Passover dessert recipes

Are you tasked with the dessert course for the Passover meal? These Pistachio Macaroons from Joan Nathan's

Jewish Cooking in America

are simple and delicious.

Or try local cookbook author Aliza Green's Majorcan Lemon-Almond Cake, a moist and non-mealy Passover dessert. It's from her book Starting with Ingredients: Baking.

PISTACHIO MACAROONS

3 cups shelled pistachio nuts

1 cup sugar

3 egg whites

Sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whirl the pistachios in a food processor until ground but not pureed.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix the ground nuts, sugar and egg whites. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes. Drop the batter from a tablespoon onto the cookie sheets, leaving 1/2 inch between macaroons.

Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly brown. Dust with sugar when cool. Matkes about 2 dozen.

Source: From Joan Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America

MAJORCAN LEMON-ALMOND CAKE

1/2 pound (1 1/2 cups) whole blanched almonds

1/4 cup potato starch

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch salt

1 tablespoon unsalted butter or Passover margarine

1/4 cup sliced almonds, skin-on

4 large eggs, separated

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey

Grated zest of 2 lemons (2

tablespoons)

Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the whole almonds, potato starch, cinnamon and salt in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely ground.

Rub a 9-inch removable-bottom or springform cake pan with the butter or margarine, sprinkle the bottom with the sliced almonds, then dust with a little of the ground almond mixture, shaking off the excess.

In the clean, greaseless bowl of a standing electric mixer and using the whisk, beat egg whites until fluffy, then add the sugar and continue beating until whites are firm and glossy, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to another bowl.

Using the same mixer bowl (it is not necessary to wash it), combine the yolks and honey. Beat with the whisk until light and thick, about 5 minutes. Fold in the remaining ground-almond mixture and the lemon zest. Transfer to a wide, shallow bowl.

Fold the meringue into the almond mixture in thirds so as not to deflate the whites. Spread the batter evenly into the pan and shake the pan back and forth to even the top.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the cake starts to come away from the sides of the pan, the center is set, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack, then turn it out onto a serving platter with the bottom up. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Store the cake wrapped in aluminum foil up to 3 days at room temperature. Serve topped with a drizzle of honey mixed with lemon juice. Makes one 9-inch cake that serves 8 to 12.

Source: Aliza Green, Starting with Ingredients: Baking.