Category: Rosh Hashanah

Trio of Sweet Challah Dips

Some people make challah every Shabbos, but I am not one of them. Challah is a huge deal for me. It’s just such a mess and between the kneading, rising and shaping, it’s a whole day affair. That’s why, I make challah once a year. You got it. Just once. My yearly challah baking happens a few weeks before Rosh Hashanah. I whip up lots of sweet varieties, and pack the freezer with enough sweet bread to last us throughout the chagim. My favorite Rosh Hashanah flavors are sweet crumb and marzipan, but I also make some raisin, cinnamon, honey-glazed and of course, chocolate chip. I always make a few za’atar loaves, since it’s my favorite spice of all time.

Now I love sweet challah, but I don’t love dipping it into savory dips. Chocolate chips and garlic just don’t work for me, so I started to make sweet dips to go along with the sweet challah variations. It’s such a fun change from the typical savory dips that we eat during the year, and it makes the Rosh Hashanah meal even more sweet and special.

Now that you have your challah and dips set, what about the other food? I know it’s crunch time, so I put together my (tentative) Rosh Hashanah menu to give you some inspiration!

Sunday Night:
homemade honey challah with assorted toppings
sweet Challah dips
salmon en croute
simanim salad (recipe variation in the video)
roasted butternut and apple soup
honey roasted zaatar chicken
saffron rice
braised leeks
parsnip honey bundt cake with mulled apple cider

Monday:
honey challah with assorted toppings
sweet Challah dips
breaded gefilte fish
pomegranate coleslaw
roasted beet salad
tzimmes roast
lokshin and cabbage
braised leeks
honey hasselback baked apples with ice cream (minus the brie)

(continued below)

Monday Night:
assorted new fruits
honey challah with assorted toppings
sweet Challah dips
simanim ceviche
rainbow slaw
whole roasted chicken
honey mustard roasted potatoes
sauteed beet greens
mini pumpkin pies (I use this filling in mini pie shells)
parsnip honey bundt cake with mulled apple cider

Tuesday:
honey challah with assorted toppings
sweet Challah dips
fig salmon
roasted eggplants with tahini & pomegranate seeds
arugula waldorf salad
pomegranate molasses roast
mini pumpkin pies (I use this filling in mini pie shells)
cranberry green beans
sticky date pudding

What great dishes are you making for Rosh Hashanah? Share them with me in the comments below!

Halva Dip

1/2 cup tahini paste
1/4 cup silan (date honey)
3 tbsp water
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of sea salt

Add all ingredients to a bowl and whisk until emulsified. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit more water until desired consistency is reached.

VARIATION: for chocolate halva dip, stir in some melted chocolate.

SUBSTITUTE: if you can’t find silan, you may use honey instead.

Pumpkin Dip

1 15oz. can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Pinch of cloves
Pinch of sea salt

Add all the ingredients to a pot and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

VARIATION: Use roasted butternut squash instead of pumpkin.

Beet Hummus

1 15oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 medium beet, roasted
2 tbsp light olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper, to taste
honey, to taste

To roast the beet, wrap in foil and roast at 400 degrees until fork-tender, about one hour. Set aside to cool.

Peel the beet and roughly chop. Add to a food processor with the chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and honey and puree until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary. If needed, add additional oil to adjust consistency.

QUICK & EASY: blend store-bought hummus with a roasted beet (will taste more savory).

Related Recipes:

Honey Challah with Assorted Toppings

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Parsnip Honey Cake with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting & Rainbow Carrot Chips

I’m not a baker. Let me start with that. Sure I can follow a cake recipe. And I’ve even made the occasional Elmo and Barbie cake for my kids birthdays. But I don’t “bake”. Especially not cakes like THIS.

I don’t know what it is. The whole layering thing. And the frosting. It’s just such a MESS. Case in point: I decided to defy all logic and attempted to layer my cakes without trimming them first, so that they were flat. Of course the layers started slipping and sliding, so I had to separate them, post-frosting and then do the trimming. Mess is not the word. My kids were pretty happy though. They got to enjoy the best part of the honey cake (the sticky top layer), all smothered in frosting.

Now since this IS a honey cake, trimming the best part off the layers is such a sin. So I highly recommend you follow this technique so that the layers bake flat. Wish I had followed my own advice but I just get lazy when it comes to baking.


Case #2 in point, I let my frosting sit out after whipping it, and it got kinda warm and runny, but instead of refrigerating it so that it would hold up nicely, I just wanted to stack the cake already. THIS is why I don’t bake. No patience. Baking is all about precision, patience and organization, and while I do possess those qualities, baking does not exactly bring them out in me. Maybe it’s because I just want to get it done so I can dig in to the cake already!

