passover Archives - dani california cooks

Gluten Free Chocolate Tartlets

May 3, 2015 by Dani Leave a Comment

The ultimate flourless chocolate cake calls for only four ingredients. You only need one bite, which is why baking them in mini sizes is ideal for serving!

By the time you read this, Nate and I will be whizzing up the California coastline on Highway 1 in a 1984 pick up truck with all of our stuff! Woohoo!

Hands down, one of the best dessert chefs/bloggers out there is David Lebovitz. He lives in Paris and cooks insane food with butter and sugar - his Instagram is honestly transporting. I’ve always been intimidated by his recipes (homemade labneh, anyone?) but when searching for flourless chocolate cake recipes for Passover weeks ago, his came to the top of Google and its title was “Chocolate Idiot Cake”. Supposedly even an idiot could make it! This amateur baker liked where this was going .

Gluten Free Chocolate Tartlets | danicaliforniacooks.com Given that there was only four ingredients, I knew this baby was going to be rich. So rich that you didn’t even want more than one bite - an “amuse bouche” of a dessert, if you wish. I decided to modify the recipe to make mini tartes - tartlets! So I definitely owe the ingredients breakdown to Chef David, but if you don’t want to make an entire cake, follow my directions below. As we know, baking is a science and I was worried that if I modified his recipe in any way these things would turn out wrong. Well, that’s probably why he said that even an idiot could make this cake. It is really hard to screw up baking chocolate, butter, sugar, and eggs. No matter the size, if you undercook or overcook it, if you end up serving it straight out of the pan, if you can’t even make it to the baking portion because this batter (can you even call it batter?) is so ridiculously rich and delicious.

So I certainly agree with David - the first couple of steps of this recipe is definitely something any basic chef could do. Melt butter and chocolate, and whisk in eggs and sugar. That’s it. But given that this dessert is so rich and full of moisture, it gets a little more complicated than that. Make sure you grease that tart pan VERY WELL before putting in the batter.I think my parents found me brandishing the knife at the first round of these because they stuck to the pan, squealing about how I “ruined Passover” and that everything was ugly and “how is it possible for even an idiot to make these?!” Well, it doesn’t matter how ugly these things look because you could serve crumbles of them they taste SO good. David recommends using a springform pan for when you cook in cake form - less sticking.

We served these at Passover with homemade whipped cream (no sugar added - this cake is so rich the whipped cream needs no additional sweetness) and fresh fruit alongside my Strawberry Vanilla Macaroons. And the mini bites of them was all that you really needed. We saved extra to pass along throughout the week and everyone was kind of blown away with how good these flourless treats were. I will definitely be making this recipe again, but only for special occasions.

Gluten Free Chocolate Torte-letts

Prep time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour

The ultimate flourless chocolate cake needs only four ingredients. Recipe adapted from the genius David Lebovitz!

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 2 dozen

Ingredients

1¾ cup dark chocolate (chopped or chips)
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1¾ sticks of butter, room temperature
Extra butter or cooking spray for greasing
Optional: cocoa powder, powdered sugar, fruit, or whipped cream for serving!

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
Using a double boiler, melt together the dark chocolate and butter
In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together
Pour in the chocolate butter mixture, and mix thoroughly - it will be the consistency of pudding
Grease your mini tart pan WELL, using cooking spray and/or butter
Pour the batter into each tart shell, until almost reaching the top
Cover the pan with tin foil
Fill a glass baking dish with about ½ inch of water, and place the pan in the dish. The water should come up to about halfway to the pan
Bake for 50 minutes
Remove and let cool, then pop out with a knife
Dust cocoa powder or powdered sugar over the torte-lettes
Serve at room temperature with fruit or whipped cream

Notes

These can be made up to several days ahead - they were tasting better than ever throughout the week!

If you like these, you’ll love: Five Flourless Dessert Ideas for Passover (or any time of the year!)

How to Be Gluten Free for Passover

April 3, 2015 by Dani 2 Comments

Happy Passover! All of us Jews are going to seders tonight to kick off the holiday. Oh wait - not my family. We are getting our floors redone, so our house right now is essentially empty. So that means…we’ll probably be going out for sushi.

But, we’ll be attending a seder tomorrow and I wanted to share with you how I plan to be gluten (and dairy free!) When it comes to family holidays and gatherings, I find it particularly difficult to explain why you eat a certain way or another. You don’t want to seem high maintenance, you don’t want to offend anyone by not sampling what they brought to the party, aaaand you simply don’t want to miss out on the fun.

So, how can you be gluten free at Passover and not cause any ruckus?

