Happy Passover חג כשר ושמח

Elite's Kosher For Pesach Wafers

After really enjoying Elite's Pesek Zman Kosher for Pesach Wafers I had high hopes for Elite's Kosher for Pesach Chocolate Cream filled Wafers, but they were a big disappointment to me.I'm not sure why I'm surprised considering their Chametz "Mini Cubed Wafers" failed to impress me. Why should this Elite wafer be any different?

Even thought they are made of potato starch, and not matzo meal, the wafer part actually passed my "potato starch taste test". It's a light, fresh and crispy wafer. Even a little better than the Chametz wafer.

What always seems to be the issue I have with Elite's wafers is the cheap, chalky filling that leaves a waxy aftertaste. Why don’t they use a better quality cream filling and have a winner of a wafer for Pesach or all year round?

As with Elite's Mini Cubed Wafer, I was impressed with the packaging of these Passover Chocolate Cream filled Wafers, they come in a 400 gram box, and each 100 grams is wrapped individually in a very convenient foil color wrapping. It's easy to open a few and still keep the rest fresh for some other time. Elite really seem to be taking packaging seriously, which I think it very important for an overall successful product, but I just wish the wafers themselves were worth buying and eating.

The package says they have less than 20ppm gluten; I'm not sure what that means for those who are not allowed to have gluten but I figured I will pass on the information.

These wafers have no food coloring, no preservatives and no trans fat

Bottom Line: Don’t judge a product solely by its packaging, these Elite Kosher for Pesach Wafers are not a winner for me. If I want a wafer this holiday I'd go for the Pesek Zman and leave these wafers on the store shelf.

400 gram box – 14.99 NIS

 Kosher Dairy - Cholov Yisrael - Rabbinate Nazareth-Illit
Kosher For Passover
Shehakol

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Klik Chocolate Covered Cereal Kosher For Pesach

Klik who recently gave us Orange & Bubblegum Chocolate Covered Cereal for Purim now have 3 Kosher for Pesach snacks on the shelf; Milk-Chocolate covered Cariot Cereal, White & Milk-Chocolate covered Cornflakes and White Chocolate half circles covered in Milk-Chocolate.

My guess is that Kilk has teamed up with Telma (or maybe they are "sister companies" I don’t know) but both of the cereal covered Klik snacks seem to be Telma cereals.

I must not be the only one who thinks Telma's Kosher for Pesach Cariot Cereal is a fun snack "the powers that be" at Kilk had the same idea but they took it to the next level and added a thick layer of milk-chocolate.

The cereal in this Kilk chocolate covered Cariot snack is just as wonderful as Cariot Kosher for Pesach cereal but, the added milk-chocolate makes it a very chocolaty and rich treat. If I have just a few its perfect, more than that might be too rich for me.

Kilk Chocolate covered Cariot absolutely passes the "Potato starch test" and I would enjoy this snack any day of the year.

I wasn’t as impressed with the Kilk Chocolate covered Cornflakes, they seemed stale to me. The chocolate was perfectly tasty but I did not enjoy the cereal part of the snack. I personally would give this one a miss.

White Chocolate covered in Milk-Chocolate are simply a creamy rich chocolate treat. As I was tasting them I thought these chocolates might also work really well in baking. They can be a wonderful & rich addition to your favorite home-made Pesach cake or cookie.

Bottom Line: I really enjoyed the Cariot Kilks and the White Chocolate covered in Milk-Chocolate Kliks. Since they are both a little on the rich side, a few will go a long way for me. I personally will skip the Cornflake Kilks.        

Kilk Cariot & Cornflakes – 75 gram bag - 6.05 NIS

Kilk White Chocolate covered in Milk- Chocolate 70 Gram - 6.05 NIS

(2 for 5.00 NIS at Mega Bool)

  

Kosher Dairy Cholov Yisrael

Kosher for Passover Rabbinate Safed- Kitniyot

  

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Elite's "Pesek Zman" Wafers Kosher For Pesach

Elite's popular milk-chocolate covered wafer "Pesek Zman" is available for Pesach in 3 flavors; the "Classic" Hazelnut Pesek Zman, Coconut Cream Flavored Pesek Zman and "Big Bite" Pesek Zman

The "Classic" Pesek Zman is being sold both as an individual wafer and as a bar of 7 wafer fingers whereas the "Coconut Cream" Pesek Zman is only available as a bar of 7 wafer fingers and, it seems, the The 'Big Bite" is only sold as an individual wafer.


