Passover Lemon/Orange Bread Pudding

This recipe was a huge success at our congregation last Passover season. Another keeper!!!!!!

Most of my Passover recipes I have acquired from websites in my home country, Brazil.

I personally like this recipe better than the traditional recipe of soggy/egg flavor bread pudding out there. The addition of fresh lemon or orange is a wonderful delightful combination to this old recipe.

I've cooked both the lemon and orange recipes as they equally delicious.


Ingredients:
10 matzoh
4 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup raisins
3/4 cup sweet red wine or grape juice
4 apples shredded
1 lemon rind and juice (if using oranges, juice and rind of 1 orange)
1/2 stick melted butter or margarine
1 cup nuts, optional


Preparation:

~ Simmer raisins in wine/juice for 5 minutes. Let stand while mixing rest of pudding.
~ Separate 4 eggs. Beat egg whites with 1/2 cup sugar and set aside.
~ Soak matzohs for 3 to 5 minutes, squeeze dry, and place in large mixing bowl.
Add the following to the soaked matazos:
~ Beaten egg yolks, raisins, shredded apples and wine. Add lemon juice, lemon rind, and 1/2 stick melted butter or margarine. Add sugar and cinnamon (mixed together). Add nuts, if desired.
Gently fold mixture into egg whites until well mixed.

9X13X2 well greased and floured (Kosher Passover flour or corn starch) baking pan.

Bake at 375 degrees F. For about 1 hour.

Passover Brownies

Sorry I don't have a photo for this at the moment; my computer was sent for repairs and all of my cooking pictures are in there. So, for now here is the recipe, without a shot of it. My family loves these brownies. Mark said I can make them all year round :) This is a real keeper.

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

Greased and dusted with corn starch or potato starch 12X8X2 baking pan.

Ingredients

1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

3 Tbsp. margarine

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs, well beaten (room temperature)

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup Matzoh meal (make your own)

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation:

Melt chocolate chips and margarine together, remove from heat and add, sugar vanilla. Add well beaten eggs and Matzo meal at once and mix very well without stopping, in order for eggs not to cook. Allow it to sit for 15 minutes before baking. This is needed in order to soften the Matzo meal a bit. Cut while still warm. Enjoy it.

Charoset

What is Charoset?

There are many recipes for Charoset, but the most popular consists of chopped or shredded apples, walnuts and cinnamon, moistened with wine or grape juice and formed into a paste. Choroset is symbolic of the mortar the children of Israel were compelled to make when they worked for their Egyptian taskmasters. This brown looking food is actually quite delicious!!!!! 

At one point during the Seder (means order) we are supposed to test the bitterness of the horseradish and right after or together experience this very sweet tasty dark/brown mixture. It surely paints a perfect picture of our lives in Egypt (life without Messiah,) and the sweetness of our lives with Him. Somehow when we can experience such textures, smells and flavors, our minds are able to communicate to our spiritual hearts some deeper things that otherwise would be very hard to understand just by an idea. If you have never been part of a Passover Seder you don't know what you are missing, it's like eating a full 5 course dinner...... it's the menu of God, so perfect and so delicious!!!!!!

I acquired this recipe from one of the Messianic Rabbis in the Kansas City area.Actually she just told me the list of ingredients without the actual measurements; the measurements you see below are roughly what I have estimated to be throughout the years I have made. Honestly, you can't go wrong with this, it's really a matter of taste. If you are making Charoset for a large crowd, this is an easy and inexpensive recipe to make for it. Some recipes will call for different types of dried fruits, it's just as delicious without.   

Ingredients

6 Red Delicious apples, shredded

6 oz walnuts, finely chopped

1 Tbsp. honey

3 Tbsp. Brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon (or more)

1/3 - 1/2 cup grape juice or kosher red wine (sweet)

Preparation

Mix first five ingredients together with half of the juice or wine. Refrigerate until ready to serve, then add the rest of the juice or wine when ready to serve.

One tablespoon per person is the usual amount necessary for a Seder; however, I always make a large amount of it for desert afterwards and rest of the week. It keeps for days in the refrigerator.