Apple Muffins Unlike Others You Have Had – for Passover – for Gluten Free

This is one of my favorite recipes.  In my opinion, these surpass, the apple muffins, I eat throughout the year.  The only reason, I do not make these all year, is to have them as something special for the holiday.  For those of you  who are gluten free or not, you could enjoy these, easily, twelve months of the year. 

 This is the original recipe from Tamar Ansh’s book.  It is online here with other of her recipes.  I suggest to everyone, this is a book you want, in your kitchen.  You do not have to be Jewish to make these recipes.  There is a photo of the muffins.  I will post mine but I froze one so I would have it left to take a photo, after the holidays.  It, obviously, got squished and is rather square.

I did not make changes to this recipe other than the kind of apples, I used.  I did not have green apples (I had one) so I used whatever I could find.

Apple Muffins              yields 15 – 20 muffins

4 cups green apples, peeled
and diced
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups potato starch
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup white raisins, optional
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 F / 170 C . Mix together sugar and cinnamon and toss with apples.

Set aside. Beat eggs with oil and vanilla by hand in a large bowl. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Set aside. Add apples to the egg mixture. Stir in the dry ingredients mixture by spoonfuls until well combined. Mix in raisins and walnuts at the end.

 Line muffin trays with muffin holders. Fill each cup with batter almost until the top.

 Bake 25 – 30 minutes until tester in center comes out clean and muffins are light brown on top. Muffins fall slightly after they cool down. Freezes well.

 

New Blondies for Passover (with chocolate chips)

 Chocolate Chip Blondies

  

Ingredients:

  

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup oil                                                                                                                

2 teaspoons bakingpowder

4 eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla sugar

7 ounces ground almonds

1 cup potato starch

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Method:

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Mix all ingredients together except chocolate chips.  Mix well by hand.

 

Place chocolate chips on top of batter.  Do not mix in.

 

Place in 9 x 13 inch pan .

 

Bake for 55 minutes.

 

Enjoy.

Submitted to Tuesdays at the Table. 

Golden Silky Sweet Potatoes

I got the idea for this delicious side dish from Tamar Ansh.  Her recipe is for Cinnamon Sweet Potato Crisps.  In discussing the recipe with  hubby, we both agreed, we did not want cinnamon on these sweet potato slices.  I love cinnamon and usually want it on everything, but not this time.

After, I sliced the potatoes, I decided that brown sugar would be a good replacement for the cinnamon.  I came up with a way to get the brown sugar on both sides of the slices, with a minimum of trouble.

Golden Silky Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

cooking spray

4 sweet potatoes, peeled

salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

brown sugar

Method:

 Spray two baking sheets with cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

 Thinly slice potato,  using food processor.     

       

In bowl with large flat bottom, put 3 tablespoons brown sugar and 2 tablespoons oil.  Add as you go along.

Put pieces of sweet potato in bowl.  Spray the tops of the potatoes and cover with brown sugar.

Arrange slices on baking sheets without overlapping.

 

 Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

 

The recipe in the cookbook said to bake for 45 minutes. 

I am baking these again for only 15 minutes.  I will change this, if necessary.

In the meanwhile, you have the recipe, if you want to try it.  Trust me, they are worth it.

  If you like sweet foods, this is yummy.

Submitted to Tasty Tuesdays where you find organization, good food and plenty more and to What’s cooking Wednesdays, a new blog for me and the Ultimate Recipe Swap.

Sweet Potato-Apple Puffs

I recently made, an apple-sweet potato kugel.  I found that I had about two cups left, maybe a little less.  I decided to experiment and make puffs out of them and I did just that.

Sweet Potato-Apple Puffs

Ingredients:

2 cups of leftover kugel or 2 cups of cooked, mashed sweet potatoes

1 tablespoon potato starch

1 egg

1 tablespoon oil

2/3 cup ground nuts  (filberts, walnuts, pecans)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper.

To make sweet potato mixture smooth, put in food processor with your egg and oil and mix it until it is creamy and smooth.

Add to this mixture, all other ingredients, except nuts.

Refrigerate for an hour or two.

If the mixture is too wet to make balls out of, add some additional potato starch until it is the right consistency.

Shape the mixture into small balls and place on cookie sheet.

Sprinkle chopped nuts on top of puffs.  The nuts should go down the sides.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

I have submitted this to Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Butternut Squash Kugel Tamar Ansh —- for Passover and all the year

Please check out the Passover Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  It is amazing.  It is the next post.

