Happy Passover!

Something that many people might not know is that Afternoon Tea was a kosher-style bakery, and we made lots of specialties for many Jewish holidays, including Passover, Purim, Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The holiday of Passover involved baking without flour or leavening of any kind.  This is symbolic of the Jews escaping from Egypt and being on the move, and therefore unable to wait for bread to rise.  In addition to the treats we made specific for the Holiday, we also tested many of our recipes to see if we could substitute matzoh meal or potato flour for flour and leavening.  We were able to convert quite a few of our recipes, and make Passover versions of brownies, blueberry muffins, and some of our most popular cakes.  With our varied selections, our customers had many treats to choose from to tide them over during the week of Passover.

Other classic Passover treats included a vegetarian Tsimmes (a carrot, sweet potato and dried fruit side dish for the seder), Haroses (an apple-wine-nut side dish), and Passover Wine Cake.

Some special treats we made for the Holiday became instant memorable favorites.  Sabra Torte, for example (featured in our Cakes Cookbook), is a delicious cake I regularly crave.  Same with the Hungarian Rhapsody, which is a luscious, decadently-nutty cake we long to eat any time of year.  And Apple Charlotte is just a delightful treat with absolutely no holiday required to enjoy!

One of our Passover treats even became a year-round favorite.  The Matzoh Fudge Log became known as our Fudge Crunch, and was a popular item on our cookie trays as well as at the counter.  But my favorite Passover dessert was always the 7-Layer Matzoh Cake, for reasons I can't even explain.  Perhaps because it was so easy to make, and just so satisfying with its rich chocolate layered with wine-soaked sheets of Matzoh.  But I admit to having a weakness for more than one item on our Passover menu.

A Happy Passover to all who observe!

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Enjoy previous seasonal blog posts:

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