Passover is a very difficult holiday for a pastry chef. For 8 days out of the year I feel like I am on a TV show and challenged to bake without flour. No flour?! It’s a dessert lovers nightmare! Every dessert ends up tasting like sponges and cardboard. For years I have disappointed my family and friends. “I bake 51 weeks out of the year. On Passover I’m off–fend for yourselves.” A few years ago a friend of mine called me up and told me that she found a great flourless chocolate cookie recipe in the newspaper. Knowing that she’s not a great baker, she asked if I would bake her a batch for Passover. I agreed with a disclaimer that I normally don’t “do” Passover baking. OMG, the cookies were amaaazing! I could not stop eating them. Maybe Passover baking isn’t as hard as I originally thought. Or…maybe this is just a delicious recipe. It turns out that the recipe I was given is from François Payard, one of the best pastry chefs in the America. Of course it’s a perfect recipe. It’s also really easy to make!
Do you believe that these are kosher for passover? They look so delicious and taste even better. To make these cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spread 2 cups of walnuts in a thin layer and toast them in the oven for 9 minutes.
You may be wondering why my walnuts look like pecans. No, you aren’t crazy. The original recipe calls for walnuts, but when I went to the supermarket, they were all out which works out for me because I don’t care for walnuts anyway. Pecans are my favorite and they actually work really well in this recipe. So go ahead and use your favorite nut. Once they are all toasty, give them a rough chop.
Allow the nuts to cool. Then in a bowl of an electric stand mixer combine confectioners sugar*, cocoa powder and salt. Using the paddle attachment, mix the dry ingredients on low. Then add in the cooled nuts and mix until the nuts are coated. Then add in the egg whites and vanilla. Mix on low until just combined. Do not mix too long or the cookies will be tough. The original recipe ends here, but I mixed in some chocolate chips.
Once the chocolate chips are mixed in, drop the batter onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. (I used a 2 tsp. size cookie scoop.)
Bake the cookies at 325 degrees for 10-12 minutes until they are cracked and set on the outside. The centers will still be soft. Let them cool on the parchment paper. They will release from the paper once they are cool. I love how they look all lined up.
Check out that shine! They get that glossy look from the egg whites. They look good enough to eat. So I had one. Or six. The recipe makes 36 cookies, I made enough to share!
They are soft, chewy and fudgy- perfect cookie texture. Each bite is filled with nuts and chocolate. This cookie is delicious year round for gluten free friends, those on a diet (no flour or egg yolks!) or to feed a chocolate craving. They are especially perfect for Passover! 
Please try this recipe for Passover! Here is my adaptation of François Payard’s Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies. Nobody should have to eat sponge cake all week.
- 2 cups nuts (walnuts, pecans, any favorite type)
- 3 cups confectioners sugar*
- ½ cup plus 3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup chocolate chips
- In a food processor grind-
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp. potato starch
- Can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 month.
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Spread the nuts in a single layer and toast them in the oven for 9 minutes.
- Allow them to cool and give them a rough chop.
- Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the sugar, cocoa powder and salt.
- With the mixer on low speed, add in the nuts and mix until they are coated with the sugar and cocoa powder.
- Add in the egg whites and vanilla. Mix until combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Spoon the batter into a parchment lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the tops are cracked and the edges are set.
- Transfer the parchment paper to a cooling rack and allow the cookies to cool. The cookies will release from the paper once they are cool.
- Store in an airtight container for up to a week or in the freezer for 3 months.
Thanks for that awesome posting. It saved MUCH time 🙂
Thank you so much for this delicious recipe! My husband, the chocoholic is a very happy man!!
Have you ever made these without the nuts or are they needed for lift?
Are the egg whites supposed to be beaten stiff before combining?
No, the egg whites do not get beaten. Just mix them in as is.
They were a big hit at our seders. Thanks!
Great! Glad everyone liked them!
Will this work if I don’t have a stand mixer? I’d just be using regular utensils and a bowl. Thanks!
Emma, you don’t need to use a stand mixer for this recipe. The first time that I made these, I didn’t use a mixer because I didn’t have one for Passover. This is a really easy recipe and really easy to mix by hand. Let me know how they come out!
They came out sooo good, id even make them during the year!!!
Great! I hope you make them all the time!
They stuck to the paper a little bit, do you oil the parchement paper?
No, I didn’t oil the parchment paper. If you underbake the cookies they tend to stick a bit. I slide a flat spatula or bone knife under the cookie to release it.
thank you so much for sharing this recipe. They were a huge hit. I ended up making 3 batches!
Great! I hope you will try them during the year as well!
Do u have to use nuts? Ever try making them without?
Fran, you don’t need to use nuts but you need to use something. You can try using chocolate chips or dried cherries.
I just put a batch of these cookies into the oven and my spoonfuls turned into a flat cake. What am I doing wrong? Your picture is showing solid spoonfuls that don’t run into each other. Thanks for your help 🙂
I’m not sure why your batter is so runny. You can try adding more confectioners sugar to thicken it up. Hope that helps!
Isn’t corn flour kosher le Pessah? Only the flours that can rise aren’t kosher le Pessah, like wheat flour, rye, barely, oats, spelt….. or that is what I thought.
There are many different kosher customs when it comes to Passover. My family doesn’t eat corn over Passover. We don’t eat rice pr peanuts either so using corn meal or flour is not permitted.
I haven’t made confectioners sugar for Pesach before, so just checking that the quantities in the recipe are correct before starting. It just doesn’t seem correct that such a small amount of sugar can make 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar.
Thanks
The recipe for Passover confectioners sugar is not my own; I’m not sure where I got it. But I think that when you grind up regular granulated sugar, it turns into a powder and makes a lot more.
I made these for a friend who can’t have wheat flour and my family ended up eating the first batch so I had to make another! Mine were a bit runny at first so I kept putting the batter bowl into the fridge between cookie sheets and that seemed to help. How do you get them to stay fluffy like in your pictures? Maybe I chopped the nuts too much?
Sometimes mine are a little runny too. You can add more confectioners sugar to thicken up the batter. That should help!
I make something very similar with almonds. Yours look amazing!
Will they work without nuts?
Yes, the will work without nuts, but you may want to increase the amount of chocolate chips just to have some more filling.