So why this cake? Well, I came up with this crazy cool concept of doing a carrot cake/honey cake hybrid. And if that wasn’t enough, I had to switch up the carrots for parsnips, and take it over the top with FRIED RAINBOW CARROTS STRIPS. It’s go big or go home. Especially if I am about to make a layered cake!

I developed this recipe in honor of Rosh Hashanah, when it is traditional to eat honey cake, for a Sweet New Year. Since many people have a custom not to eat nuts on Rosh Hashanah, I knew I couldn’t garnish my cake with chopped pecans, which would have been my first choice. Shredded coconut is another great option but I wanted a little hint to the surprise inside the cake – the parsnips!

Honestly, I can’t say this cake tastes like parsnips. It tastes like honey cake. But when you get a couple of shreds of parsnip in your mouth, you get a little hint of flavor. If you want more of a parsnip flavor, add some more shredded parsnips to the cake. It’s as simple as that :)

I honestly could not be happier about the way this cake came out. I totally winged the recipe, and not understanding the science of baking, it could have been a complete flop. I was almost not expecting the cake to work but it came out so unbelievably moist! And my kids kept running downstairs wanting to know what smelled so INCREDIBLE.


I KNOW this cake is good for one reason and one reason only. The world’s most pickiest taste testers LOVED IT. My kids gobbled up the cake, licked their fingers, and said OH MY G-D between fork fulls. I kid you not. This is a home run. Kid tested. Mother approved.

Parsnip Honey Cake

1 cup coconut milk (I use Coconut Dream Original)
3 eggs
1 cup oil
1 1/2 cups honey
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
2 heaping cups shredded parsnips

Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
(may be doubled, depending on how much frosting you like)

1 stick butter or margarine
1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese (may use tofutti)
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 heaping tbsp honey
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Rainbow Carrot Chips

1 bunch rainbow carrots
canola oil, for frying

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9-inch cake pans and set aside.

With an electric mixture, cream the coconut milk, eggs, oil, honey, brown sugar and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing until you have a smooth batter. Stir in the shredded parsnips.

Divide the batter evenly between the pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Leave the cakes to cool while you prepare the frosting.

Add all the frosting ingredients to a bowl and blend with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy.

Remove the cakes from the pans and trim so that they are completely flat (you can use this trick to bake completely flat layers). Frost each cake layer and scrape the sides to create the look of a naked cake.

To make the rainbow carrot chips, wash the carrots well and pat dry. Peel the carrots with a vegetable peeler, creating strips of carrots. Heat a few inches of oil in a deep skillet and fry the carrots in batches, until crisp and golden. Drain on paper towels.

Before serving, garnish the cake with carrot chips.

VARIATION: Use carrots instead of parsnips in the cake, or use a mixture of both.
OPTIONAL FILLINGS: chopped walnuts, chopped pecans, shredded coconut, raisins, dried pineapple.
OPTIONAL TOPPINGS: chopped or sliced nuts (walnuts, almonds or pecans), shredded coconut.
BUNDT or LOAF PAN OPTION: This cake may be made in a bundt pan or 3 small loaf pans. Place the pans on a baking sheet to catch spills. Grease and flour pan and pour batter inside it. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Top with cream cheese frosting and toppings of your choice.

Related Recipes:

honey cake with caramelized apples
carrot muffins
couscous with thyme, honey roasted parsnips, carrots & beets
pumpkin whoopie pies with maple cream cheese frosting

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Honey Hasselback Baked Apples
with Brie & Pecan Streusel


I heart brie. I never thought I could be a semi-moldy-cheese kinda girl but here. I. am.


When Natural & Kosher Cheese asked me to go all Rosh-Hashanah-out on their brie, I was only too happy to oblige. I knew I had to do something with apple & honey, because besides being the symbol for a Sweet New Year, fruit and honey just go so well with brie! Case in point: these dried fruit brie bites. Mmm mmm good.

If moldy cheese and fruit sound gross to you, let me tell you this: I did a cheese demo a few months back, and I had a room full of people who thought the same. Many of them had never tried brie before, and they had no plans to. But after watching me make my brie en croute with homemade fig jam, they warmed up to the idea of melted gooey cheese smothered in sweet fruit. A few bites later they were all over it, stinky cheese and all!


If you’re still on the fence, let me assure you that when I say stinky cheese, I don’t mean bleu-cheese-style. I would NEVER go near that stuff! Brie has an edible white rind that, yes, does have mold in it, but it is oh so mild. You can always cut it off if you want to get to the gooey interior of the cheese minus the (slight) funk.

Now that we’ve (hopefully) got you passed the brie, can we please discuss the hasselbacking? Y’all know I’m kinda obsessed with hasselback anything. And after this hasselback salami, now you all are too! I promised myself I’d be hasselbacking lots of other foods, and after seeing this video on cookinglight, I was all over hasselbacking my apples! How gorgeous are they? Gosh, I have so many hasselback ideas up my chef sleeve, I can’t wait to share them with you!


