Finding a good pareve dessert, one that “doesn’t even taste pareve” is an endless crusade for so many Jewish baked-good lovers. I approach pareve desserts the same way I approach Passover recipes: change as little as possible for the best results! If a recipe requires too much tampering, its probably not worth it to make a pareve version.
I have a few go-to pareve dessert recipes you can try out all year depending on if you love chocolate, fruit or not baking at all!
Perfect for Autumn: Spiced Sweet Potato Cake. The sweet potatoes in this cake make it so moist you would never know that its totally dairy free. While this particular recipe calls for a Brown Sugar Icing, this cake is tasty enough to stand by itself. You can also turn this cake into cupcakes and finish it off with pareve cream cheese frosting.
Perfect for Winter/All Year: Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake Recipe. A fellow baker friend and I swear by this classic chocolate cake recipe, and all you need to do to make it pareve is replace the milk with almond milk or coconut milk. My one important tip to make this cake is that you MUST use Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder. This is my secret weapon for all pareve chocolate desserts. I like to make this chocolate cake in a bundt pan and merely dust with powdered sugar and garnish with berries to serve.
Perfect for Spring and Summer/All Year: Fruit Tarts! This Plum Tart recipe has the moist, flavorful crust you will ever find. You can definitely make it with peaches or plums during their peak over the summer, though you can really use this dough to make any kind of fruit tart throughout the year. How to make it pareve? Just replace the butter with pareve margarine and you are good to go!
Perfect for Summer: F
ruit Kebabs! This is a dessert idea for the host or hostess who can’t be bothered with baking at all but still wants to satisfy their guests. You can choose any combination of fruits you like, include marshmallows or other candies or drizzle the whole lot in melted chocolate. Serve with sorbet or pareve ice cream and you are ready to go.
pareve
Pronounced: PAHRV or pah-REV, Origin: Hebrew, an adjective to describe a food or dish that is neither meat nor dairy. (Kosher laws prohibit serving meat and dairy together.)
