1-2-3 Miracle Bars

This recipe is a very traditional Passover recipe. Everyone seems to have their own version. They are so popular in our house, that I make them all year ‘round.

The recipe is very flexible, fast, easy, and even gluten free. The recipe here calls for brown sugar, but I have made them with white sugar in a pinch. You can even substitute the chocolate chips for dried fruit and nuts or more almond flour.

Once I made them with only ground walnuts and decorated them with a walnut on top. They looked very pretty and tasted good as well. I have also made them with 3 cups of almond flour and no chocolate chips. For some reason, no one liked them.

As I write this, I wonder if I would have added lemon zest and rolled them in icing sugar if that would have made them tastier?

For whatever reasons, everyone in my family prefers chocolate chips version. I guess you could say that chocolate in our family is its own separate food group.

My husband likes these cookies so much that he is not above hiding them in the freezer. Then, no one can find them, and he can keep them all for himself. That tells you how great these cookies are. A ringing endorsement!

1-2-3 Miracle Bars

Ingredients

2 cups ground almonds

1 cup brown sugar (you can use white sugar for a crisper cookie. We like them chewy)

2 eggs

1 cup chocolate chips

Optional: add 1 cup of raisons or chopped nuts instead of the chocolate chips, for something different.

Post update: I swapped out 1/2 cup almond flour for 1/2 cup dried coconut, and it came out awesome!

Instructions

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. I chill the dough for several hours so that it will be easier to roll into balls. The cookies also hold their shape better when it is chill. For bars, bake in a preheated 375*F oven on a parchment lined or greased 9×13 pan. Bake for 23 minutes. For cookies, shape into balls and bake for 12-15 minutes.

If anyone makes this with lemon zest, almond flour and rolled in icing sugar, please let me know how it came out. In my books, anything with lemon tastes better.

Here are the pictures:

Here they are, fresh out of the oven.

My husband LOVES them!

Just for fun, I thought I would include 2 nut cookies from vintage Jewish cookbooks.

Conclusion

It is interesting to me to see how recipes change over time. Although the ratios are similar, most people do not bake like this for Passover anymore. The preference today is even to avoid baking with matza meal or cake meal altogether. I am no different. I find that the taste of matza meal and cake meal is drier, and the texture is crumblier. Then, after Passover, no one wants to touch them. My goal is always to make food that people would want to eat even if it wasn’t Passover!

Please try the 1-2-3 Magic Bars. Hopefully, everyone will enjoy them as much as we do!

Love,

Carol & family.

I am also posting here 2 pictures that I made for Passover Adaptions for icing sugar and flour. I hope everyone will find them helpful!