Now if you want to skip the brie on these and just go pareve for a fantastic dessert, feel free to leave out the cheese and use margarine or coconut oil in place of the butter. Top it off with some ice cream and you’ve got yourself a golden dessert for your holiday meal! (Or, do yourself a favor and stick to the cheese, and serve this up for a special Rosh Hashanah breakfast!).

Honey Hasselback Baked Apples with Brie

2 apples
1/2 wheel of Natural & Kosher Cheese brie
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp honey

Pecan Streusel

2 tbsp chopped pecans
2 tbsp oats
1 tbsp flour
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp butter, softened

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Core the apples using an apple corer and cut the apples into 4 equal wedges. Cut slits in the apple wedges, taking care not to cut all the way through.

In a small bowl, mix the honey and melted butter. Stuff thin slices of brie in between the apple slices and brush with honey butter. Bake, covered, for 15-20 minutes, until apples have softened.

In a bowl, combine the streusel ingredients. Spread the pecan streusel over the apples, stuffing it in between the slices. Return the apples to the oven (uncovered) and bake until the streusel is browned and crispy, 5-10 minutes.

Serve warm, with a drizzle of honey.

PAREVE OPTION: To make these pareve, leave out the brie and use margarine or coconut oil instead of the butter.


This post was sponsored by Natural & Kosher Cheese. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, or via their Blog

Related Recipes:

apple and honey tart
hasselback sweet potatoes with apples
dried fruit brie bites

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Honey Fig Roasted Salmon

Excuse me while I type while my mouth is full. [gulp]

I don’t usually eat the recipe I’m posting while I’m posting it, but I seriously can’t get enough of this salmon. Who knew figs and salmon would go so well together, right?

The truth is, I would eat figs over cardboard. They’re that good. And with Rosh Hashanah coming, I couldn’t think of a sweeter fruit to incorporate into my holiday meal. Fig season is short, and I want to make the most of it before it’s gone!

It’s hard to believe that summer is really coming to an end, and the High Holidays are almost upon us. I see it in the seasonal fruit that’s making it’s way into the stores (yay for honeycrisp apples!), I feel it while I shop around for school supplies, uniforms and Yom Tov clothes. And I even smell it in the air as the summer days turn to cool nights, and the scent of fall creeps in. It’s sad to see summer go, but the New Year brings with it a fresh start and new possibilities.

I feel about the The High Holidays, the same way I feel about the first day of school. It gives me butterflies. And even though I’m way past the school-era (thank G-d!!), I still get those butterflies when I take my kids to orientation on the first day. I never realized the benefits of marrying someone whose last name begins with an “A”, until my kids started school. Thankfully, I don’t have to sit there for hours until their name is called!

I may not be in school anymore, but the truth is, my name is still called, each year, on high. As we read in the prayer of “Unesanneh Tokef“, “All created beings pass before you, one-by-one, like a flock of sheep…You count, reckon, and are mindful of them, and you allocate the fixed portion for the needs of all your creatures”.

May we all be blessed, that as our names gets called by the ultimate principal, may we be inscribed for a SWEET (and figgy) New Year filled with healthy, happiness, peace and of course, good food!

I’d like to think that this holiday isn’t just about the food, but the truth is, it is so much a part of it. We celebrate Rosh Hashanah through an assortment of symbolic foods, including the head of a fish and sweet, sticky honey. This recipe uses a whole side of salmon, but you can feel free to cook the fish head along with it, for a beautiful presentation. I love how festive and elegant this is, not to mention sweet! It is sure to be a show stopper on your holiday table.

Honey Fig Roasted Salmon

1 whole side of salmon
8 oz. fresh Black Mission figs, stem removed and quartered
1/3 cup orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp orange zest
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
2 scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish
fresh orange slices, for garnish

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the salmon on a parchment-lined baking sheet and set aside.

Place the figs, orange juice, soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic in a saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until figs have softened and the mixture is thick, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce over the salmon and bake for 20 minutes, or until salmon is opaque and flakes easily with a fork.

Garnish with scallions and orange slices.

Related Recipes:

teriyaki salmon
honey mustard salmon
honey roasted figs
holiday salad with figs and honey

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Moroccan Fish Balls

If there is one store I wish every Jewish community around the world would have, it would be Benz’s Gourmet. The local gourmet kosher shop is celebrating it’s 12th anniversary and we’re feasting on a special gefilte fish recipe in their honor!

Benz’s carries everything from artisan cholov yisroel cheese (imported from France!), smoked fish, caviar, beer, as well as specialty baking and gluten free products. They boast a huge olive bar and a whopping 27 varieties of herring. Whether I’m looking for a gourmet kosher product (like truffle oil), or I’m in the mood for fresh fish, I head on over to Benz’s. Thankfully, it’s just a few blocks away!

