These Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies are now a “holiday classic,” made with love every Seder to share with family and friends. It’s such a simple recipe, but somehow magical. The combination of matzo, brown sugar, butter, honey and vanilla creates a cookie that tastes every bit as good as a traditional flour cookie. Read through the comments if you don’t believe me! This recipe is a keeper.
This recipe his always a popular one on my site during the lead up to Passover, so I felt it deserved fresh new photos. I originally obtained the recipe from an organization called the Jewish Outreach Institute (no longer in existence) and their “Mother’s Circle Cookbook,” which shared recipes from women of various backgrounds raising Jewish children. It was submitted to the book by Mother’s Circle member Kathy Kersul-Wiener. Of the recipe, she writes:
After several years of suffering through store-bought Passover “treats,” I decided that I’d better learn to make them myself. I think the secret to this recipe is that the chocolate chips overwhelm the matzo.
These cookies are chocolatey, buttery and decadent, I would even go as far as saying they are the BEST Passover cookies. The original recipe calls for 3 cups of chocolate chips, which made the cookies too sweet for my taste. I have adapted the recipe by reducing the amount of chocolate chips to 2 cups, which is more than enough chocolate for our family’s taste.
For those of you wondering what matzo cake meal is, it’s simply matzo that has been ground very fine into a powdery texture. Most grocers with a kosher or jewish food section carry it during Passover. If you can’t find it, just grind up some matzo meal in your food processor until it becomes powdery like flour.
All of the other ingredients should be pretty easy to find. Enjoy, and Chag Sameach – Happy Passover!
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Food Photography and Styling by Kelly Jaggers
Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups matzo cake meal
- 1/4 cup matzo meal
- 2 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter with brown sugar, honey, vanilla and salt. Add eggs and mix well.
- Mix in cake meal and matzo meal.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Press down slightly to flatten.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes until slightly golden. These are great when slightly warmed, dipped in a cold, frothy glass of milk. Yum!
Nutrition
made the cookies tonite only made them parve and they were fabulous!!!!
thanx so much
How did you make these parve. Cannot get kit niota free marg here. Could I use oil.
Everyone loves it! I used less sugar, half the butter and added 0.5 cup apple sauce, and only 1cup of chocolate chips ,baked on 325F a little more than 15 minutes. It was soft, and tasty.
Just wanted to give credit where it is due. That recipe was originally printed in Marcy Goldman’s book Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. The book contains a number of great recipes for all the holidays.
Thanks rorkesdrift, this credit was not cited in the Mother’s Circle Cookbook so I was unaware of the connection. Good to know! I have updated the blog to reflect this information.
LOL Bubbe! I guess I clogged my arteries too. I can’t stop eating these cookies!!! I LOVE THEM! Thank you, Tori!
Oh heaven – I made those Pesach chocolate chip cookies tonight – they are wonderful. Because they’re dairy – maybe that’s why they’re much better than the pareve cookies we always have had. With lots of butter and chocolate chips (I selected milk chocolate – it is dairy!) I can feel my arteries clogging.
Yay Bubbe! So glad you enjoyed them. You’re right, in general dairy chocolate is much tastier than the pareve chocolate– though in certain desserts the pareve chocolate tastes fine (like my Chocolate Crackle Cake). It just depends on the recipe, I guess. These are definitely better as dairy cookies. Anyway, glad these brightened up your Passover! 🙂
Carol, happy you liked them too! They were a big hit in my house as well. 🙂
This is my 1st sedar meal. I want to make these cookies but can’t find matzo flour….can I grind matazo meal? does your site have other recipies?
Yes- I think you are right about the pecans- I ground them b/c I had my spice grinder out to do the matzo meal. Can’t seem to find cake matzo meal here. I also might fool around with the chocolate (milk chocolate? white chocolate maybe) b/c these cookies are so pretty. Despite the “bitter” taste, I still ate 5! Congrats on a great recipe.
Okay so I just made the cookies and they turned out AWESOME! First time baking with matzoh. I’m very happy with my cookies! Thank you for sharing the recipe, Tori.