Butternut Squash Kugel

This is a recipe, I made, last year.  It was good then and it is good now.  Again, I must have goofed somewhere because mine came out more cakey.  Look at Tamar’s and you will see what it should look like.  Ours was more like a cake or bread but a delicious cake or bread.  When it comes out softer, it is better, I must admit.

I found this recipe online here.  The top photo is from the book.  I wanted you to see it since I did not get anything nearly as good.  I will place my photos beneath the recipe.

We enjoyed this immensely and I am hoping I will have time, to make it again, this Passover.

//                  Butternut Squash Kugel By Tamar Ansh      Other than the word, “Ingredients” being added, this is the recipe, straight from the site.  Photo from cookbook.   Makes one 8×11-inch tray; serves approx. 8 Ingredients: 2½ cups (20 oz.) cooked and mashed butternut squash (about 2 medium squashes) ⅝ cup potato starch ½ cup oil ½ cup sugar 3 eggs 2 tsp. cinnamon Method Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds. Place the pieces in a large pot with about 2 inches of water, and cover the pot. Bring this to a boil over a high flame, reduce the flame, and cook them for 30 minutes, until the squash is fork-tender. Remove the squash from the pot and let it cool. Scoop out the meat from the skin, discarding the skins. Mash the squash meat and measure out the amount needed. Sift the potato starch over the mashed squash with a small sifter or tea strainer, so it won’t clump together. Add the oil, sugar, and eggs and mix well. Pour the batter into an 8×11-inch baking pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the top of the kugel. Bake for 40–45 minutes, until the center of the kugel tests firm when pierced with a knife.  TIP: This kugel slices neatest when it is cold. Make it one day in advance. The next day, slice it into neat squares and then it can be served cold or warmed up, covered, for 10 minutes before serving.

Chocolate Chip Cookies for Passover

Tamar Ansh’s Pesach Cookbook, Pesach-Anything’s Possible, is truly my best friend, so far.  I have made loads of recipes, from the book and will post those when I have time to type them up.  Fortunately for me, her chocolate chip cookies are on her site so I did not have to type.  I am not sure I made any changes but I will fill that in below.   More likely, I will share how I handled this recipe.  I think, this is the first year, I did make chocolate chip cookies.  I don’t remember seeing recipes, in my other books, or at least, ones that looked so good.

They to not have the same consistency as regular chocolate chippers but they are chewy but not soft.  I am not sure how to describe them other than magnificent.

 Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is from Mrs. Rikva Thumim of Golders Green, London.   It is posted in Tamar Ansh’s book.

 
Makes about 45 cookies – or so. Hard to tell as they get eaten very quickly!  (I made four trays (large trays) plus an extra 3.)

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
2 eggs
1 cup oil
2 packets, about 2 T. vanilla sugar  (I didn’t buy any this year so I used 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.)
3_ cups very finely ground almonds – (almost flour consistency)
1 cup potato starch
1_ cup / 10 oz. chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C.

Cream together the sugar, eggs, and oil. Add in the vanilla, almonds, potato starch, and chocolate chips and mix well.

          

Freeze the batter for 10 minutes to make it easier to form the cookies.  (I did not need to do this.  The dough was fine for shaping.  In between baking, I put the bowl in the refrigerator.)

It will be oily, but this is normal. Make small balls out of the batter using your hands or a mini ice cream scooper. Place them on a parchment-baking paper- lined tray. DO NOT flatten the cookies at all. They spread a lot in the baking process. The size cookie you see featured here was done with a mini-ice cream scooper and look how big they got.

Bake them for 12 minutes, until they are lightly browned and crinkled. Let them cool a bit on the paper and then remove them. Hide them quickly if you want some for later, and yes, these do freeze well.  

                                                                         

 

Notes:  Success reigns.  Hats off to Tamar Ansh.

Flourless Almond Cookies For Passover and All Year

I have made these before but it appears, I have not posted them, here.  Shame on me.  Really, shame on me.  These are so good, you should have had the recipe, ages ago.

Below is a photo of the almond nut butter straight from the bottle.  See how thick it is.

I am not sure where I got this from but I owe them thanks.

Flourless Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup almond nut butter  (When I opened the bottle, the  nut butter was separated.  Please shake it up well, before you use it.  It is quite thick.)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

  1/2 teaspoon baking soda                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Method:

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Please do not bake this in any other way.   Use parchment paper.

 

 

In a large mixing bowl, by hand, mix together almond butter, brown sugar, egg, baking soda and salt.

