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Tag Archives: rosh hashana

Just this past Wednesday night, I was invited to give a large challah experience to a big group of ladies here in Jerusalem at someone’s private residence. There was an overflow crowd of over 50 women, in every age bracket and wow, did they ask a LOT of questions!

It’s always a warm feeling to be able to share tips, ‘hacks, and very helpful hands-on techniques in real time to others. If I had known a lot of these things when I was first starting out it would have made my challah journey so much easier…

That’s when I realized something important. What makes these challah shows so unique? 

It’s not just because there is so much to share and a wealth of practical information every person walks away with to use in her own kitchen.

Rather, it’s SPECIFICALLY because I *did not know a thing* about challah (or baking for that matter!) when I first started out.

In other words, it’s my open confession of “making every mistake there is to make…and then some extra ones, because I’m talented like that!” that really gets people to laugh…but also to believe that they, too can do what I’m doing.

Which is so appropriate for Elul and our countdown to Rosh Hashana and doing teshuva. 

After all, isn’t this what personal change is all about? Making mistakes but then learning from them so you can be even better at what you do?

With that being said, I want to share with you some practical recipes you can use right now, this coming week, as you too do your kitchen countdown towards Rosh Hashana…

Here are some recipes that feature a delicious whole wheat challah recipe, as well as a really outstanding honey cookie. If you like a good quality, soft and delicious, but not far-too-sweet honey cookie, this is for you. 

And here’s something fun I shared with my challah show participants of this past Wednesday night’s presentation — what to top your challahs with at this time of year. 

Less sticky, something different, something pretty…see it here.

As my round woven braided challahs are rising on my counters as I type this (Baruch Hashem — my final batch for now! Next week is going to be the last 2 mains, two types of honey cakes, and we’ll soon see what else 🙂 ) I’d like to invite you to send in YOUR favorite Rosh Hashana family tradition recipes. Send them to info@atasteofchallah.com It’s so special to hear from our own readers, too!

And if you’re interested in a challah show of your own — whether private or public — reach out to me here.

Kesiva vachasima tova!

Mini Honey Cake Muffins

We eat and also give honey cake out to friends in honor of Rosh Hashana, to symbolize our wish that they enjoy a sweet new year…I’ve been making these for years and they are always amazing…what a tasty way to say Shana Tova…

Makes about 45-50 or so mini muffins

Ingredients

3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups flour (you can use 70% whole wheat flour too!)
1 cup warm water + 1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved into it

Method

Place the eggs into the mixer, no need to separate them.
Beat them on high; add in the sugar; turn down the speed and add in the oil.
Using the same measuring cup as the oil, measure out the honey; the oil that was in the cup will make the honey slide right out of it.
Add in all the other ingredients in the order listed and then beat them together until they are smooth.
If batter gets stuck to the sides of the bowl, scrape it down and re-beat for one minute so there will not be any lumps of flour stuck in your batter.
Pour into lined muffin cups.

Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C. Bake the mini muffins for 10 minutes until the tops are golden brown.
Freezes well.

Sweet Challah Toppings

Sweet crumble topping

100 grams marg
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp. cinnamon

Crumble it together until it’s, well, crumbs. If too mushy, add more sugar another 2 Tablespoons and a bit more flour.
Recrumble. If it is too dry, add a bit more margarine.

I try not to use margarine so I often substitute oil in these things. It works pretty well. For a once a year crumble, though, I probably would yes use the margarine this once.

Let the challahs rise, covered loosely with a plastic bag over its top for 30 minutes. Then wash with egg wash (one beaten egg in a cup) sprinkle on your crumbs and bake for 25-35 minutes until done.

Cinnamon sugar topping

Sprinkle the top of the challahs, after they are brushed with egg wash, with a cinnamon/sugar mix. This is really delicious!

Mandarin Orange Beet Salad

Beets keep well for longer periods of time, are full of healthy vitamins, and have so many varied uses. Instead of just average borscht or chrein, why not try something new this year?

