Chocolate Indulgence Cookies

Passover baking can be tough. You want something to taste good, but their are a lot of restrictions. The highest compliment you can get is, you can't even tell these are for passover. These cookies aren't for passover, they are simply gluten free any time cookies with a little adjustment. So if you are not making them for passover, feel free to use regular powdered sugar and 1 tbsp of cornstarch instead of the tapioca. In making these cookies I learned a very valuable lessen, check ALL your ingredients before baking anything. I was so focused on finding a cornstartch replacement, the I neglicted to check and see what powdered sugar actually is. In case you don't know, it's sugar and cornstarch. Opps. Lucky for you, there is an easy fix to that problem (see below), unfortunetly for me, the cookies were already in the oven when I discovered this. Oh well, live and learn, either way, these cookies are insanely delicious, extremely chocolatey, and highly addictive. Enjoy! And Happy Passover!

Chocolate Indulgence Cookies:
1 1/2 cups of bittersweet chocolate chips, divided
3 large egg whites, room temperature
2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar (kosher for passover*), plus more for dusting cookies
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp + 1 tsp of minute tapioca
1/2 teaspoon salt

*There are a few brands that make this, but if you can't find it, it can be made by blending regular table sugar and either tapioca or potato startch. Blend 1 cup minus 1 tbsp of sugar, with 1 tbsp of potato starch or minute tapioca in a food processor until combined and powdery.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and positiona rack in the middle of the oven. Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl, set asside to cool. In a large bowl beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in 1 cup of powdered sugar, mix on high spead until mixture is glossy and the texture of marshmallow cream. Reduce spead to low and mix in remaining sugar, cocoa, tapioca and salt. Using a wooden spoon fold in melted chocolate (should be luke warm). Stir in remaining chocolate chips, the dough will be very thick. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and spray with non-stick spray. Put some additional powdered sugar in a bowl. Scoop dough by rounded tablespoon and roll into a ball, roll each ball in powdered sugar and place on the cookie. Space cookies about an inch apart. Bake until tops are cracked, about 10 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing. Let cool completely before serving (trust me, they taste better this way. Makes about 30 cookies. (adapted from Epicurious)

Happy Eating.

Family Secrets

So as promised a post about Gefilte Fish. So for those of you who don't know, gefitle fish is a traditional Passover dish made from carp. It is served at just about every Sedar, but it is rarely made from scratch, because it is labor intense and smelly, but it tastes so much better when it is. My family has always made there own fish. My dad and my aunt tell stories about when the fish used to live in the bathtub for 3 days, before my nanny made it, and how they loved it because they didn't have to shower.

My first fish memory is from when I was about 5. My nanny (grandma) took me with her to buy the fish, back when you could pick the specific live fish you wanted (now you just say how many pounds you need). The fish were all swimming in the tank and my nanny picked the one she wanted. The fish monger put it on the counter, and wham, a hammer to it's head. They put it up on the scale to weigh it and it started flopping all over the place. The monger then chased it around the behind the counter area holding some kind of blunt object until finally... SMACK, and then it flopped no more. My nanny grabbed my arm, very hard and whispered in my ear, "that is how you know you have a good fish."

So, my aunt (pictured here with me, and we are both wearing very fashionable hand sewn (by my nanny) aprons) inherited this recipe, right and responsibility from her mother, and it extends back at least another generation still. And now, it is being passed on to me. My aunt has this giant binder of family recipes, hand written by her, my grandmother, and my great grandmother, with notes added each year about what worked, what didn't, etc. The binder is truly something to behold.

So now, fish making...

Let's start at the beginning. First you make a fish stock from the bones and head.


Then you grind the fish up in small batches, with some other ingredients (think fish meat balls)

Then you form the gefilte fish and you cook them in the stock.

Then you take the fish skin.

And cover the fish in the pot.

Now it's done cooking.

Tad-ah!

And that my friends, is how you get gefilte fish. Well cooking it, like eating it is certainly an acquired taste.

Happy Eating