 

 

Add a few teaspoons of strawberry jelly or flavor of choice into batter and mix well. (I did not do this because I did not purchase strawberry jelly or another jelly, I would like to add.)

 

Use a tablespoon measure to make balls and place them on the parchment paper.  Space about one and half inches apart.  Flatten with spoon or hand. 

Bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees.  If not golden brown at the edges, put back for another two minutes.

Do not remove from pan until cool.

Notes:

I left one pan in too long and they are a bit browner and crisper than the second batch.  They may even be better, this way.

You could use other extracts rather than vanilla, if you choose.

Usually, I use my cookie scoop but not having one for Passover, I leveled off a standard tablespoon (measuring spoon) after spraying it with cooking oil and pushed the cookie dough onto parchment paper. 

Spreading was minimal and I think that once inch is enough spacing between cookies.

These are “tall” cookies.   I forgot to get a photo of the ones that are taller.  The longer they baked, they shorter they are.

You do not have to reread this.  This is no substitute for the flour, not even potato starch.  I know, I looked twice, the first time, I made these.  Shirley should like these.

Enjoy.

These are for you.

I happily shared these at the Ultimate Recipe Exchange.   Wow, they have lots of recipes.

Simply Sweet Home is the place to be.

Brown Sugar Baked Salmon for Passover and All Year

During the year, we buy kosher salmon that comes individually wrapped from Costco.  It is not kosher for Passover (Pesach).  They do have one huge piece of salmon that is kosher for Pesach and we went with that, for the holiday.  Hubby cut it up into separate servings and begged, yes begged me to make it, last night.  We always say Passover food tastes better than the rest of the year.  You know, I make salmon weekly and this was the very best, even though the recipe was similar to others, I make and it is not yet Passover.

Good recipes, I share with my blogger buddies.

Baked Salmon with Brown Sugar Marinade Ingredients:

2 salmon fillets

Marinade:

1/4 cup brown sugar packed

 lemon slices

2 tablespoons melted margarine

1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons water

a few squeezes lemon juice  (I did not measure it.  Determine the amount to your own liking or use 1 tablespoon.)

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine marinade ingredients in a small bowl.

Put salmon in baking dish.  I used an aluminum foil pan which I will be doing a lot of, for the next two weeks.

Marinate for one half hour to an hour.  (I skipped this step.  We were hungry.  It did not seem to affect the taste.)

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.

 

Enjoy.                                                              

I submitted to Food on Fridays with Ann and Kelly the Kitchen Kop for Real Food Wednesdays.  Would you like to link up too?

 

Famous Brownies – Tamar Ansh (Passover)

I make both Tamar Ansh and Susie Fishbein’s Passover Brownies.  They are quite similar.  I made Tamar’s tonight.  I am going to share both recipes.  Don’t turn your back on these.  They won’t be there, when your turn around.

Tamar calls hers, “Famous Brownies”.  I would guess, within Jewish homes, these are quite famous.  Most people, I know, make one or the other recipes.  Tamar may know something, I do not know and probably means famous, in a broader manner.

Brownies for Passover  (slightly adapted)

6 eggs

2 2/3 cups sugar (My husband commented, these were not sweet.  He did not know how much sugar was in the brownies but he is right.  They were just right, no cloying aftertaste.)

1 1/2 cups potato starch

3/4 cup cocoa

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Glaze:

I did not have time to make the glaze but I am going to share the entire recipe.  I did spread chocolate chips on top and put the brownies back in the oven for a minute.  I then spread the chips over the brownie pudding, not the brownies.  Hubby likes them without frosting.

The real glaze follows:

1  cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons hot water

2 tablespoons cocoa

BROWNIES

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). 

  

Place the eggs, sugar, potato starch, cocoa, oil and vanilla into a large bowl.

 

Mix it all together until it is smooth.

 

Add chopped walnuts.

 

Line a 9 x 13 inch pan with parchment paper and pour the batter into the pan.

 

Bake for 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the brownies’s center comes out mostly clean, and the top is light brown and crispy.

 

(I used a square pan and made a round brownie pudding cake from the extra batter.  I plan to post the pudding cake on My Sweet and Savory, hopefully, tomorrow.)

 

Do not overbake.

 

When you remove the pan from the oven, allow it to cool completely.

 

Glaze:

 

In a small bowl, mix together the glaze ingredients with a spoon until smooth. 

 

Spread over the cooled brownies.

 

Allow it to set for a few minutes and then slice.

