About a year ago, I made a Smitten Kitchen recipe that calls for beating the eggs and sugar until they are very light and fluffy to add volume to a buckwheat cake that might otherwise be a little dense. Over Pesach (Passover), I had the idea to try this with cheesecake. The results were phenomenal–folding the fluffy eggs-sugar mixture into the cream cheese and sour cream yielded the creamiest, airiest, and most delicious cheesecake I’ve every had. And I’ve eaten a lot of cheesecakes.

I’m not going to lie, this recipe is a little bit patchki (time consuming). And it uses a lot of dishes. But it’s worth it, I promise! If you don’t like coconut, you can substitute almond meal in the crust, or use crushed gluten-free cookies or even a traditional graham cracker crust. You can also bake this cheesecake in a 9×13 inch pan but increase the baking time by 25-30 minutes.

Ultimate Airy Cheesecake

Macaroon Crust
1 + 1/2 cups unsweetened dried coconut
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten

Cheesecake
4 eggs
1 + 1/3 cups sugar, divided
16 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
16 oz sour cream, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
zest and juice of 1 lemon

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 8-inch round (or square) pans. Mix together crust ingredients: coconut, sugar, and egg. Press into the bottom of the pans, bake for 6 minutes, then set aside to cool.
2. Using a mixer, beat eggs and sugar for 10-15 minutes (yes! really! do it!) until they are very pale and have at least doubled in volume (it will look like thick cream).
3. In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla, and lemon juice and zest.
4. Gently fold the egg-sugar mixture into the cream cheese mixture in three batches everything is uniformly combined. Pour the batter into prepared crusts and bake at 350 for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 300 degrees for another 35-45 minutes until the center is still a little jiggly but the edges are browned and most of the cheesecake is firm.
5. Turn the oven off, crack the door open, and allow the cheesecake to sit in the oven for about an hour (this helps to avoid the top cracking by cooling the cheesecake slowly), then remove and cool the rest of the way on the counter (or in the fridge, but the top will likely crack).

This is quite possible the easiest chicken recipe, but it’s so delicious and devoured every time. Make sure to use lots of mushrooms because they are the best part! I like baby bella mushrooms, but you could also use shitake, cremini, white, or a mix. The recipe can be doubled or tripled so it’s a great dish for a large crowd. You can also use this recipe with a whole chicken or chicken pieces in the crockpot.

Balsamic Mushroom Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken cut into 1/8ths
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
16 oz sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread half of the mushrooms on the bottom of the pan and place chicken over top. In a small bowl, stir together salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Sprinkle evenly over chicken.
3. Spread remaining mushrooms evenly over top of chicken then drizzle all over with balsamic vinegar.
4. Bake at 350 for 60-75 minutes until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees, the juices run clear when you cut into it, or until it is done to your liking.

Sometimes you just need a fun dessert. Also sometimes you need to use up a bag of mini marshmallows you bought for Passover and never ended up making into anything. These s’more brownies were a huge hit; they could also be a fun birthday party treat, and you could make these in muffin tins for individual brownie treats, just adjust the baking time to 12 minutes or so.

You can use any brownie recipe and just spread mini marshmallows on top of it, or you can use the brownie recipe below (a favorite of mine).

S’mores Brownies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup sugar (I used raw organic sugar)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 + 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8×8 baking dish.
2. Cream together coconut oil and sugar. Add in eggs one at a time, allowing each to incorporate before adding the next. Stir in vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add to wet mixture in three parts until incorporated.
4. Spread batter in prepared baking pan and top evenly with mini marshmallows. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until marshmallows are browned (if the brownies seem done before the marshmallows you can put it under the broiler for 30-45 seconds).

This was the most popular dish I made over the first days of Pesach (Passover). Other than draining the spinach, which can be a bit time consuming, it’s really simple to throw together and into the oven. This recipe easily doubles if you are having a very large crowd, and it also freezes well.

Cheesy Spinach Kugel

Ingredients:

2 tsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 lbs of frozen spinach
8 eggs
1 Tbsp milk
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup crumbled feta (optional)
1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella, divided

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
2. Heat oil over medium flame in a large skillet. Saute onions and garlic 6-8 minutes until soft and translucent. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In the meantime, defrost and drain spinach. For defrosting, either (a) use the microwave, or (b) place under running hot water from the tap. For draining, either (a) drain in a colander then squeeze as much liquid as possible out by hand, (b) put through a salad spinner then squeeze by hand, or (c) wrap in a towel and wring out as much water as possible.
4. Beat eggs, milk, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Stir in sauted onion mixture, cottage cheese, feta (if using) and 1 cup of mozzarella. Add spinach, breaking it up into smaller chunks, and stir until ingredients are evenly distributed.
5. Pour into prepared baking pan and top with remaining cheese. Bake for 40-45 minutes until cheese is browned and bubbling.

