Jewish Desserts Charcuterie

When I was a student in Hebrew school, every year before Passover, our synagogue asked us to sell candy to our family. The idea, I’m sure, was to make money for the temple. However, they framed it as this will help your friends and family stock up on kosher for Passover desserts without having to go to the store.

Considering I was a Girl Scout at the same time and used to selling Girl Scout cookies, this activity seemed completely second nature. Nonetheless, it also ensured that my grandparents — who typically held the family seder — had plenty of candy fruit slices, chocolate-covered jelly rolls and macaroons to serve at the first and second seders.

What To Put on a Jewish Desserts Charcuterie Board

Prior to writing this article, we’d designed a savory Passover charcuterie board. It was only after the fact that we realized that if you’ve got appetizers on a board for this Jewish holiday, then it made sense to make a dessert one, too. In fact, making it a Jewish desserts charcuterie made the most sense, since what you might serve at Passover would work for other Jewish holidays, too. I’m thinking about Purim, Rosh Hashanah and Chanukah.

While we aren’t familiar with any Jewish organizations selling sweets this year, thankfully our local supermarket had stocked the kosher aisle with kosher for Passover treats. So, shopping for this dessert board was easier than we expected. However, if that’s not the case where you live, there are plenty of options available online for buying Jewish desserts.

Jewish brands

Some of the brands to look for include:

• Manischewitz
• Barton
• Joyva
• Haddar
• Geneve

Ours was always a Maneschewitz family, from the wine served at the seder to the macaroons put out for dessert. In addition to those aforementioned Passover candies that my grandparents always bought from me, we purchased fresh fruits and nuts plus other goodies for our Jewish desserts board.

Desserts on This Board

• Dates
• Manischewitz Chocolate Macaroons
• Manischewitz Dark Chocolate Peppermint Patties
• Chocolate-covered Raisins
• Joyva Chocolate-covered Jell Rings
• Apricots
• Blueberries
• Strawberries
• Manischewitz Marble Mandel Cuts (think Jewish biscotti)
• Manischewitz Fruit Slices
• Manischewitz Toasted Coconut Marshmallows

Shopping for Kosher for Passover Desserts

As I mentioned earlier, many Jewish organizations sell sweets, like the Girl Scouts sell cookies. So reach out to your local temple or Chabad to see if they are running a fundraiser. Then you can buy your candy that way.

Or, you can check out your local supermarket to see if they’ve stocked their kosher aisles for the holidays. If you live in a place without a large concentration of Jewish people, you can always travel to someplace nearby that fits this demographic.

For instance, we live near Portland, Maine, and weren’t having much luck finding kosher for Passover products. However, if we drove an hour south to the Boston suburbs, where there are larger Jewish communities, suddenly our options for desserts expanded. Of course, there’s always shopping online. And if I were to make this again, I would definitely add some of the baked goods that you can get when traveling to Israel. This includes rugelach.

Finally, you can try your hand at making some of these desserts. For example, this recipe for an almond macaroon cookie. Of course, any of these options would work for a non-denominational dessert charcuterie, too.