I tasted the "classic" and the "Big Bite" Pesek Zman wafers.

Both Pesach Pesek Zman wafers were wonderfully delicious; they have a rich chocolate coating with a perfect crispy wafer in the middle.

The "Big Bite" Pesek Zman has an added rich layer of cream on top of the wafer, just like the Chametz "Big Bite". Actually all of the wafers were very close to their Chametz counterpart.

The Pesek Zman wafers both passed the "potato starch test" with flying colors.

If Elite is able to make such a successful Pesek Zman wafer I don’t understand why they fail so miserably with their mini cubed wafers and their Kosher for Passover wafer. Yes I get that the rich chocolate coating is what makes Pesek Zman so successful but the filling of the Pesek Zman wafer itself is absolutely fine as well. Why can't they use the Pesek Zman filling for all their wafers?

Bottom Line: Either of these Kosher for Pesach Pesek Zman wafers would be a wonderful chocolaty snack to enjoy this holiday.

7 Wafer Fingers Bar- 110 grams – 7.59 NIS

Individual "Big Bite" Pesek Zman– 49 grams - 4.59 NIS

Individual "Classic" Pesek Zman – 45 grams – 4.59 NIS   

Kosher Dairy – Cholov Yisrael- Rabbinate Nazareth-Illit

Kosher For Passover

Shehakol

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own. 

Osem's Popco Butter & Honey Popcorn Kosher for Pesach

Basically its caramel popcorn J. I can absolutely taste the butter as well. Sadly it even left a "movie theater" buttery aftertaste that I didn’t love.

The Popco butter & honey popcorn is very sweet, but what can I expect from a honey-coated popcorn if not sweet?

Next time I would likely mix it together with non-caramel popcorn and just have a bit of the sweetness mixed in with the salty popcorn. I think I will really enjoy it like that.

The Popco popcorn has a crunchy honey-coating yet the kernels themselves are still soft, fresh and easy to eat.

Bottom Line: I don’t know what the "non Pesach" Popco popcorn tastes like but I did enjoy the Pesach version.

80 gram bag – 4.79 NIS

Kosher Parve  for Passover – Kitniyot – Mehadrin Charlap

חרל"פ                                                                

המועצה הדתית חולון

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

  

Last Minute Kosher for Passover Treat Reviews

There are a few Kosher for Pesach treats I wanted to post a review on before the holiday begins.

 Since I had so many real or "anytime foods"

(to quote Sesame Street)

to review before Pesach these sweet treats ended up getting pushed to the last minute, sorry, but I wanted to get these posted too.

So the next few posts might be shorter than usual reviews. I hope it will be enough information to help you decide what snack to buy at the convenience store, you might stop at, as you travel during this week-long holiday.

I will review:

Osem's Butter & Honey Flavored Popcorn 

Elite's Pesek Zman Wafers

 Kilk's Chocolate Covered Cereals

and
Elite's Chocolate Cream filled Wafers

 

This week's Haveil Havalim Blog Carnival is now up on

To Kiss A Mezuzah

Tara's "Moo" Pudding Kosher for Pesach

By now most of you have likely tasted Tara's "Moo" pudding and have formed an opinion as to which pudding you prefer Tara's Moo or Straus's Milky.

The reason I'm even posting about Tara's Moo puddings today is because they are now Kosher for Pesach with a Badatz Cholov Yisrael hechsher, whereas,  Straus's Milky is kitniyot.

טרה מוו כשר לפסח

So if you have not yet tried Tara's Moo pudding, I would say Pesach might be the perfect time to try it out.

They have 3 flavors available for Pesach; chocolate, chocolate-hazelnut and chocolate with chocolate heart shaped bits on top (to add in after opening). They all, of course, have whipped-cream in the container with the pudding.

    

All Moo products are made with Tara's 100% milk and have no preservatives.

Kosher for Passover

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this post. All opinions are my own.

Osem's Instant Mashed Potatoes & Onions Kosher for Pesach

אסם פירה עם בצל - כשר לפסח

In my mind Pesach and Potatoes "go together like a horse and carriage" so finding potato products on the shelf for Pesach should not be that big of a deal. What made me want to try these Osem "Mashed Potatoes with Onions" is the fact that there is no cooking involved in preparing them. Yes you do need some boiled water (and some not boiled water).

