Passover Food - Matzo Pudding

Well, Passover is coming. My least favorite time of year, when many of the bagel stores around me are closed, and you aren't supposed to eat anything like bread, pasta, regular cookies, etc. I never kept Passover growing up, but my husband did, so now I do (at least in the house!). No, I try to keep it for lunch too, while at work. So last year I struggled to find decent recipes, and I did pretty well. I'm busy gearing up for this Passover season, so if you have any good recipes, send them my way!!

I apologize to anyone who doesn't celebrate this holiday...for the next few weeks there will be Passover recipes sporadically scattered in the posts.

I also apologize for the picture accompanying this post. It doesn't look appetizing at ALL - and I know that. It's partly due to the blueberry filling I used for the recipe, and also that I didn't have any "topping" on it. But trust me - it tastes GOOD. It was actually much prettier when I made it with apple pie filling the year before. But I wasn't photographing my work at that point!

I made the matzo pudding for the first time in 2009, one of the women I worked with gave it to me after I was telling her how I needed to find desserts my husband could eat during Passover. I'm going to post the original recipe below - it actually was for apple matzo pudding. But I am not fond of apple stuff, and didn't eat it the first year I made it - but my husband LOVED it. We decided that for 2010, we would make it blueberry so I would eat it too.

The recipe is very versatile with flavors, so it is easy to create something new and different every year. This recipe is also very easy to pack up and bring to wherever you are celebrating Passover. It can be eaten warm, or cold. If you take it out of the refrigerator, it's also easy to pop in the microwave for 10 seconds to warm it up slightly.

Ingredients:

10 pieces of matzo
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1 or 2 tsp of cinnamon (to taste)
6 large Macintosh apples ****
1 small can crushed pineapples, drained - reserve juice for later
raisins (optional)

**** The woman I worked with told me to substitute a can of apple pie filling for the actual apples, which is where we got the idea to use different pie fillings for other flavors as well.

Directions:

Break pieces of matzo into small pieces and soak in colander until soft. Drain, but don't squeeze dry...make sure the matzo is moist.

Cut the apples into quarters, then peel and slice. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add sugar, salt, cinnamon and melted butter.

Then add the matzo pieces, apples, pineapple and a small splash of pineapple juice.

Mix well.

Put mixture in greased tin or baking dish. Sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar over the top.

Bake at 350 degrees F, uncovered, for 45 minutes to an hour.

Serves 6 (generous portions, could serve more).

In 2010, I made this to bring to our family friend's house for Passover dinner and someone suggested maybe making some sort of topping to make it look "pretty." It doesn't really need a topping because it does taste good, it would be more as an additional taste and something to make it eye catching.

As long as my husband likes it for dessert though, I am golden, especially since it is pretty easy to make and doesn't take much time to prepare. But maybe one year I will try it with fresh fruit!