It is Passover time – one of my favorite times of the year – specifically for this – oh, and don’t forget about this. It’s funny – but I look forward to making both of those recipes every year.  I haven’t found a new one in quite a while…until I went to Israel.  Hold that thought…

So, Monday night we had a wonderful Seder at my neighbor’s house.  They had 24 guests – which meant 48 matzo balls, because you can’t just have one.  As I was heading home from work, I saw an email from my neighbor about a bad accident that occurred in the neighborhood, causing a huge back-up on one of the main streets that takes you from the highway to our house.  Our neighborhood has been the target of many burglaries lately, a shooting, and bank robbery - which has caused the schools to go into lockdown and traffic to stand still.  But this was different.  It was a drunk driver.  He drove into 3 adults and an infant.  A mother, her 10 day old son, and her in-laws.  The grandparents died at the scene of the accident, and the mother and son were rushed to the hospital, where they remain in critical condition.  What a tragedy.  The biggest tragedy of all, this was not the person’s first time with a DUI.  It makes me sick.  Something must be done.  I actually found this link tonight on the internet - in case you want to do something to help the family – I certainly did.

Ok, back to the recipe.  When I was in Israel last week, they had a special toast to celebrate the beginning of Passover.  It is definitely a big deal there, and one of the women told me about a cake she makes for Passover.  Now for those of you who celebrate Passover, you know that for the most part – Passover cakes are not that delicious.   It is hard to make a Kosher for Passover cake that you would actually long to eat – you cannot use any leavening in the ingredients.  Over the years, some of the boxed mixes have gotten pretty good – but I always prefer to bake from scratch.  The other wrench in the process is, technically, if you are serving meat for dinner, the dessert must be dairy free as well – so that means no butter.  So, when I heard about this amazing cake – I had to give it a try.  I figured, with 24 people at the Seder, there can always be an extra dessert.  I baked this on Sunday in preparation, and I could tell it was going to be a winner.  I was a little nervous with the number of eggs – but it completely worked.  This cake was delicious, particularly for a Passover cake – although I must say, even if I didn’t celebrate Passover, I would have been very happy to eat this.  For those of you who are cinnamon lovers - this is definitely a cake for you.  Happy Passover!

Ingredients

Filling

• 2 pounds Golden Delicious Apples, peeled and sliced ​​into pieces (about 5 apples)
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• Juice of one lemon

Dough

• 1 1/2 cups matzo meal
• 1/2 cup potato flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup canola oil 240ml (1 cup)

Topping

• 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the filling by mixing the apples, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice until completely coated.  Set aside approximately 30 minutes.

Make the dough.  Whisk the matzo and potato flour.  Add the sugar and stir.  Add eggs and oil and blend with an electric mixture until the dough is uniform and very soft. Set aside for 20 minutes.

In a third bowl, mix the walnuts, sugar and cinnamon.

Assemble the cake. With wet hands, spread half the dough on the bottom of the pan. Spread the apples on top - without the liquid.  Place the rest of the dough over the apples and spread using wet hands or a spatula, cover the apples evenly.
Sprinkle the surface of the dough with the topping. Bake for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes, until dough is golden.

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, please click here:  Passover Apple Cake

My husband and I have been really into grapefruits lately.  Whole Foods has been getting these big Harbor Island grapefruits that are just incredible.  They are so amazingly sweet, and oh so juicy!  I swear I could easily squeeze a cup of juice from each one.  We have been waiting for the girls to go to sleep, and then we dig in.  You would think we were doing something scandalous, but no, just eating perfect grapefruits.  Since I am not a big fruit person, this is a really big deal for me.  I can basically go weeks without fruit and not miss it one bit, but these grapefruits are something else.

I saw this recipe in Cooking Light the other month, before we went on our grapefruit bingeing – and because we were enjoying them so much, I decided to make this cake.  Boy was I glad I did – I knew when I saw the ingredients that it was going to be good – adding cream cheese to just about anything makes it creamy and delicious, and the cake was no exception.  If you are not a big grapefruit fan, you will probably still love this – it is not an overpowering flavor, it comes out mostly in the glaze.  The cake was very moist, especially for a light cake, and had some dearth to it, like a good pound cake should.  I will definitely be making this again – as soon as I have an extra grapefruit lying around…

Ingredients

•   Baking spray with flour
• 9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 5/8 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 6 ounces 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
• 2  large eggs
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons grated grapefruit rind
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
• 1/2 cup fresh grapefruit juice
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325°.

