Spring Festivities

This week my family and I have been celebrating Passover. In preparation for our dinner tomorrow night, I made a couple batches of kosher apple crisp based on this recipe. I improvised a bit to suit my own adaptations.

Preheat the oven to 375. Then, peel, core and slice six granny smith apples and divide the apple chunks evenly between two small casserole dishes sprayed with some olive oil. Mixed in with each dish of apples is 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, half a teaspoon vanilla extract, and some orange zest. The next step is to crush up 4-5 sheets of matzo-- I probably ended up using 6 or 7.

Matzo, as you may know, is the traditional Jewish unleavened bread which is eaten on various holidays. In ancient times, the Jews ate matzo because they were fleeing from their enemies and did not have time to let their bread rise. It was sustenance enough to keep them going on their journeys.

Once I crushed up the matzo with my fingers into as small of pieces as I could, I drizzled in some honey. Don't worry about measuring the honey, just make sure it's enough to be able to mix it all together later to form a sort of crust, but not before....

Adding in some spices. The original recipe only has cinnamon, but I used a dash or so of each spice in each batch for extra flavor.

So, mix the matzo, honey and spices till it's nice and sticky and golden....

Then cover the apples with it and put it in the oven for 40 minutes.

Here it is out of the oven. One good thing about it is the matzo is not crushed up too much, so you can enjoy the flavor of the matzo but still get the caramelized honey and spices, and the sweet baked apple.

Can't wait for dinner tomorrow... matzo ball soup, knishes, cauliflower fritters, chocolate and caramel covered matzo, and more. Happy holidays!