As Passover approaches (Monday evening), smart cooks look to Joan Nathan and her excellent cookbooks for inspiration. Her latest, “Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous,” features this recipe for a decadent chocolate cake suitable for Passover.
Chocolate Almond Cake (Passover version)
From “Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France,” by Joan Nathan (Alfred A. Knopf). The author writes: “This recipe for chocolate-almond cake is four hundred years old, and was passed down orally in one Bayonne family from mother to daughter in Spanish, Ladino, and then French. The accent of rum was probably introduced in the seventeenth century. My guess is that at first the eggs would have been whole, and later separated, the whites whipped to give it more height, probably in the eighteenth century.” Yields 1 cake, serving 8 people.
Ingredients
7 tablespoons unsalted butter or pareve margarine, plus more for greasing
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups finely chopped blanched almonds
1/2 cup matzo cake meal
GLAZE
6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon rum
Optional garnish: raspberries and whipped cream
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9-inch springform or cake pan.
Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over low heat. Let cool slightly.
Cream the butter or margarine with the granulated sugar and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer equipped with a paddle.
Mix the cooled, melted chocolate into the butter. Then add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, mix in the vanilla, almonds and cake meal.
In a clean bowl, with clean beaters, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the cake batter.
Pour into the springform pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, inserting a cake tester or toothpick to make sure it is done. Cool on a rack and unmold.
To make the glaze, dissolve the confectioners’ sugar in the rum and 1 tablespoon water. Mix well. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake. This cake can also be cut into 1-inch circles or squares before glazing. If you wish, garnish with raspberries and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.
Following the recipe exactly netted a rich, shallow, brownie-like cake that was utterly delicious.
But it was short. Granted, most Passover cakes have a low profile — leavening is not allowed during the holiday — but this one seemed particularly squat. (Note: This did not keep me from eating it. But instead of serving it on a plate, it made better sense in a shallow bowl, with a bit of heavy cream poured over. Luxury.)
I blamed our mile-high elevation for the stymied rise and wondered if I could fall back on the high-altitude playbook to give this cake a nudge up.
First, it was clear that my imperfectly chopped almonds were weighing this baby down. So rather than using my knife to hack them, I broke out the good old food processor.
Danger zone: Like most nuts, almonds will turn pasty if you blitz them overzealously. For insurance, I pulsed them together with the matzo meal, which distributed itself through the almonds and helped create a crumble, not a paste. (Here’s the trick: To get 1 1/4 cups blitzed almonds, you need to start with 1 1/3 cups blanched, slivered almonds. So, measure out 1 1/3 cups blanched, slivered almonds, dump them into the processor with the matzo meal, and pulse a few times, until you have a sandy — not gravelly or pasty — mixture.)
Second, heeding the voice of my late grandfather (he’s constantly lurking in the recesses of my brain whenever I’m in the kitchen), I whipped the egg whites by hand. Whipping by hand, Gramp once told me, introduces more air into the egg whites, producing taller peaks. And since this cake relies completely on egg whites for its rise, more air in the egg whites could yield a taller cake.
Third, to give my egg whites some extra muscle, I hit them with some acid, which helps bolster and strengthen the peaks. First choice would have been cream of tartar, and while there is Kosher-for-Passover cream of tartar available, I had none on hand. So I gave the whites a spritz of lemon juice instead. Not a radical improvement, but every little bit helps.
Finally, I greased only the bottom, not the sides of the pan to help the batter climb the walls.
My results: First, I did no harm. None of the flavor or richness of the original cake was sacrificed. And, while I didn’t score a soaring showstopper, I was able to coax the cake slightly higher, into a deeply chocolatey torte.
Here is the (very slightly) revised recipe.
Chocolate Almond Cake (Passover version), Redux
Liberally adapted from “Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France,” by Joan Nathan (Alfred A Knopf). Yields 1 cake, serving 8 people.
Ingredients
7 tablespoons unsalted butter or pareve margarine, plus more for greasing
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/3 cups blanched almond slivers
1/2 cup matzo cake meal
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Juice of 1/2 lemon
GLAZE (OPTIONAL)
6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon rum
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and grease the bottom, not the sides, of a 9-inch springform or cake pan.
Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over low heat. Let cool slightly. Set aside.
In food processor, pulse almonds and matzo cake meal together until the consistency of fine sand. Do not overprocess.
Cream the butter or margarine with the granulated sugar and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer equipped with a paddle.
Mix the cooled, melted chocolate into the butter. Then add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, mix in the vanilla and almond-matzo mixture. Do not overmix.
In a clean bowl, with a clean whisk, beat the egg whites by hand to stiff peaks, adding a few drops of lemon juice as you go. Fold the egg whites gently into the cake batter.
Pour into the springform pan. Place cake in oven, reduce heat to 350 degrees, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Insert a cake tester or toothpick to make sure it is done. Cool on a rack, and unmold.
If making the glaze, dissolve the confectioners’ sugar in the rum and 1 tablespoon water. Mix well. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake.
While we’re on the topic of Passover, here’s an excellent recipe for Matzo Brei, which would make a satisfying breakfast anytime in asparagus season, during Passover or not.
Matzo Brei with Mushrooms and Asparagus
From “Saveur: The New Comfort Food,” edited by James Oseland. Serves 2.
Ingredients
8 asparagus tips
4 tablespoons butter
8 cremini mushrooms, stemmed and cut into sixths
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 six-inch square pieces matzo
5 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon minced flat leaf parsley for garnish (optional)
Directions
Bring 8 cups of water to a boil in a 4-quart pot. Add the asparagus and cook until just tender, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the asparagus to a bowl of ice water, reserving the boiling water. Let the asparagus chill for about 5 minutes, then drain and set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 6 minutes. Add the asparagus, season with salt and pepper, and remove the pan from heat; set aside.
Break the matzo into 1-inch pieces and transfer to a strainer set over the sink. Slowly pour the reserved boiling water over the matzo to soften it; let the matzo sit for 4 minutes.
Transfer the softened matzo to a bowl, add the eggs, and combine. Heat the remaining butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the matzo mixture, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, turning the mixture occasionally with a rubber spatula, until cooked to the desired doneness, about 4 minutes for soft curds. Divide the matzo mixture between 2 plates, top with the reserved mushrooms and asparagus, garnish with the parsley, and serve.
