef Ofer Gal from Boutique Central Patisserie to discuss new Passover recipes.

Gal is an incredible pastry chef who studied in Paris. He was very excited to turn his kitchen over so he could get busy preparing treats for the Passover holiday.

Together, we prepared three desserts with delightful fillings and creams. The ingredients are all listed in grams, not cups so that you can be as precise as possible. If you don't own a food scale, this is the time to treat yourself and buy one for the holiday.

Translated by Hannah Hochner.

Chocolate peanut-butter pie

(Gluten-free, dairy)

Dough:

■ 250 gr. powdered sugar

■ 150 gr. butter, cut into cubes

■ 2 egg yolks

■ 50 gr. blanched walnuts, ground

■ 1 Tbsp. cold water

■ 30 gr. glucose

Caramel toffee:

■ 150 gr. sugar

■ 20 gr. glucose syrup

■ 70 ml. sweet cream

■ 100 gr. butter, cut into cubes Peanut-butter

filling:

■ A bit of kosher or table salt

■ 100 gr. hazelnut chips covered with caramel

Pie filling:

■ 100 gr. peanuts

■ 5 gr. salt

Chocolate ganache:

■ 600 gr. milk chocolate

■ 400 gr. sweet cream

Decoration:

■ 1/3 cup hazelnut chips covered with caramel

Directions:

Dough: Put the powdered sugar in a food processor and slowly add the butter cubes, egg yolks, nuts, water and glucose. Blend until smooth. Wrap in plastic and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Toffee: In a pan, melt sugar and glucose until deep brown. Add the cream and cook for five minutes until well mixed. Remove from flame and add butter cubes while stirring vigorously until smooth.

Peanut filling: Mix the peanuts with a little water and salt and toast for 15 minutes in an oven that was preheated to 170°.

Pie: Line a tray with baking paper. Roll out the dough until it is 0.5 cm thick and place it on tray. Gently make holes with a fork. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes in the freezer.

Bake for 20 minutes at 160°. Remove from oven and sprinkle salted peanuts and then toffee on dough. Flatten.

Ganache: Place chocolate in a bowl. Boil the sweet cream and pour onto the chocolate. Let sit for a few seconds and then mix until smooth. Pour the ganache over the peanuts and toffee and cover well. Let cool in the fridge for two hours.

Sprinkle caramel nuts on top and cut into small 5-cm. x 5-cm. or large 10-cm. x 10-cm. squares.

Nut cookies
(Gluten-free, dairy)

Makes 50 cookies

■ 200 gr. butter, cut into cubes

■ 150 gr. powdered sugar

■ 200 gr. butter, cut into cubes

■ 150 gr. powdered sugar

■ 5 egg yolks

■ 50 ml. cold water

■ 200 gr. kosher-for-Passover flour

■ 200 gr. cornflour

■ 40 gr. dark cocoa

■ 7 gr. baking powder

For nut filling:

■ 200 gr. bittersweet chocolate

■ 200 gr. praline cream

■ 200 ml. sweet cream Coating:

■ 100 gr. caramel nuts

Place butter in food processor and mix for a few seconds. Add powdered sugar, egg yolks and water and mix until creamy. Add flour, cornflour, cocoa and baking powder. Mix until blended. Store in fridge for two hours or overnight. Roll out dough until it is 0.5 cm. thick and then cut out 4 cm. cookies. Roll out the remaining dough and cut out more cookies.

Arrange the cookies evenly spaced on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes at 135°, or for 50 minutes at 100C° (this will make them crispier).

To make the cream, melt the chocolate and praline cream in a bain marie. In a separate pot, bring the cream to a boil. Fold the cream into the chocolate mixture and mix well. Put in the fridge for two hours.

Transfer the cream to an icing bag and squeeze out a bit onto half of the cookies. Then place another cookie on top of the cream. Press down gently so that the cream reaches the edge of the cookie. Place the caramel nut pieces on a plate and then roll the sides of the cookies in the nuts. Store in the fridge in a sealed container.

Crack Pie
(Gluten-free)

Crust:

■ 200 gr. kosher-for-Passover flour

■ 100 gr. dark brown sugar

■ 40 gr. almonds, ground

■ 125 gr. butter, cut into cubes

■ 3 egg yolks

■ 40 gr. glucose syrup

Filling:

■ Equivalent of one entire vanilla bean

■ 150 gr. white sugar

■ 90 gr. demerara sugar

■ 80 ml. sweet cream

■ 4 egg yolks

■ 3 gr. salt

■ 20 gr. cornflour

■ 1 Tbsp. water

■ 120 gr. butter, melted

For the crust, add flour, sugar and almonds to a food processor and mix. While mixing, add butter, yolks and glucose. Continue mixing until well blended. Cover dough with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 minutes.

For the filling, add the vanilla to a bowl. Add all the other ingredients, except for the cornflour and butter. Mix well. In a separate bowl, pour in the cornflour and then add the water. Mix well and add to vanilla mixture. With a whisk, add the butter slowly into the filling and mix until blended.

Next, roll out the dough until it is 0.5 cm thick and place in a pan. Make sure there are no pockets of air between the dough and the pan. Cut off any dough hanging over edge.

Place the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then take it out and pour the filling on top of the dough and bake for 75 minutes at 130°.

Note: The filling will expand while it’s being baked, and then will fall back down at the end. Let the pie cool and store in the fridge.