Since almost no Holiday/Chol HaMoed in Israel would be complete without a "Mangal" (BBQ) /picnic or few… and I was looking for a good side-dish to take along to the park. I thought I can easily boil some water in a pot on the Mangal (BBQ), or maybe even bring a hot thermos of boiling water along, and we can enjoy mashed potatoes with all the meat, chicken or fish we are grilling.  I just had to try the instant mashed-potatoes to see if they are tasty.

Both Osem and Knorr have a Kosher for Pesach instant mashed-potatoes with onions available this year. I tasted the Osem version.

It was very easy to prepare. There were no lumps left in the bowl, after I finished mixing in the boiled water, a half cup at a time, and then I let it rest for a few moments.

For what it is "instant mashed-potatoes" it was OK, at best. The consistency of the mashed-potatoes was very smooth and creamy but, it definitely tasted like it was made from a powder and not fresh potatoes. The onions definitely added a lot of flavor, I personally think I would prefer the one without the onions but for those who enjoy onion flavor they will surly get their fair share of onions.

As with the Kosher for Pesach Osem Bisli and the Kosher for Pesach Osem Crouton Soup-Rings, I wanted to point out to those of you in the USA that a friend told me she saw these same Osem Mashed-Potatoes with Onions advertised for sale in the USA. So they might be on the shelf in the Kosher for Pesach section in your local supermarket.

Bottom Line: It would not be my first choice of mashed-potatoes but if I need a convenient carbohydrate side-dish, which I can easily and quickly prepare in the park, I would possibly consider serving it. If I was at home I would rather make mashed potatoes from fresh potatoes and possibly serve them up like this; topped with a deliciously juicy burger.

Box of two 135 gram bags – 12.99

Kosher Parve - Kosher for Passover- Badatz

No Kitniyot

I also noticed that Osem has 2 mashed potato "Mana Chama" options that are kosher for Pesach. If you must work on Chol HaMoed they might be a convenient option to take along to the office. All you have to add is some boiled water and you have a hot portion of mashed potatoes. I did not taste them so I can't give you my opinion on that.

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

MamaOf's Kosher for Pesach Schnitzel



מאמא עוף שניצל - כשר לפסח

 MamaOf has 2 Kosher for Pesach "breaded" chicken breasts available for Pesach this year.

I actually wanted the smaller fun star shaped one but, I could not find that in my supermarket, so I got the full size schnitzels instead.

Both of MamaOf's Pesach Schnitzels are made with real chicken breast and are coated in a "home-style" matzo breading.

The chicken breast had a wonderful and clean chicken breast taste, just like the chametz MamaOf-RitzuOf I reviewed here.

The home-style coating did come off more easily than the chametz version but it didn’t completely fall apart as I was eating it.

Even though I heated it up on a sandwich maker/ Panini grill it was still a little less crunchy than the "crunchy RitzuOf" so yes it's obviously different to the chametz MamaOf schnitzels but I still enjoyed it and thought it was absolutely successful.

The coating does have flavor from the different spices MamaOf added but nothing overpowers the clean chicken breast taste. I think any of your favorite Pesach condiments would work well with this schnitzel.

To me it actually tasted perfectly wonderful in a sandwich made with the Kosher for Pesach Rolls

These MamaOf Pesach chicken breast schnitzels have no added preservatives or food coloring and are not Kitniyot.

Bottom Line: With all the cooking needed throughout this week long holiday it's nice to know there's the option of buying a ready-made schnitzel and having a healthy tasty meal within minutes. 

   

700 gram bag - 37.30 nis

Kosher for Passover- Rav Tzephaniah Drori Kiryat Shmona 

רב צפניה דרורי שליטה קריית שמונה

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Green Lite's & Pillsbury's Rolls Kosher for Pesach

For those who can't eat matzo for one reason or another or if you are traveling and don’t want the kids to cover the car in matzo crumbs you might want to consider trying these Kosher for Pesach Rolls.

I found Kosher for Pesach Rolls from 2 companies in the freezer department at Mega Bool Supermarket; Green Lite and Pillsbury.    



  לחמניות מיני לפסח של
Green Lite

 From Green Lite I had a choice of 2 sizes: the bigger one being a third of a baguette, 100 grams each, that came in a package of 4 and the smaller one are mini rolls with sesame seeds sprinkled on top. They came in a package of 6. I chose the third of a baguette package. They cost 18.99 NIS

Pillsbury only had one size available 4 rolls 75 grams each. The package cost 19.99 NIS 

  

They are both to be kept in the freezer. I warmed them up in a sandwich maker/ Panini press so the crust was perfectly crisp leaving the inside soft and fluffy.

