With the Jewish High Holy Days approaching, we have a plan for challah, honey cake and more.
And all of a sudden, the Jewish High Holy Days are nearly upon us. This is how it feels to me every year; just as soon as we settle into our back-to-school routines, it’s time to stop and dip some apples in honey to ensure a sweet new year. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are here.
In my family, we use the tradition of dipping apples in honey as an excuse to compare the different apple and honey varieties. Do we prefer Braeburns or Mutsus with amber chestnut honey? Are Honeycrisps already sweet enough, or can they take some of New York’s finest rooftop honey slathered on the slices? Our family loves a taste test.
Along with those apples, there’s also challah. Usually I bake an orange-scented olive oil loaf that I adapted from Myrna Aronson, but this year I’m going to try Claire Saffitz’s thrilling new raisin-studded challah (above). With the exception of the citrus in Myrna’s recipe and the honey (and optional raisins) in Claire’s, the ingredient list is the same: bread flour, salt, yeast, lots of egg, and olive oil. It’s the technique that’s different.
Claire’s method for making a sponge, or preferment, is very smart, yielding a better risen, stretchy dough; it’s easy to form into all manner of fancy, multistrand braids (or to use as the base for a babka). I’m going for the six-strand round version myself. Wish me luck!
Also on the sweet side, Joan Nathan has a terrific recipe for a traditional Hungarian honey cake that sandwiches thin gingerbread layer cakes with a filling made from Cream of Wheat and chunky apricot or sour cherry jam. She made it to serve to Steven Fenves, a 91-year-old holocaust survivor, at a dinner in her home. There’s a lovely story, too.
Or you can stick with apples as your holiday focus and make Erin Jeanne McDowell’s apple skillet cake with salted caramel frosting or David Tanis’s apple kuchen with honey and ginger.
Now that we’ve got dessert sorted out, what else is on your holiday menu? For me, there has to be matzo ball soup. I like Joan Nathan’s straightforward, relatively classic version, enhanced with a touch of fresh ginger. She also has a matzo ball chicken stew for something more rib-sticking — a Jewish iteration of chicken and dumplings. And there’s Fany Gerson’s chile-laden take, spiced with serranos.
Then, for the main course, are you in camp chicken (perhaps this sheet-pan chicken with plums) or camp brisket (Susan Spungen’s spice-rubbed version is spectacular)? I’m going rogue this year and contemplating cooking up a pot of fragrant braised lamb shakes with chickpeas, spiced like a tagine. Another out-of-the-box possibility is Diana Henry’s excellent skillet chicken with beans and rice. It would be untraditional, true, but very tasty: easy enough for a weeknight, special enough for a holiday. What’s on your menu? You can let me know at hellomelissa@nytimes.com.
Of course, you can make any of these dishes anytime and not just for a holiday. But you do need a subscription for access to the recipes. Won’t you help support our work by subscribing? You can also find us on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, where you can watch Claire Saffitz make her challah and babka recipes. The video is over half an hour long — and worth every minute.
Back to the subject of beans and rice: Louis Armstrong liked the dish so much he’d sometimes sign his letters “Red Beans & Ricely Yours.” And yes, to those of you who were about to ask, there IS a recipe.
L’shana tova! I’ll see you Wednesday.
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