47_beet_and_manorange
image-1518

Tip

You can freeze cooked beets and when they are defrosted, they are just as good as the day they were cooked. This is a GREAT time saver. I buy a lot of beets at one time, and then peel, check and boil them all on the same day. After they are cooled, since they shred and/or chop nicest when they are cold, I cut/shred/slice them into whatever form I want to store away. Then I pack them into disposable plastic containers, label what they will be for, and freeze them. This saves tons of time during the holiday, and also saves me some valuable fridge space. Plus, I do not have to worry about the beets going bad in the fridge, nor wilting or going moldy in storage before they are even cooked.

I really enjoy this particular salad, and surprisingly, so do my kids. If you need to cut down on sugar intake, you can cut the sugar here to 2 Tablespoons and still maintain its flavor from just the fruits in the salad. The taste is outstanding, and the presentation is so pretty with the vivid splash of colors against each other…

Mandarin Orange Beet Salad

This ratio makes enough for 4 people

Ingredients

2- 2 1/2 cups cooked and shredded beets, which is about 3 medium sized beets
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice or vinegar
1/4 cup juice from what the beets were cooked in; (or just use the mandarin orange juice below, if you threw out the beet juices by accident)
1/4 cup almond slices
6 dried apricots, diced
1/3 cup white raisins, optional
1 can mandarin orange pieces, juice included
1/4 -1/2 cup pine nuts for garnishing, optional (this depends if you can find it in your area with a Pesachdik hechsher)

Method

Mix together the beets, sugar, salt, and juice and water. Refrigerate until serving. Right before serving, add in almond slices, diced apricots, and white raisins, tossing just a bit. Decorate with the mandarin orange slices arranged nicely on top, along with the pine nuts and serve.

Tangy Cranberry Meatballs

This great recipe is based on my regular meatball recipe with cranberry sauce and a bit of wine added. The flavor is unique and makes this a Yom Tov specialty! You can make the meatballs any size you like; I think it looks (and stretches) best when the meatballs are tiny, but if you’re short on time, you needn’t worry about their size.

Serves 6

Ingredients

1/2 kilo (1 pound) ground beef
1/2 kilo (1 pound) ground turkey or chicken
1 onion, pureed with 2 gloves garlic
2 eggs
1/2 cup kasha or quinoa or bulgur or breadcrumbs *
1 additional large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons oil

Method

*If you use kasha, quinoa or bulgur, soak the grains first in ¾ cup very hot water for 15 minutes to soften before adding to meat mixture. Breadcrumbs do not need to be soaked.

Mix together the ground beef, ground chicken, and pureed onion and garlic. Add in eggs and 1/2 cup of softened grain. Mix and if you are not making the meatballs right away, cover the bowl and let it chill in the fridge.

Using a large frying pan, sauté the additional chopped onion in the 2 tablespoons of oil on a low flame and while it is sautéing, form meatballs and add to the slowly sautéing onion. Let them brown for about five minutes, turning once to brown on the other side, then remove them to a plate. Keep forming meatballs and browning them until you have finished all the meat mixture.

Prepare sauce in a deep pot:

Sauce

1 can smooth cranberry sauce without berries

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup semidry white wine

1 tablespoon soy sauce (optional)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

½ teaspoon pepper

Stir sauce ingredients together to smooth out any lumps and simmer on low. Add the meatballs, and simmer for one hour. This recipe does freeze well. Serve over a bed of brown rice, cooked quinoa or cooked and fluffed bulgur.

Stewed Red Cabbage & Raisin Salad

Good as a Rosh Hashana side dish…

Serves 6 -8

Ingredients

1 large head red cabbage, shredded
1/2 head of a small green cabbage, shredded
1/4 cup water
2 large onions, diced
2 large green apples, chopped
2 Tablespoons oil
1/2 cup dark raisins
1 Tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice *

Method

*Note: Rosh Hashana time many people follow the minhag/custom not to eat sharp or tart foods. I left this in the recipe anyhow as it adds to its flavor but is not readily discernible and the recipe is still sweet.

