Hello to all of those who are celebrating the eight days of affliction…sorry, I mean Passover. As most of you know, Passover is my least favorite holiday because of all the food restrictions in our house.  There’s egg and nut allergies which we all know are the cornerstone of Passover cooking, not to mention that my daughter doesn’t eat meat.  Since we don’t eat rice, soy or beans on Passover, she is now pretty limited, which is why under strict supervision and visceral protocol, I allow eggs in the house.  We have learned to cope with it, though it feels a bit weird.

I had all but given up on Passover baking.  There was a time where I would create huge platters of mouth watering goodies for seders, but, alas, I just didn’t know how to do it without eggs, so I stuck to basic recipes like melting chocolate and mixing farfel and raisins into it and plopping them on a baking sheet to freeze.  They were tasty but hardly impressive.

This year I found myself buying a cake mix or two. Since they only required one or two eggs, I figured I could just replace the eggs with applesauce, the results were acceptable, but the ingredients on the box were quite disturbing.  I just couldn’t serve my kids all those fake …so back to the kitchen in an effort to create something that had minimal ingredients that I could actually pronounce.

I came up with an awesome choco chip cooke that has no dairy, eggs or nuts, and actually tastes like a REAL chocolate chip cookie. So, my Passover allergy suffererers (or just Passover sufferers), you can eat a cookie with real ingredients that actually tastes good.  Enjoy. 

Passover Choco Chip Cookies

1/3 cup oil ( I used safflower)

½ cup brown sugar ( these cookies were a bit sweet for me, you can probably lower the amount of the sugar)

½ cup sugar ( I used organic sugar crystals, they are less processed and kosher for Passover)

¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

1 TBSP vanilla

5/8 cup cake meal (it’s easier to think of this as ½ cup and another 1/8 cup)

5/8 cup potato starch

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

½ cup mini choco chips (they now make them KP). You can use large if you like, or more, it’s up to you.

Preheat oven to 350.

Line pans with parchment paper

Makes 2 dozen

Combine in a large bowl the oil, sugar, applesauce and vanilla and beat with a whisk really well.  This is an improtant process as it creates the lift you need for the cookies.

Combine the cake meal, starch, salt and baking soda and mix together with a wire whisk.

Pour dry into the wet ingredients and mix together. If the dough appears a little sticky you can add a little more cake meal, but not to much.

Add chocolate chips and incorporate with your hands until they are evenly distributed.

 Put in the freezer for a few minutes to harden.

Place on baking sheets ( I used a TBSP as a scoop but only filled it halfway). You can make them larger, but they come out better as normal sized cookies.

Press cookies down with your fingers.

Bake for 12-14 minutes.