What I love about the store is that they are constantly on the lookout for new kosher products. If there is ever an item that I can’t find locally, I ask Benz’s to order it for me, and they do! Recently, I needed rosewater for an upcoming Shavuot recipe, and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I gave them a call and it was in the store just a few days later. Now that’s what I call good service!

Besides for Benz’s gourmet selection, they also carry traditional gefilte fish, a family recipe that they’ve been perfecting for over 30 years. I’m always looking to change up traditional gefilte (‘cuz reinventing traditional food is what I do best!) and Benz’s gefilte fish offers me the perfect canvas to build my hybrid recipe.

I don’t know about you, but the more I cook, the more I appreciate savory food. And the more I experiment, the more I realize that you don’t need to use a lot of sweetener in your cooking. My mom doesn’t agree, and neither does my Bubby. They’re ashkenazi food is loaded with sugar, the more the merrier.

If you ask me, sugar is just a fill-in for the absence of flavor. If you build layers of flavor and spice, there’s no need to load sugar into savory food. Look at gefilte fish – most Jewish Bubby’s cook it up in stock made of onions, carrots and celery (the good stuff!), they season to taste with salt and pepper and then they go ahead and pour a boatload of sugar into the pot. I grew up on that stuff, so I know. And don’t get me wrong, it even tastes good. So does candy.

I don’t want to carry on the sugar torch, so I’m trying to condition my kids to like savory foods. I don’t overload my salad’s with sugar, and I make spicy roasted chickpeas as a snack instead of cake. That’s not to say that my kids don’t get to pick their favorite sugary cereal as a Shabbat treat. Believe me, they have their fill of sugar. But I try. And all Bubby’s everywhere are questioning my better judgement!

Sephardic Bubby’s have been serving chraime for years. it’s a popular Moroccan dish of fish cooked in a spicy tomato sauce, and it’s usually made with white fish or salmon. I decided to shake things up by using prepared gefilte fish, ‘cuz that’s the way I roll (pun intended). I incorporated all the traditional elements of Moroccan fish here – including colored peppers, lots of garlic, parsley, lemon, and of course, harissa – a hot pepper paste that’s often used in North African cuisine. I’ve made variations of this recipe for a fish loaf as well as fried patties, but I love how these fish balls can stretch a roll of gefilte fish into so many portions. The fish balls become nice and fluffy, almost the texture of a matza balls, but with lots of spice from cumin, turmeric and fresh garlic.

As good as it is, I’m not sure my fusion cooking would win my husband’s Sephardic family over (although it did win him over, he asked for triples!). Sephardim are not fond of gefilte fish (understatement). On the flip side, try asking my Ashkenazi Bubby to eat spicy gefilte fish, I can just hear her already. Spicy gefilte fish? With harissa? What’s that? Could you pass the sugar please?! So here I am, mixing up the cultures with another one of my hybrid recipes, and I hope ya’ll will enjoy it, Ashkenazim and Sephardim alike.

1 pkg Benz’s gefilte fish, defrosted (I used no-sugar-added)
3-4 tbsp matzo meal
1 egg
3 tbsp chopped parsley
heaping 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1⁄4 tsp ground turmeric
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half
3 tbsp. tomato paste
1/2 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 15oz. can diced tomatoes
1 15oz. can tomato sauce
1 tbsp harissa (or, to taste)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
4 cups fish or vegetable stock
salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

In a bowl, mix the fish, matzo meal, parsley, cumin, turmeric, garlic, and egg. Place in the frige while you prepare the sauce.

Heat oil in a 6-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add garlic, carrots and peppers and sauté until softened. Add tomato paste; cook, stirring, until caramelized, about 3 minutes. Add chickpeas, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, harissa, lemon, stock, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Form the gefilte fish mixture into small balls and slowly add to the sauce. Don’t overcrowd the sauce, if there isn’t a lot of room, wait for the fish balls to set before moving them around to make more space for additional balls. Reduce heat and simmer until balls are cooked through, about 45 minutes. Serve hot with additional parsley for garnish.

NOTE: You may add a pinch of sugar or a drizzle of honey to the sauce if you wish.

VARIATION: Fish balls have more of a fluffy matza ball texture. If you want something more dense, you may fry up the gefilte fish into patties instead. Make the sauce without the stock, adding only as needed and serve over the patties.


This post is sponsored by Benz’s Fish. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram or at BenzsFish.com. And don’t forget to visit Benz’s Gourmet at 332 Albany Ave in Brooklyn. 

Related Recipes:

gefilte fish patties in tomato sauce
breaded gefilte fish patties
gefilte fish, three ways

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