Put the shredded cabbages into a pot, add the 1/4 cup water and bring it to a boil. Let it cook for 15 minutes and then turn it off. Remove it from the heat and drain it in a colander. The cabbage may turn sort of purple or blue.

Saute the onions in the oil for 5-8 minutes. Add in the apples during the last 3 minutes and toss to ensure that they will not burn. Add the cabbage back into the pot, together with the raisins, sugar and lemon juice. Mix it well, Cover the pot and let it simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes. Serves well hot or cold.

Applesauce Cranberry Ices

So refreshing at the end of a seuda…

Ingredients

1 ½ – 2 cups applesauce
2 cans cranberry sauce (the one without the whole berries)
1 cup Sprite soda
1 cup orange juice
Optional (I did not use it): 1-2 Tablespoons fruit flavored liqueur

Method

Mix this up by hand in a bowl, or beat it with a hand beater for a minute or two to make it smooth. Pour it into a flat large plastic square container and freeze overnight. (Right, this took you about 4.5 minutes so far? Now comes the next 5 minutes or so!) The next day, remove it from the freezer. Cut into it; if you can, then cut it into four or five pieces and put it into your mixer bowl. Beat it slowly with the flat metal hook (ie, NOT the egg beaters!) until it resembles sherbet consistency. Refreeze. Remove from the freezer about 5 minutes before serving. Scoop into dessert bowls and serve.

Cranberry Chicken

This one is a family favorite. My mother got it years ago, shortly before I got married, from I-don’t-know-where and she liked it so much that she taught it to the caterer of my wedding and had him make it for the meal!
Since then I save it especially for this time of year. It’s simple but very special. This recipe makes enough for two whole chickens.

Ingredients

2 chickens, cut into eighths, skinned
1 cup flour
1 Tablespoon onion powder
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 large onion, sliced thin

Sauce

1 can cranberry sauce
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 cup real French dressing (recipe to follow)
1 can of the cranberry cans of water

French Dressing

In a hand blender or immersion blender jar, blend together until smooth the following:
1 small onion
½ cup canola oil
1/2 cup vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons paprika
2-3 Tablespoons ketchup
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C. Spray two 9×13 baking pans or one large pan with baking spray.

Place the flour with the spices in a plastic bag. Put each piece of chicken into the bag and shake to coat it evenly. Lay the coated chicken pieces in the pan.

Put all the sauce ingredients into a large bowl. Mash them together with a potato masher or a fork to break up the lumps of cranberry sauce somewhat. You can use a bought jar of French dressing but since I didn’t have any, I made the dressing myself in a hand blender jar. (There are also no preservatives in your dressing this way.) Pour the sauce over the chicken and top it with the onion slices.

Bake the chicken uncovered for 75 minutes on bake, not convection, not broil. Check the chicken when it’s been in the oven about half the time. If it looks like it may dry out to you, baste it and then cover it for the rest of the baking time.

Another great Rosh Hashana (or any time, for that matter) quickie idea for a side dish to do with this chicken is to add a bag of frozen baby carrots to the pan before laying the chicken pieces down. When it’s done cooking, you will have a delicious chicken plus a carrot side dish to serve it with.

Pomegranate Glazed Apple Strudel Squares

You don’t need the mixer for this recipe, it is easily hand done.and this smells amazing while baking!

Ingredients

4 cups flour
1 ½ cups trans fat free or reduced margarine
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
7 medium sized any kind apples
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Pomegranate Glaze
1 ½ cups powdered (icing or confectioners) sugar (don’t use regular white sugar it will not work!)
2 ½ Tablespoon oil
1/8 teaspoon lemon juice
4-5 Tablespoons hot pomegranate juice or syrup (you can use a pomegranate drink such as “Spring” brand to save some money)

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C.

In a large bowl, combine the flour and trans fat free margarine. Cut it together until it is crumbly. Add the sugar and mix a bit again. Check the eggs and beat them slightly with a fork in the glass they’re in. Add to the flour mix and combine all until you have a chunky, dry looking crumble mixture. Take off almost ¾ of this mixture and pat it down firmly into a large pan, about 11×14 in or a 16×10 inches. (It’s about one and a half times the size of an ordinary 9×13 pan.)

