Editor’s note: This story was updated on April 4, 2025 to reflect new offerings for Passover 2025.
If you are preparing a Passover seder, you know the drill: roast the shankbone, burn the egg, chop the charoset, prepare the salt water, rinse the bitter herbs. All that, and we haven’t even started on the brisket, the matzah ball soup and the side dishes (which, in my household, always include roast beets, cucumber salad and coleslaw).
By the time your weary arms and legs have trudged to the final course — dessert — you may be ready to call it a day. So why not take a load off and buy a delicious Passover dessert instead of making one yourself? Plus, let’s face it: Dessert is an easy item for guests to bring to a seder — your friends or family members will feel like they contributed something, and they did!
But here’s the rub: Many Jewish bakeries close down for Passover. “Too much to clean,” explained Elan Kornblum of Great Kosher Restaurants Media Group.
But fear not — in this great city of ours, which is home to some 1 million Jews, we are never out of options. Firstly, there’s a wide and creative selection of gluten-free and flourless cakes that can be found at bakeries across the city, both Jewish and not, like Magnolia Bakery’s delectable flourless chocolate cake.
Such treats, however — even if they contain no hametz, or leavened ingredients — are usually not certified kosher for Passover, because if you think it is hard to clean your own kitchen of all leavened products, imagine the yeoman’s task it would take to clean and/or replace all items in a commercial bakery.
But even if you are strictly observant, all is not lost. Delicious and certified kosher for Passover desserts are available all across town, particularly at kosher food markets. Some of these specialty shops bake their own treats, others source their desserts from wholesale companies — either way, there’s no shortage of tasty options. Thanks to the increased use of nut and coconut flours, kosher for Passover desserts are no longer limited to tinned macaroons or sawdust-adjacent sponge cake — options today range from lemon meringue pie to apple macaroon cake and more.
Whether you’re hosting a Passover seder this year or attending one as a guest, here are 13 of our favorite spots to buy kosher for Passover desserts. Liberation never tasted so sweet!
1. 12 Chairs Cafe
Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Greenwich Village
You skip cooking the festive meal entirely the Passover Box ($325) from this popular Israeli restaurant. Available for preorder here, the box includes salads, dips, matzah ball soup and mains, plus their signature malabi, a creamy coconut-milk pudding that is drizzled with pomegranate syrup and topped with coconut flakes and pistachios. You can also order the restaurant’s popular dessert a la carte. Not kosher.
2. Breads Bakery
Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park and Union Square
Breads Bakery’s selection of Passover pastries sounds almost too good to be true — especially for a holiday that’s not typically known for delicious desserts. This year, the popular Israeli-style bakery has a flourless coconut cake studded with chocolate ($16.95); a choice of coconut and almond macaroons (10 for $12.95) as well as a flourless cheesecake ($46) that serves six to eight people. New for this year, the bakery is preparing pistachio financiers — small, spongy pistachio cakes made with almond flour; 10 in a bag for $13.95. Don’t miss their chocolate, yuzu, and hazelnut layered cake or their fresh fruit tart, enriched with almond and pastry cream. If you’d like some assistance with other courses of the holiday meal, you can also purchase a vegetarian matzah ball soup, haroset made of dates, walnuts, apples and wine, as well as different types of matzah brei. Not kosher.
3. By the Way Bakery
Upper West Side, Upper East Side and Westchester
The baked goods at this pareve bakery are gluten- and dairy-free and certified kosher and pareve. (Note: Though the bakery’s ingredients are all kosher, their kitchen was not kashered for Passover.) Available treats include Safta’s Seven Layer Cake, a vanilla sponge cake with chocolate filling and a chocolate glaze for $70; a dairy-free coconut cheesecake with a macaroon like crust, $40; flourless brownies, six for $15; and the requisite plain or chocolate coconut macaroons, six for $15. Place holiday orders no later than Tuesday, April 8. Not certified kosher for Passover.
4. Eli’s Market
Multiple locations in Midtown and the Upper East Side
At this popular New York mini-chain, run by Eli Zabar of the famous Zabar’s family, choose from a long list of sweet and flourless treats, including a “mile-high” lemon meringue cake that serves 14 to 16 ($150) and a chocolate almond torte made with almond flour and iced with a bittersweet chocolate glaze ($65). You can pick up baked apples stuffed with dried fruit, too ($14 each). The items are available to order from the catering department, online or by phone. Many of them are also available in their stores.