Serves 10-12 as a side dish, 6-8 as a main.

Store-bought Passover desserts are the worst. Not only are they ridiculously expensive, they aren’t even very good. But you can make your own delicious cookies! So don’t buy Passover desserts anymore :)

These cookies spread a lot while baking so make sure to space them out. They are also a bit fragile so be careful when moving them, and store them in an air-tight container rather than a ziploc bag.

Passover Cinnamon Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup almond meal
1 1/3 cups potato starch
1 cup chopped chocolate or chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease 4 baking sheets. If you use parchment paper, spray with cooking spray because these cookies will stick.
2. Cream together margarine and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to be incorporated before adding the next. Stir in vanilla, salt, almond meal, and potato starch until all ingredients are incorporated. Stir in chocolate. Dough will be stiff.
3. Drop teaspoons of dough (1 tsp for a medium cookie, 2 tsp for a large cookie) at least 2 inches apart (6 per cookie sheet). Bake at 375 for 12 minutes. If using parchment paper, remove entire sheet to a cooking rack and wait until cookies are completely cool before peeling off the parchment paper. If using greased cookie sheets, allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack with a large spatula.

I love lasagna, but gluten-free pasta has not been agreeing with me lately, so I’m been experimenting with variations on lasagna, sans noodles. I’ve done polenta lasagna and a vegetable assortment lasagna (eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash), both with mixed success–delicious, but not quick lasagna.

I definitely think this is my best noodle-free version yet, and right in time for Passover! I basically substitute the noodles for lengthwise slices of eggplant that I have partially pre-baked, and layer sauce and cheese like usual. I throw in sauted onions, green peppers, and baby bella mushrooms for a little extra volume and voila! Eggplant lasagna.

Eggplant Lasagna

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplant
1 tsp salt, divided
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 eggs
15 oz part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 cups marinara sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup gluten-free breadcrumbs (omit for Passover-friendly recipe)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease 2 baking sheets. Slice eggplant lengthwise into 1/4-inch thick strips (about 8 per eggplant). Lay on greased baking sheet (try not to overlap), sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt, and bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes until eggplant is pliable enough to bend without breaking.
2. In the meantime, heat olive oil over medium flame in a skillet or large saucepan. Saute onions for 4-5 minutes until soft. Add green peppers and mushrooms with 1/4 tsp salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until peppers are soft and mushrooms have released their juices.
3. Beat eggs in a bowl and stir in ricotta cheese, garlic powder, remaining 1/2 tsp of salt, and pepper. When the eggplant is ready, stir onion mixture into ricotta mixture.
4. Grease a 8×10 or 10 inch square baking dish and spread 1 cup of marinara sauce in the bottom. Lay 1/3 of eggplant slices on the bottom to cover, overlapping slightly, then spread half of ricotta mixture over eggplant. Repeat for another layer of eggplant and ricotta, then finish with eggplant. Spread remaining 1 cup of marinara over eggplant, and sprinkle mozzarella to cover. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over top (optional).
5. Turn oven down to 350 and bake uncovered for 45 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese has browned.

Serves: 6

I love Jewish food-related traditions, especially hamentashen! For those who don’t know, hamentashen are triangular filled cookies that are traditionally eaten on the Jewish holiday of Purim, which celebrate the Jews triumphing in the face of adversaries who want to kill them; the story is cataloged in the Book of Esther.

Hope on over to My Jewish Learning to find out more about the holiday of Purim, and to see my new recipe for gluten-free hamentashen!

A number of people have told me recently that although they want to bake gluten-free, they don’t want to have to buy all of the gluten-free flours I use in my recipes. While I generally find that an all-purpose gluten-free flour mix just doesn’t cut it for some baked goods, for this particular cookie recipe it works perfectly. If you’ve read my blog before you’ve noticed that I am very partial to Bob’s Red Mill Wonderful Bread Mix as my all-purpose flour substitute because it has a good variety of flours and xanthan gum already included.

Now this is one of those cookie recipes where the baking time really matters. If you like soft snickerdoodles, 8 minutes is your limit. If you like them to be crispy on the edges and soft in the middle, 9 minutes. And if you like them crispy throughout, 10.5 minutes. Really :) Traditionally you would roll snickerdoodles in just cinnamon, but I like the little crunch you get from rolling them in raw sugar too.