For the apples, whichever kind you choose will give this recipe a different flavor each time you do it. Myself, I just use up whatever old apples I have sitting in the fridge, so mine was made with a combo of all three colors of apples. It came out delicious.

Peel the apples and slice them/ pare them by hand into a large bowl. Sprinkle the lemon juice over them. Combine the ½ cup sugar and the cinnamon together over the apples and toss the whole mixture so it is coated evenly. Place this apple mixture all over the top of the crumbs in your pan. After it’s even, crumble over it the rest of the crumbs mixture. You may want to crumble the remaining crumbs a bit more by hand before sprinkling all over so you will be left with less lumpy pieces after it bakes on top of it.

Bake for 45 minutes until it is slightly golden all over and a drop darker by the edges. Remove from the oven and let it cool. After it’s cooled, cut it into squares and set aside.

Pomegranate Glaze

Place the pomegranate juice / syrup into a glass and heat it in the microwave for 40 seconds on high. Alternately, place the glass it’s in into a bowl of hot water to warm it up. It does need to be hot in order to turn into a good glaze. Put the powdered sugar in a plastic bowl, add in the oil and lemon juice. Add in the first 3 T. of hot pomegranate liquid. Start to mix it with a spoon. It should begin to thicken almost immediately. If it’s too thick, add more hot liquid by small, very small, increments until it is thick enough to drip but is not runny. If it’s too thin, add small amounts more of powdered sugar and keep mixing by hand until it is a nice thick, but not too firm consistency. Take your spoon and drizzle it all over in thin lines on top of your by-now-cooled-down apple strudel squares. There’s no food coloring in this picture, this is really how it comes out when using pomegranate liquid. Enjoy! This can be frozen in the pan until the day of use. Just remove it from the freezer about 3 hours before you need it, then present your squares on a nice platter or in cupcake holders, and serve.

Incredible Honey Cookies

Here’s a GREAT make-ahead Rosh Hashanah recipe that I made last year and taped up on my notice board then, specifically so that I wouldn’t forget to share it with all of you this year…

A very dear and special lady, Rebbetzin Sarah Meisels, gave me this recipe. She told me they are so good that even if your family doesn’t like honey cookies, these will not go uneaten, and boy, was she ever right. I made a huge batch of them last year and then had to hide them in the freezer so they wouldn’t be completely finished before I needed them. And this is from a baker (me!) who always shied away from honey cookies. I know this is a very big recipe — but, since it’s Erev Yom Tov now and many of our readers have large families to prepare for, I decided to leave the Rebbetzin’s amounts as they are. This makes over 100 cookies, but only if you don’t allow your fan club to snatch them off the trays as they are coming out of the oven…

Ingredients

1½ cups margarine (300 grams)
2 cups sugar (450 grams)
6 eggs
1 cup honey
7 cups flour (1 full kilo of flour)
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon juice
¼teaspoon ground cloves (optional)

Method

Cream the margarine and the sugar. Add in the eggs. Mix again. Add in everything else. Mix until you have a nice soft dough and then turn off the mixer. It will be somewhat sticky — this is normal. Cover and place the cookie dough in the fridge to firm up for about 1–2 hours. If you forget to take it out until the next day, that’s okay too.

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.

Line the baking trays with parchment paper. Form small balls of cookie dough, roll each ball in a bit of flour and place them on parchment paper lined cookie trays. Press down each cookie very slightly with the tips of your fingers. Don’t press too hard! Bake the cookies until they are light golden brown, about 10–12 minutes. DO NOT bake them more than 15 minutes or they will be rock hard! When they are slightly crinkled and golden brown, they are done. Remove from the oven immediately. Let them sit on the tray for a few more minutes before you remove them to a platter to cool completely. I suggest making these on a morning when kids and hubbies are not home so that you will have something to put into the freezer after you are done!