 

 

Stop in and see Linda at Gluten Free Wednesdays.  She has a lot to offer, on her blog.  If you have GF muffins, share them, next Wednesday, on her blog.

I also shared this with Pennywise Platter, a blog that serves two major purposes, frugality and health.  I, only discovered the Nourishing Gourmet, the title of the blog, a few weeks ago and I am glad that I did.  You might want to see if this is a blog for you.

Designs by Gollum is a classy blog.  I love it.  There is everything beautiful there.  Lots of special giveaways also.

Passover Recipes – On the Way – Good for those on Gluten Free Diet

I have finally organized myself and my kitchen to move ahead and start cooking for the holiday of Passover.   I would guess that most Jewish families celebrate this holiday, in some way.  I am Orthodox andwe have a clear and joyous celebration.  We do not eat the five grains, wheat, oat, rye, barley and spelt.  We also do not eat rice and beans.  The Sephardic Jews do eat the rice and beans.

Let me make it clear to you that I am sharing how I observe by the recipes I make.  Others will share differently.  If you read something, in another blog, that is different, they too are sharing their observance.

I am not going to discuss this from a religious point of view,  but I think you might be interested in what we do to our kitchens before we can start to cook.  I have some photos to help.  Basically, we take our kitchen apart.  I have a group of cabinets on one wall where I stuff everything that I am removing from my kitchen.  I also have a closet with shelves to hold these things.  This includes pots and pans, flatware, glassware, baking sheets and pans and dishes.  We reline our shelves.  You will see, I used freezer paper which I will remove after the holiday.  I don’t worry about appearance.  I make do by using tape to hold it in.  Not pretty but it works……. 

  I empty the pantry and cabinets that hold food items such as sugar, flour and all baking items.  I replace these with special food for Passover.  Much of it will look familiar to you but much of it is especially made for Passover.  Some items are good throughout the year and Passover.

I baked my first Passover recipe tonight.  I am going to split the posting of recipes between My Sweet and Savory and here.

Today, I am going to simply show you some photos to set the feeling in my most glamorous kitchen.

We cover the areas behind the counters with aluminum foil.  We cover the counters with various materials.  This is a true but temporary transformation.

Do you think I have too many skillets?  I do.  I am going to keep some to use during the rest of the year.  I had several that did not wear well and I got rid of them.  Each year, I forget that I have replaced them and buy another.  Not this year.  I have this photo to remind me - I do not need any more skillets.  This is an embarrassing moment. 

No, the shelf is not crooked.  It is under the counter and I was crouched down to take the photo.  I guess, I was leaning to the side.

Some casseroles.  I have a matching set of the pumpkin colored ones for during the year.

Speaking of being organized.  Don’t the two below go together?  No?  I have learned to use the space and fit in what is necessary.  Cupcake liners can be squeezed in almost anywhere.

The shelves below usually hold my cookbooks and loose recipes.  For Pesach, I am putting in the vegetables, I can’t fit in the refrigerator.  We buy vegetables in quantity.  Potatoes – 40 pounds, carrots – 10 pounds, onions – 20 pounds – bell peppers – 6 at a time…..I think you get the idea.

One of my favorites by Susie Fishbein, who you have heard of before, at Comfy Cook and My Sweet and Savory.

Yes, it looks battered and beaten.  It has been used so often, it is showing wear and tear.  Luckily, I have an earlier edition, which is not identical but has many of the recipes.  In the meanwhile, this is going strong.  Please, look at that cover and tell me, you don’t want a piece.  I will try to get a  better photo.  I took this one with the book laying down.  For all our Gluten free members, Jewish or not, this is the book for you.  Every single recipe is gluten free.  When Passover is over, I plan to make a list of some of the recipes and if I can get permission from Tamar Ansh, the author, I will also show you a few photos.  I want to make every recipe in the book.

Below are some of by older Passover cookbooks.  I have gotten recipes from all of them, over the years.  Yep, we keep eating Passover food for weeks, after the holiday.  We don’t mind at all.

Happy Passover to all my Jewish readers. 

For those, who are gluten free, there is a gold mine here and I will attempt to share some of it with you here and at My Sweet and Savory.

 

If you are looking for creative gluten free recipes, here is the place to go, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.

I have shared this at Tasty Tuesdays.   Balancing Beauty and Bedlam is the place to be on Tuesdays and every day.  Not only, are there exciting new recipes but tips on everything, budgeting, fashion….you name it.  Have some fun and visit and enjoy.

You might enjoy visitin Cooking Thursdays where I submitted this.