Matzo and chocolate, a sweet Seder treat
''Passover desserts tend to lack the sparkle and excitement of the rest-of-the-year desserts because of the dietary restrictions imposed by the Passover holiday," says Brookline resident Ellen Helman, the ''Uncommon Gourmet," author of three cookbooks.
''Using matzo meal flour tends to make a heavier cake and alters the whole consistency," she says. So, instead of cake for dessert, Helman prepares chocolate-covered matzos for her family, which she likes to pair with a bowl of vanilla ice cream, raspberry sorbet, and fresh strawberries.
''With chocolate-covered matzos you can grab a cup of tea, have them at the end of a Seder, put them in your kids' lunchboxes. They will see you through the holidays and beyond, if you want," says the author. Her version has a caramelized base made from butter and brown sugar. After the mixture is cooked, she spreads the hot matzos with chocolate chips. Mark Wolf, a partner of Judy Rosenberg's of Rosie's Bakery in Inman Square, attests to the popularity of this dessert, which they call ''matzo crunch. ''We sell hundreds of pounds during Passover," she says. 