As a whole I thought both rolls were very similar in taste to each other. I didn’t do a blind taste test but I still thought they were very much alike. They both had a very slight mashed potato taste. The Pillsbury one might have a drop more of a mashed potato flavor and it may have left a few more crumbs than the Green Lite roll.

I think that most things I would eat in a sandwich would not be poorly affected by the slight mashed potato taste it may actually add a nice extra flavor and would work well together. For example, if I had a turkey breast deli meat sandwich, a chicken schnitzel sandwich or even a grilled cheese sandwich I think the subtle mashed potato flavor might even enhance the sandwich and not ruin it.

Both Green Lite's and Pillsbury's Pesach Rolls pass the potato starch test in my opinion. I would enjoy eating them all year round and not just on Pesach.

I know Green Lite is a gluten free company with many different cakes and breads available all year but I did not taste anything from their chametz line to do a comparison.  

I found both rolls to be just as satisfying as any chametz roll of equal size.

They did dry out a bit faster than a chametz roll would but that's likely because I warmed them directly from the freezer. If I was taking them with me on a trip I would just let them defrost on their own, the crust may not be as crispy but I still think I would still enjoy them like that.     

Bottom Line: I found both the Green Lite and the Pillsbury Pesach Rolls to be satisfying and enjoyable. Granted it's not a fresh baked authentic baguette, we can't forget its Pesach after all, but these rolls absolutely fill a need for those who can't eat matzo and still want to feel full at the end of their meal. No they are not cheap but in some cases they are much needed and it's wonderful that they are available and tasty.

They are both Kosher and Kosher for Passover - Rabbinate Yavneh

Kitniyot

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.

Osem's Mini Yellow Crouton Soup-Rings Kosher for Pesach

אסם שקדי מרק טבעות
 כשר לפסח

Being that Mini Yellow Croutons is one of Osem's flagship products it was not surprising to me when they recently gave us Tri-Color Mini Croutons so a Pesach Osem Yellow Crouton is something I sort of expected from them. They didn’t disappoint and have now made Osem Pesach Mini Crouton Rings.

Osem Pesach Croutons are shaped like a small little round ring, fun shape in my opinion.

Before my friend and I added these Pesach croutons to our soup we both agreed that as a dry snack they somehow reminded us of potato sticks. I'm not sure how many I would want to eat as a snack because they were slightly oily. After a few it might be too much.

A 5 year old who likes the Chametz Osem mini yellow croutons was not a fan of the Pesach ones, granted she didn’t taste them in soup but only as a dry snack, her 3 year old sister though, did enjoy them.  

My friend suggested that they would be a wonderful garnish for a salad, the same way she might add chow main noodles to top a salad. I agree they would add a nice crunch, different flavor and a splash of yellow to the right salad.

Once added to soup we didn't think they were too oily. Although they don't taste exactly like the original Mini Yellow Croutons we both enjoyed the taste and thought it added a nice flavor and crunch to our soup.

They do get soggy faster than the chametz croutons but when we added them slowly as we ate our soup they did stay crunchy enough for us to enjoy the whole bowl of soup.

Even those that went soggy were enjoyable because they kind of turned into a noodle and we like chicken noodle soup so either way it worked for us.

We both agreed that these Mini Crouton Rings pass the "potato starch test" but they do have a slight waxy aftertaste. I'm just not sure that has anything to do with the potato starch.

Osem's Pesach Mini Crouton Rings are available both in Israel and in the US but the packaging is different. Here in Israel they are sold in a bag with a sticker for re-closing purposes. The American version is sold in a box that has a silver bag inside (not sure why they have to waste paper to make the box). Sadly no sticker or other re-closing option for the American package.

 I would suggest looking for something like these vacuum zip-lock bags to be sure the croutons stay fresh throughout Pesach.

Osem's Pesach Mini Crouton Rings have no added preservatives.

Bottom Line: Even though Osem's Pesach Mini Crouton Rings don't taste exactly like the chametz version, we were impressed with them and they were enjoyable. I think they will be a nice addition to my soup or salad this Pesach.

Kosher Parve

Kosher for Passover Mehadrin - Charlap and Chatom Sofer

         חתם סופר      חרל"פ                                           

No Kitniyot     

150 gram bag -7.29 NIS

Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.