Coat a 10-inch tube pan with baking spray. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, stirring well. Place granulated sugar, butter, and cream cheese in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in oil, rind, and vanilla.

Add flour mixture and milk alternately to batter, beginning and ending with flour. Spoon batter into pan; bake at 325° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Invert cake. Cool on rack.

Place juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 3 tablespoons (about 4 minutes). Cool slightly. Stir in powdered sugar and remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt. Drizzle over cake.

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, please click here:  Grapefruit Pound Cake

This is the story of my life in one sentence:  I can always do more…  Unfortunately this sentence plagues me day in and day out.  I don’t like to waste a minute of time, and what that means is I am constantly running from one thing to the next, leaving very little time in between.  If I feel like I have a little extra time, I take that time and run with it – and then that usually makes me late for the next task.  It is a curse, although on the other hand, I am extremely productive!  And tired.

The other week we were invited to our neighbor’s house for dinner, and was asked to bring dessert.  I really had all day to prepare something, but I wanted to get errands done, and pretty soon I had an hour left to prepare.  I looked in the refrigerator and saw that there was some extra creme of coconut in a container…and that got me thinking about this recipe I found in Bon Appetit ages ago, but never had an opportunity to make it – Coconut Caramel Sauce.  I quickly found the recipe, and decided to try it out – I also had vanilla ice-cream in the freezer, so I decided that ice-cream and caramel would make an excellent dessert.  When I looked at the recipe, it looked so simple, that I knew I would have a little extra time – and wouldn’t brownies just taste delicious with that ice-cream and caramel?  They are super quick, and ridiculously delicious – and the last time I made them, I remember thinking about how awesome they would be with caramel.

So – I got to work, and within an hour, both were ready and waiting.  The caramel was amazing – it was just perfect with those brownies and ice-cream, you would have thought I had been baking all day!!  So, I got lucky, and the problem is that when things work out so well, it gives me no incentive to change…but then again, I have been living my life this way for over 20 years, and as long as I can make brownies and home-made caramel sauce in under an hour, the future is looking brighter and brighter.

 Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco López)*
• Classic Fudge Brownies
• 1 1/2 pints purchased French vanilla ice cream

* Sweetened cream of coconut is available in the liquor section of most supermarkets.

Ok – still trying to play catch-up with my posts, but I am getting closer.  I am not going to take up too much time writing today, because I know you all have so much to do right now.  Since we are inching upon Hanukkah and Christmas, my post today is another gift for you.  Just another easy recipe to make gifts from the kitchen.  This time a bark, as opposed to a brittle.

So – what exactly is the difference between a bark and a brittle?  I wondered myself, so I decided to look it up – boy was that an exercise in frustration.  I just could not get a good answer.  The most logical answer would have been that a bark is made of chocolate, and a brittle made of candy – but no, not that easy.  So if anyone knows what the true answer is, I would love to know.

This Chocolate-Almond Bark with Sea Salt that I found in Bon Appetit was a little more involved than the Candy Cane Brittle, because of the candied almonds – but oh was it worth it.  The sweetness of the almonds with the richness of the chocolate, balance out with the bright sea salt was quite something.  I could have eaten the whole batch myself if it wasn’t for the fact that I was making these for other people… and I am not even a huge chocolate fan.  That definitely says something.  So – if you are still wondering what to make people this year – this is a perfect gift.  Although, you might just like it so much, you will keep it as a gift for youself…but you deserve it!

Preparation

Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or foil.  Combine sugar with 2 Tbsp. water in a small saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat  until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and cook, occasionally swirling pan and  brushing down sides with a wet pastry brush, until caramel is dark amber, about  5 minutes. Remove from heat. Immediately add butter; whisk until melted. Add  almonds; stir until well coated. Transfer to baking sheet, spreading out to  separate nuts. Let cool. Break up any large clumps of nuts. Set aside 1/4 of  nuts.

Stir chocolate in a medium bowl set over a saucepan of  simmering water until melted. Remove from heat, add nuts from baking sheet, and  stir quickly to combine. Spread chocolate-nut mixture on same baking sheet,  keeping nuts in a single layer. Top with the reserved nuts; sprinkle with salt.  Chill until chocolate is set, about 3 hours.

Break bark into pieces and store between layers of parchment  or waxed paper.

DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 week ahead. Keep  chilled.

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, please click here:  Chocolate-Almond Bark