Also: Starting Saturday, at the Eli’s Market at 1411 Third Avenue on the Upper East Side, you can once again find their Chocolate Covered Caramel Matzoh Ice Cream ($20/pint). Not kosher.
5. The Kosher Marketplace
Upper West Side
You can find the to-be-expected selection of boxed macaroons, jelly rolls and brownies at KMP (2442 Broadway), as well as sugar-free kosher for Passover marble and sponge cakes. But this isn’t your typical Manischewitz fare — not that there’s anything wrong with those! The Kosher Marketplace’s desserts come from Zemer Bakery; prices range from $19.99 for a 10-ounce box of black and white cookies to $39.99 for a seven-inch mocha apricot cake. The market is also selling their house-made chocolate mousse with whipped topping ($8.99 for 12 ounces). Certified kosher for Passover.
6. La NewYorkina
Red Hook, Brooklyn
Celebrity Jewish Mexican baker Fany Gerson is once again doing a Passover Chocolate Covered Matzah Box, containing four matzah treats inspired by her Mexican roots, her Jewish heritage and the flavors of the world ($89.99). Each box includes a crispy, caramelized chocolate-covered matzah dusted with Mexican chocolate and sea salt; white chocolate matzah with freeze-dried raspberry and sprinkled with hibiscus powder; milk and dark chocolate matzah with home-made all natural sprinkles; and, finally, passion fruit white chocolate-covered matzah. The box will be available at La NewYorkina’s Red Hook location at 61 Commerce St. beginning Monday, or via Goldbelly. Not kosher.
7. Michaeli Bakery
Lower East Side, Upper East Side and Upper West Side
Since opening his new spot inside the JCC on the Upper West Side earlier this year, Michaeli Bakery baker/owner Adir Michaeli is stretched for staffing so he will be offering a more limited Passover menu this year of coconut macaroons, peanut macaroons, chocolate covered matzah, Passover eggs and Black Forest Cake pie. Prices range from $15 to $35. The macaroons are pareve and the other items are dairy. The bakery is certified kosher but not for Passover.
8. Miriam & Rafael
Miriam has locations on the Upper West Side and Park Slope, Brooklyn; Rafael is on the Upper East Side
These Israeli-style sister restaurants from Chef Rafael Hasid are selling an almond apricot cake made with almond flour, butter, sugar, studded with sliced almonds and poached apricots ($20, serves two), and a charoset made of ground nuts, grated green apple, sweet date paste and silan, a date syrup ($20, serves 2). Order these sweet treats, as well as other items for your festive meal, from Rafael here and Miriam here. Not kosher.
9. Park East Kosher
Upper East Side
This year, Park East has partnered with Butterflake bakery for their Passover desserts. You’ve heard of rainbow cookies? Butterflake is making a rainbow seven-layer cake for the holiday, as well as a raspberry crunch cake layered with raspberry jam, chocolate chip cookies and more. Everything is made in a nut-free and sesame-free facility; prices range from $22.99 to $42.99. Certified kosher for Passover.
10. Pomegranate Supermarket
Midwood, Brooklyn
A trip to Brooklyn’s Pomegranate Supermarket (1507 Coney Island Avenue) feels like a trip to Israel. Here, you can find fresh meat, fish and prepared foods, as well as kosher for Passover treats from everywhere including macaroons from Gefen, Glicks, Manischewitz and Oberlander (from $5.79 to $14.29 for Oberlander’s chocolate marzipan macaroon); seven-layer cake from Afikomen for $14.19; black and white cookies and brownies from Haggadah for $13.99 or Schick’s cashew brittle for $16.79. Place the order online and pick up at the store. Kosher.
11. William Greenberg Desserts
Upper East Side and Upper West Side
Uptown bakery William Greenberg has an extensive menu of Passover desserts. Their selection includes jam-filled, chocolate-covered coconut macaroons (one pound for $36); pareve tortes made from a delicate macaroon base topped with freshly made apricot or raspberry preserves and a lattice crust ($36); flourless chocolate walnut cake with chocolate buttercream layers and rich fudge icing ($34) and, for New Yorkers who can’t live without, black and white cookies made with almond flour and matzah and frosted with chocolate and vanilla icing. (18 mini or 12 large for $54). Made with kosher for Passover ingredients but not certified kosher for Passover.
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