Monday, April 09, 2012

Pesach Brownies- Classic Kosher Cooking, Sara Finkel

Yes, the photo sucks. Raymond should come live with us so I could have professional photography on the blog-but then he'd weigh 300 lbs. and hate me. So you're stuck with crappy photos. As the kids say, whatever.



Another year, another version of brownies. Really, there's only so much you can do with passover brownies (sour cream versions, egg-less, oil vs. margarine) but a good frosting will make them edible. Some recipes claim, "I would make these all year", but that is a flat-out lie. No one would willingly make Passover brownies during the year. All that said, for what they are, this batch was pretty good.

A few months back, I found a number of Jewish cookbooks at the library sale (someone must have been moving, and donated their cookbooks) and I'm really making good use of them. Classic Kosher Cooking by, Sara Finkel is just that-the classics. So far I've made the pesach spongecake (excellent), and chremslach which are a sort of dried fruit and matzo meal fritter (also excellent). The book is nicely hard-bound, and the type is easy to read across the kitchen counter which is more often than not, how I end up looking at cookbooks (oh, what I would give for more counter space). I can enthusiastically say it was well worth my .50 cents to purchase.

The frosting recipe comes from the same volume, and that one I would make use of during the year-it is wonderful.

You Will Need:

Brownies:
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup salad oil
1 tablespoon orange juice
1/2 cup powdered cocoa
1 cup Pesach cake meal (finely ground matzos)
2 tablespoons potato starch
(3/4 cup chopped walnuts which I omitted)

preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 pan.

beat eggs, adding sugar slowly until fluffy. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bake 25-30 minutes taking care not to overbake. Cool, then frost and cut into squares.

Frosting:

1/2 cup powdered cocoa
1` cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water-scant
3 tablespoons margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (optional. I used it)

In a saucepan, mix cocoa, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook about ten minutes or until it reaches soft-ball stage. Remove from heat and beat in remaining ingredients. Continue to stir until thickened. Note- Much like fudge, it will begin to loose gloss as it thickens-that's when you should spread it. I didn't have trouble with it, but I also gave it my complete attention. I could see it failing horribly if you stopped stirring for 30 seconds or something.

2 comments:

Raymond said...

I'm afraid that my photos would look hardly better than yours. Yours are just fine. For better pix, I'd have to set up lights and reflectors; then spend forever in Photoshop. Oy. No, you don't need me.

But yes, I would definitely go to 300 lbs becuz I have ZERO willpower.

Goody said...

Light is my biggest issue here, and I refuse to invest in better lights just for photographing food.

I'm nearing the limit of free photo storage on Blogger, and I'm really tempted to forgo purchasing any more. I don't know why every recipe needs a picture. I could see it if I were trying to market the blog or something, but I think we all know, I have zero marketability.

Well maybe you could come for a short visit...how much damage could we do to your waistline in a weekend? You know you have a standing open invitation, cameras or not.