Rosh Hashanah is more than just the feast of apples and honey: It's a baker's dream. This holiday marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year, but unlike other holidays (I'm looking at Passover) there are no specific dietary restrictions. Instead, tradition and symbolism largely guide food choices on Rosh Hashanah. Honey and apples will certainly ring in the new year, but ingredients like pumpkin and pomegranate also symbolize abundance and reinforce the cyclical and seasonal elements of this important festival. After all, sweet foods usher in a sweet new year, so baking for this holiday is a great joy.
We asked some of our favorite bakers to share their beloved Rosh Hashanah recipes. The bakers involved have drawn from these New Year's traditions, as well as their own backgrounds—spanning from Ukraine and Iran to Oregon and Brooklyn—to develop deeply personal holiday bakes. If it's babka bursting with seasonal plum jam; a nutty, soothing green pistachio cake that shimmers with a pomegranate glaze; or golden pumpkin spirals, these recipes represent Jewish baking at its best. – Lara Rabinovich
Photography by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Sonya Sanford's Plum Babka
Every year around Rosh Hashanah, I remember my Soviet-Jewish grandmother tending to a pot of Italian plum jam made with fruit foraged from local trees. My family immigrated from Ukraine to Washington State in the late 1970s, where we blended the culinary customs of the old country with those of the new. During the Jewish high holidays, my grandmother's kitchen was filled with incredible dishes and desserts made from scratch.
These days, as Italian plums ripen in late summer in the Pacific Northwest, I carry on my grandmother's tradition and pick the fruit to turn into jam. The smell of sugar plums and their purple hue takes me back to my childhood and I often think of my grandmother as I knead the dough to make plum-filled babkas.
And the connection is fitting: Babka, a sweet, twisted yeast bread, is said to get its name from “Baba,” which means grandmother in Polish and Russian. This beloved pastry originated in the Ashkenazi Jewish communities of Eastern Europe in the early 19th century, and immigrants to the US helped popularize it globally in New York bakeries in the 20th century. Historian Gil Marks notes that in the 1800s, the babka was simpler; it was a way to use up extra challah dough by topping it with preserves or cinnamon. In contrast, modern versions of babka are made with a much richer buttery dough, usually filled with a decadent chocolate spread, and finished with a glossy syrup glaze or sugary crumb topping.
Babka takes time and effort, but pays off with a shiny golden loaf that reveals a maze of layers when cut. Rolling the pastry as thinly as possible before spreading it with the plum jam and frangipane gives those satisfying swirls to the finished bake. In our house, one piece this seasonal babka in the morning marks a sweet new season – and a new year.
Photography by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Leah Koenig's Pumpkin Challah
In my family, like many others, tradition usually takes center stage at our holiday dinner table. As Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestors come from Lithuania and Russia, Rosh Hashanah should include fresh apples dipped in honey, a hearty brisket, tzimmes (a mixture of roasted root vegetables and dried fruit), and a shawl of large and round to celebrate our wishes for a full year ahead. Unlike the rest of the year when this holiday bread is woven into one piece, the round challah marks this time as particularly special – the circular shape symbolizes the cycle of seasons and the start of a fresh year.
More than just a seasonal twist, though, this pumpkin shawl is inspired by pan de calabaza, a sourdough pumpkin bread that hails from the Sephardi Jewish community. The Sephardi diaspora originated in Spain and Portugal, but after the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century forced Jews to convert to Christianity or flee for their safety, this community spread throughout the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Africa and North and beyond. For Sephardic Jews, the pumpkin has special significance on Rosh Hashanah because the word for pumpkin or gourd in Aramaic (k'ra'a) sounds similar to the Hebrew word kara. (to cut or tear). As a result, eating foods made with pumpkins or gourds is considered an edible expression of hope that all the mistakes of the past year will be erased from the record as we start fresh in the new year.
Beyond its symbolism, the pumpkin scarf is also irresistible. The loaves are rolled into magnificent spirals and baked until the outside is shiny and bronze and the inside glows golden and warm. A hint of cinnamon in the dough evokes fall, while pumpkin lends extra softness to the crumb. The soft, fluffy bread is delicious on its own or drizzled with honey, and makes the ideal vehicle for mopping up every last puddle of sauce on your plate. Whether you're celebrating Rosh Hashanah and want to try something new or you're just in the mood to bake a fall-appropriate bread, this Pumpkin Challah is the ideal addition to your baking repertoire.
Leah Koenig is an IACP award-nominated author i seven cookbooksincluding assessees The Jewish Cookbook AND Modern Jewish cooking. Her newest cookbook, Portico: Cooking and Dining in the Jewish Cuisine of Rome was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards. Leah's writing and recipes can be found in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Food & Wine, Epicurious, and Food52, among other publications. She also writes a weekly newsletter, jewish table, which shares recipes and stories from the world of Jewish food.
Photography by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Tannaz Sassooni Pistachio Cake with Pomegranate Glaze
As an Iranian Jewish kid growing up in Los Angeles, I always felt a little different from my classmates at Hebrew school. In our house, the Rosh Hashanah dinner table would be filled not with sweet and sour brisket, but with Persian foods: bundles of long-grain basmati rice, topped with barberry, shredded carrots or almonds, along with the filled dishes with long-cooked stews – maybe quince and pomegranate molasses, maybe a tart mix of fresh herbs and beans. Large platters held roast Cornish game hens or large fillets of salmon. Finally, the saffron-scented tahdig placed like a golden crown at the center of the spread — its crispy rice formed at the bottom of the pot — was the most coveted of all.
Before going to dinner, we had a full Rosh Hashanah seder. Seders are often associated with Passover, but Iranian Jews also celebrate Rosh Hashanah by eating a variety of ritual foods, each with a blessing to usher in the new year. We'd eat apples and honey with a blessing for sweetness in the coming year, but then we'd move on to a host of other foods: slow-cooked black-eyed peas that came with another bountiful blessing; meat from the head of an animal, such as boiled beef tongue, which we asked to be known as the head rather than the tail in the following year. Dates, boiled zucchini, Persian leeks and beetroot round out the list, each with prayers for protection from our enemies. But my favorite was always the big bowl of pomegranate seeds.
The Persian love of pomegranates is legendary, and Rosh Hashanah tends to fall at the beginning of the fruit season as summer turns to fall. As we eat the seeds, each bursting with sweet juice, we hope that just as the pomegranate is filled with seeds, we are filled with merit in the new year.
Even if you don't have a history of elaborate Iranian Jewish Rosh Hashanah seders, you can bring the symbolic importance of the pomegranate to your holiday table with this cake. It also includes the classic Persian ingredients pistachio and rose water, resulting in an aromatic pale green cake, a beautiful contrast to the deep pink pomegranate glaze. It is then piled with fresh pomegranate clays that sparkle on top of the glaze like little jewels. Brightened by orange juice and peel and enriched with olive oil, this soft cake it is not too sweet and has a deep flavor. Iranians end every meal with sweets and a delicate glass of black tea, which is a perfect combination alongside this dessert.
Born in Tehran to a Jewish family, Tannaz Saxons is a Los Angeles-based food writer interested in exploring the city's global culinary landscape and is currently interviewing mothers and grandmothers for an upcoming regional Iranian Jewish cookbook. Follow her cooking adventures on Instagram @tannazsassooni.
Looking for more Rosh Hashanah recipes? Try Harvest Challah Apples, Zingerman's Honey CakeOR Dairy Swirl Halvah Zingerman.
Cover photo by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