A note about refrigeration: Chilling the dough helps the cookies from spreading too much since coconut oil is very soft at room temperature. It may seem a bit annoying but it’s really worth it, I promise.

Gluten-Free Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

3/4 cup coconut oil or other shortening
1 1/4 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp good quality cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour
1/4 cup turbinado sugar + 2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Beat together coconut oil and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time and beat until well combined.
2. Stir in vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir in gluten-free flour in two batches. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
3. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and grease or parchment paper 4 baking sheets.
4. Mix turbinado sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
5. Using a small cookie scoop (or a heaping Tablespoon measuring spoon) roll dough into balls, roll in cinnamon-sugar to fully coat, then place at least two inches apart on the baking sheet (I did 9 per sheet; you could squeeze 12 but they may run into each other during baking).
6. Bake at 375 for 8 (soft), 9 (soft with crispy edges), or 10.5 (crispy) minutes depending on how you prefer your cookies (see note above about baking time). Remove to a cooling rack.

The holiday season is an excellent excuse to bake ridiculous amounts of cookies. Luckily, my office is only too happy to gobble them up! I’ve experimented with a couple of different versions of this chocolate crinkle cookie recipe and I think I’m finally happy that I’ve got the right texture and flavor–lightly chocolatey, a hint of spicy cinnamon, sweet but not too sweet, and deliciously soft and chewy.

This is also the first recipe where you’ll see me use coconut oil. I’d always been a pretty stalwart Crisco user, but I’ve read a number of things lately about vegetable shortening that have made me look for a substitute. Coconut oil, which is also solid at room temperature, adds not only fat but a subtle richness as well–most people who tried the cookies couldn’t place exactly what was different about the cookies, but they knew there was a little something extra. I bought a big container at Costco but you can find coconut oil at most health food stores, or various online marketplaces.

Note: If you are a gluten eater, you can omit the xanthan gum and substitute 2 cups of white whole wheat flour for the brown rice, sorghum, and potato starch. I can’t promise the consistency will be exactly the same but it should be close. If you don’t prefer to buy separate gluten-free flours, you could use 2 cups of a gluten-free all purpose flour but the texture will be different (check to see if the mix has xanthan gum, if it does, omit from this recipe).

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1 cup potato starch
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup coconut oil/shortening
1 cup raw sugar (or white sugar)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 baking sheets.
2. Whisk together all dry ingredients (cocoa through salt) in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer (or old-fashioned elbow grease), cream together coconut oil and sugar. On medium speed, add vanilla and then eggs one at a time. When eggs have been totally incorporated, add dry mixture one cup at a time, allowing to incorporate before adding the next cup.
4. Place powdered sugar in a shallow dish. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out dough, roll into balls, then roll in powdered sugar to coat. Place about 1 inch apart on the greased baking sheet and press down lightly to flatten the cookies until they are about 1/4 inch thick.
5. Bake at 350 for 14 minutes (16 if you prefer a crispier cookie). Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

After being dairy-free for such a long time (10 years!), it’s hard for me to plan meals that have dairy in them. It’s just not the first place my brain goes! However, I’m rediscovering so many yummy dairy dishes that I have not been able to eat in ages, and enjoying every bite.

This recipe is a little bit of a pantry raid–you can use any veggies you like as long as they will all cook at about the same rate (if you want to use something that will take longer to cook, like eggplant, I would recommend pre-cooking it). I do take the time to saute all of the vegetables first because it gives it great flavor and you have time while the pasta is cooking, but if you are looking for a time-saver and you have leftover pasta, you can skip that part. I use ricotta here but cottage cheese or farmers cheese works just as well. Even other pasta shapes will work–really, whatever you have on hand will be delicious.

Cheesy Veggie Spaghetti Bake

Ingredients:

1 lb gluten-free spaghetti
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow squash
2 bell peppers (I used orange and yellow)
2 eggs (or 3 egg whites)
1 cup ricotta cheese (I used low-fat)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
1 cup marinara sauce

Directions:

1. Grease a 9×13 baking dish and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook spaghetti according to package directions until al dente, drain, rinse, and set aside.
3. Meanwhile in a large skillet, heat olive oil. Saute onions and garlic 3-4 minutes until soft. Chop zucchini, yellow squash, and bell peppers into equal sized pieces. Add to skillet and saute 6-10 additional minutes until vegetables are softened.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs. Stir in ricotta and 1 cup of mozzarella, then spaghetti, and then sauted vegetables.
5. Pour into prepared baking dish. Spread marinara evenly over the mixture, then top with remaining mozzarella.
6. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until browned and bubbling.