Two Passover Desserts

Happy Passover!

These two recipes will no doubt wind up in my cookbook since they're

1. Very much altered to suit sugar-sensitive folks.
2. Yummy like that!

The first recipe has been adapted from the April issue of Gourmet magazine.

Lemon Macaroons

Ingredients:

4 egg whites
3/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 fresh Mexican vanilla bean scraped for the tiny seeds (or one teaspoon vanilla paste)
zest of one lemon
3 cups reduced fat unsweetened organic finely shredded coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix together the first four ingredients until very well blended.
3. Add coconut in stages and mix after each addition.
4. Use fingers to do final mixing since the dough will be pretty thick.
5. Use your fingers to form 1 1/2 in. diameter disks about 3/4 in. thick, and place these on the pan about 1 inch apart.
6. Bake 25 minutes, or until golden brown, turning the pan at 15 minutes.

Makes 40 macaroons.

This recipe is a re-do of the recipe on the can of Yehuda Matzos' Cake Meal.

Passover Carob Pecan Brownies

Ingredients:

5 eggs
2 cups agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
3/4 cup oil
1 cup sifted carob powder
1 1/4 cup Yehuda Cake Meal
1 1/4 cup pecans
1 cup unsweetened carob chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and grease two 9-in. square pans or one 9 x 13 in. pan.
2. With mixer, beat eggs, agave nectar and vanilla paste until well blended.
3. Mix in oil, carob powder and cake meal until well blended.
4. Stir in pecans and carob chips until just mixed.
5. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes.
   

Reviews: The macaroons are light and refreshing -- just perfect after the heavy Passover meal. The brownies are sweet, and misleading. I worried that they'd taste mazto-ish, but they didn't at all. They're light and satisfying. The chips are especially nice.