[Cookie 071] Chocolate Chip Cookies for Passover

This may seem late, posting a Passover cookie recipe on the last night of Passover 2010, but in reality, all Jews should be thanking me for this one. I've got your back, even if you don't know it yet.

Oh wait, where are my manners. Happy Easter to all those who do that, and hope y'all found lots of eggs and ate lots of hot cross buns or whatever you do. Honestly, I don't know the first thing about Easter (well, I know the first thing, but I bet you'd be surprised at my lack of knowledge on the matter), and though I am technically Jewish, I don't really know the first thing about Passover either (alright, I know a little more about Passover than Easter, I admit). Anyway, what I do know is that whenever we did the whole seder business in my family, I was always the one to recite the 4 questions, pile on to my plate an unjustly large portion of charoset, and was so terrible at finding the Afikoman that you'd think I was legally blind. Good memories. Oh, and one other thing I remember about Passovers past--the excessive remains of matzo lurking unhappily in our pantry in the weeks following the holiday.

Devoid of any real flavor (unless you're smart enough to buy the salted or seasoned variety), matzo is literally flour and water. That is all. Right, so we can all agree it's not bursting with umami-goodness or decadent sweetness. I, however, love its blandness; then again, I like eating sauce-less, refrigerated day-old pasta directly out of its tupperware container with my bare fingers, so take my opinions with a hefty grain of salt (pun intended!). So what's a Jew to do once Passover is over and we can all return to normalcy and eat our butter and jam on leavened bread like sane people? Make these cookies!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies for Passover--oh Martha, you kind, politically-correct Easter-obsessed gentile. I appreciate your consideration! These cookies were surprisingly tasty, even though they didn't bake up at all like they were supposed to. I have to admit, from the get-go I was strongly skeptical of this flour-less, dairy-less cookie recipe, but you have proven me wrong! And you have given all us matzo-burdened Jews a unique way to unload our "thank-god-it's-only-once-a-year" stash of mitzva matzo (ooh say that 5 times fast).

Enough blather, lets buckle down and talk cookie. As you might have guessed, there is no butter, no flour, no milk, nada in this recipe. So what is it? It's matzo meal, matzo farfel, oil, and non-dairy chocolate chips--the latter of which I most definitely did not search for, let alone even consider seriously for one minute (go ahead Moses, smite me!).

So where does the actual sheets of matzo come in? Well, funny story: I went to the market last week, went to the Passover section, and low and behold: NO MATZO MEAL. I went back a few days later, same deal. Three separate trips I returned home empty handed and bitter (how appropriate, right?) But really--come on!! Where am I? New. York. City. If I can't find matzo meal here, it must only exist in Jerusalem (and maybe some cities in Florida). But I fixed this minor dilemma by purchasing a box of regular, unsalted matzo and grinding it up to a medium-fine powder in my food processor. Done and done.

This definitely does not look like cookie dough...

Anyway, the recipe essentially has you just through everything together to make the dough. I did this, but the dough turned out far far far far far too liquidy to roll into balls of cookie dough, as the recipe dictates. Was this a result of my impromptu matzo meal? Perhaps. Regardless, I forged ahead, and the cookies spread out into thin pancakes in the oven. Fortunately, they were still good. However, if this does happen to you, I recommend letting them cool entirely before eating any. They really, truly don't taste as good hot and piping out of the oven as they do once they've had time to crisp up. Also, they don't last very long, and after a few days they get a little hard and chewy, so you've gotta pounce on that small window of delicious opportunity!

Alright folks, what have we learned today? Matzo can take the place of flour in a recipe...because matzo IS flour, just with the addition of water and the hot desert sun to bake it into a nice flat piece of sadness. There, there; dry those tears of salt water with this sprig o' parsley! Spring has sprung! Out with the old, in with the new, and bring on the harvest baby! Keep your first-born sons close and don't let the menorah candles burn out. Wait...I think I'm getting confused....

Chocolate Chip Cookies for post-Passover

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 cup matzo meal
• 1 cup matzo farfel
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup nondairy semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together matzo meal, farfel, sugars, and salt. Whisk together eggs, oil, and vanilla in a small bowl. Stir egg mixture into sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
2. Roll dough into 1 3/4-inch balls; space 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until golden, 16 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

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{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5 (Would be a 1, but I had to make my own matzo meal, which is painstakingly difficult...sarcasm)
Ingredient Accessibility: 2/5 (Location, location, location. South Americans...this is probably a 1 for you?)
Tastiness: 3.5/5
Attractiveness: 3/5
Is it worth it?: Sure, if not for Passover than just for the novelty of discovering a Jewish Martha Stewart recipe.

{Pairings}
Drink: Milk! Juuuust kidding, I'm not that bad. How about some Manischewitz wine??

Song: I've had this baby on repeat for the past 3 weeks!!
Activity: Visiting the Egyptian wing at the Met--too soon? Bad taste? I can never tell...