I do all of my own baking for Passover and the treats I make are not just “good for Passover stuff” but are delicious – period! I’m always looking for new cookies to try and am especially pleased when I find recipes that I don’t have to adapt to bake them without eggs, which our godson can’t eat. I came across these very easy-to-make cookies in one of my many cookbooks and am only sorry that I didn’t discover them sooner. They won’t replace my all-time favorite Passover Florentine Cookies or Passover Orange Ginger Spice Cookies or my son’s favorite Passover Vegan Chocolate Chip Buttons or Passover Almond Coconut Macaroons but why should we have to choose? Let’s make them all!

Sephardic Wine Cookies (Masas de Vino) by Gil Marks in The World of Jewish Entertaining

Yield: About 2 dozen 3-inch cookies

Ingredients

1.5 cups matza cake meal

3/4 cup ground almonds (with skins) or almond meal

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 cup (2 sticks) of non-dairy buttery sticks at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar plus about 1/8 cup for pressing cookies

1/2 cup sweet Kosher red wine

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets or pans with parchment or Silpat. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl combine the matza cake meal, almond meal, cinnamon and salt.
3. Cream the non-dairy buttery vegan sticks with the 1/2 cup of granulated sugar. (I used a standing mixer but this can be made by hand.) Add the dry ingredients and the wine and mix well until everything is well combined and you have a moist dough.
4. Form the dough into 1.5-inch balls. Place them on the ungreased parchment or Silpat. Place the remaining sugar in a bowl or shallow dish. Dip either the bottom of a large glass or a round meat tenderizer into the sugar and then use that to flatten each dough ball into a cookie that is about 3-inches in diameter.
5. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the edges just barely begin to turn brown. Allow the cookies to stand for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing them to a cooling rack. You want these cookies to cool completely so they can firm up. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container or in the freezer until you are ready to use them.