I made these today to prepare for the holiday next week. Dough was ever, ever so delightful. However, I got a slightly bitter note in the aftertaste of the cookie itlself. Can’t quite figure it out- is this the matzo? I did add ground pecans b/c we normally add nuts to our chocolate chip cookies. I used semisweet. Enlighten me with your food science knowledge, shiksa, for I am a shiksa too!
Hi R– It may be the matzo. While I don’t recognize a “bitter” taste in these cookies, there is a slight taste of matzo (as with most Passover treats made with matzo). If you’re not accustomed to baking with matzo, that may be what you’re tasting. The only other thing I can think it would be is the pecans– were they fresh? Nuts can turn bad/stale in a relatively short amount of time under the right conditions. Next time, try using the three cups of chocolate instead of two (to overwhelm the matzo flavor), and use chunks of fresh pecans rather than ground. Those modifications may help.. Let me know if you’re able to try it again, and how it turns out for you! 🙂
Thanks for the great recipe! It was quick, easy and delicious. I love to make new recipes for the holidays. They are now packed away in the freezer. This will be a great Pesach treat in my kids lunches next week. When other children will be enjoying donuts for birthday celebration, my children will also be able to enjoy a special treat. Thanks!
So glad you’re all enjoying this recipe! Yvette, thanks for the Australian shout-out, and the vote of confidence on the Hebrew transliteration. People all seem to have their own opinions about this one. I just spell it the way my family says it. 🙂
Carol, I haven’t tried these subbing with regular flour but I assume it would probably work fine with an equal amount. If you try it let me know how it goes!
For Joan (and others who are interested in freezing the cookies) these should freeze fine– just make sure they cool completely before freezing them. Wrap them tightly in several layers of plastic wrap (keep a layer of wrap between cookies so they don’t freeze together) and put them in a Tupperware, then stick them in the freezer. These cookies taste great warm, so after thawing at room temp you might want to warm them up a bit in the oven before serving (2-3 minutes at 350 degrees). Yum yum! 🙂
OMG Tori – I just had to write again.
I’ve just made these cookies – with 2 five year old boys, so it’s a great, easy holiday activity – and they are the BEST Pesach cookies I have ever tasted! I am going to share it on FB so be prepared for your Aussie readership to get a huge boost!
Tori,
I thought that you would enjoy these recipes. I love your blog
http://www.chow.com/galleries/97/recipes-for-passover/4115/hungarian-chocolate-walnut-torte
Christine
Mmmmm my first Passover’s looking up! 🙂
Can these be made in advance and frozen until Passover? Just trying to plan ahead!
Just baked the cookies. I think they’ll be gone before Passover.
Yum! Tori, thank you for passing on that recipe. I will definitely be trying this soon.
Chag Sameach!
Dear Tori,
These look absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to try to make them! Thanks for your wonderful recipes.
Don’t let this ‘picky’ person let you feel inadequate in your Hebrew – your version of ‘healthy appetite’ is actually much more correct. The direct phonetic transcription of the Hebrew is be׳tei׳avon – there is no ‘i’ sound. The Hebrew (with the vowels to prove it) is בְּתֵאָבוֹן Chag Sameach!!
Incidentally, it’s B’tayavohn. the B means in and is pronounced bih (short i). Hate to be picky, but I am and I can’t help it. The cookies look great and I will try them for Pesach.
Cheryl, what doesn’t that mean??? are they not ok for this time of year??? (wondering because i’m new at living out torah not because i’m questioning in a negative way… )
Abby, Cheryl was referring to my transliteration of the Hebrew language; her comment has nothing to do with the recipe. The cookies are definitely kosher for Passover.
oh wow – they’re basically giant meltaways with chocolate chips. Sounds amazing!
AWESOME! I’m printing it out as I write this. Now, if you wanted to make these and not use matzo meal, outside of Passover, what kind of flour would you substitute, and how much, please? I can’t wait to make these. All the Kosher food is on sale at all of the supermarkets now, so a great time to stock up!