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.