1. Avoid the matzoh. Unfortunately, matzoh is made with wheat and therefore is a no-go BUT is a huge part of the seder. Womp womp. That means, no matzoh ball soup, no matzo with charoset (the awesome apple-nut-wine-cinnamon mixture), no late-night-too-many-glasses-of-wine-matzoh-with-butter. I plan to help out with the serving of the matzoh ball soup instead of just saying “no” awkwardly at the table. And when the charoset comes around, I’ll just eat plain spoonfuls of it because honestly that’s the best way to do it because its delicious.

2. Offer to bring a dessert! That way, you can make something that you can to eat yourself. The majority of desserts that are Passover-friendly are flour-free too, so I definitely have my pick of what to make. Check out my blog post on five flourless Passover dessert ideas if you’re still looking for some!

3. Take The Little Honey Bee‘s advice in her hilarious post “How Not to Be a Food Snob“. It documents her experiences at Passover and how she ate paleo without causing any attention. I definitely will be following some of her tips!

4. Plan ahead. Just like I am right now - I’m making a game plan! For holidays that revolve around dairy or wheat-based foods, you can reduce a lot of stress by thinking through the night ahead of time. It’s really easy to stress about it, but know that the majority of people who are at these gatherings will likely roll your eyes and support you and love you just the same even if you won’t take a bite of their matzoh balls.

5. Bring your own gluten free matzoh! You can buy it in the store - check out some brands here or here. Or you can make your own grain-free version!

6. Enjoy every other part of the seder. Thankfully, Passover is a holiday which does not include much gluten except for the matzo. It even bans bread or other leavened grains! So you can happily enjoy the brisket…the vegetables..the charoset…the wine…the flourless desserts…I know I will!

Five Flourless Dessert Ideas for Passover

March 29, 2015 by Dani 2 Comments

Passover starts Friday, April 3 this year and lasts through April 11. I am in charge of bringing a Passsover-friendly dessert to the seders I will be attending this year, so I have been trolling the internet for ideas and wanted to share some of the best ones with you! Since leaving for college, I’ve either skipped seders or hosted my own - but I haven’t been with my family for one in a long time! Our family seder traditions include my grandfather’s famous matzo ball soup, Mom’s brisket, and the predictable argument over who gets to be the “wise” son.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Jewish tradition, eating leavened bread is banned throughout the Passover holiday for those who observe. “Leavened bread” refers to the process when bread rises in the oven. I actually googled the specific rules around food restrictions for Passover, and they expand beyond things like bread, pasta, etc. Any product made from wheat, barley, rye, oats, and spelt is forbidden if it is “leavened”. That’s why you can eat those cracker-esque (read: flavorless) matzoh - even though it is made from wheat, it isn’t leavened! Fun stuff, folks. I generally follow the Passover eating rules just for tradition purposes.

With all of the paleo and gluten-free trends these days (in which I partake) there is an insane amount of awesome, delicious recipes on the interwebs which are Passover-friendly. However, there are some desserts in particular which are traditionally served with Passover meal! Enjoy the list below.

1. Macaroons

Shredded coconut-based macaroons are one of my favorite Passover-friendly treats (or for all year round!). Macaroons usually call for a couple of tablespoons of flour as a binder, but I’ve been successful with swapping almond flour for regular all-purpose if the macaroon recipe calls for it. What luck that Dani California Cooks has a classic recipe from the archives to share with you all that fits the bill for Passover!

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2. Flourless chocolate cake

My distant cousin Joyce used to make the most rich, delicious flourless chocolate cake with a unsweetened whipped cream to go with it. The cake was so decadently sweet that the whipped cream added just the right amount of texture and flavor without adding more sugar. . I am planning to do my own take on a flourless chocolate cake recipe to bring to a seder this year - I’ll definitely share the recipe if it is a success! You really can’t go wrong with any baking recipes from David Leibovitz - his recipe for flourless chocolate cake looks simple but very rich.

Photo Credit: David Lebovitz

3. Almond-flour based cake

Using almond flour provides a great nutty, earthy flavor to desserts that I love - and they are totally Passover-friendly. I like the way this almond flour cake in particular looks from Bon Appetit. Paired with fresh fruit, its an homage to spring!

almond-lemon-torte-with-fresh-strawberries

Photo Credit: Bon Appetit

4. Matzo “crack”

This not-so-droolworthy title refers to taking plain pieces of matzo and drizzling great things like chocolate, nuts, melted butter, sugar, more chocolate, caramel, on top. And then eating it, of course. This recipe from Martha Stewart calls for brown sugar and crumbled matzo to make matzo “toffee”.

Photo credit: Martha Stewart

5. Passover candy

Passover-approved treats include the traditional jelly candies (which everyone hates to love) and other delicious items like homemade chocolate bark. This recipe from the archives is easily customizable - swap the cranberries/almonds for apricots/cashews to get the candy ready for spring!