My Bubbe (Yiddish word for grandmother) Julie is unstoppable. At 90 years old, she is still maintaining a three-story house, driving her car around Vancouver, and cooking up a storm. When my family and I are in town, we eat everything Bubbe makes for us–even if we are not hungry. I can still distinctly remember about 10 years ago when my father was interrogated by a US customs officer for carrying a poppyseed cake in a brown unmarked box, fresh from the oven. “What is in the box?” they asked. “It’s a poppyseed cake baked by my mother-in-law, I promise.” One of my favorites in her baking repertoire is kosher for Passover kamish. It almost doesn’t take like Passover. You may have heard kamish referred to as “Mandelbrot” or “Jewish biscotti”. It’s all the same: sweet, crunchy and delicious.
ingredients
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups matzah meal
3/4 cup potato starch
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
optional add-ins: 1/2 cup fine coconut, 1/2 cup chocolate chips, 1/2 cup of nuts (walnuts are best)method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat together eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla until thick and creamy. In a separate bowl, mix together matzah meal, potato starch, salt and cinnamon. Fold in the dry ingredients with the egg mixture until it is a thick dough. Cover and refrigerate for a least 1 hour. When chilled, divide into three sections. Form each lump into a roll that is the length of you baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, let rest for a few minutes, then cut into desired thickness. Place them back in the oven at a lower temperature (200 degrees) to dry for about 2 or 3 hours.
Jewish Food in the Hands of Heathens 
It was a toaster oven box and Bubbe insisted that we bring the cake home for John Keats. It was not for us!
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