54 | SEPTEMBER 26 • 2024
J
N
O
ver the last two weeks, we
covered Rosh Hashanah appe-
tizers, sides and mains, which
means that this week, it’s time for des-
serts! As a holiday when we hope for a
good and sweet year ahead, having an
appropriate dessert to mark the occasion
is critical.
Having surveyed many friends and
family members, it’s become clear that
there are two camps of Rosh Hashanah
dessert lovers in my social circle: team
apple cake and team honey cake. The
household in which I grew up was a
decidedly apple cake family. Each year,
my mother would make a towering
apple cake, alternating layers of bat-
ter and cinnamon-sugared apples. As
a result, if you asked me what Rosh
Hashanah tastes like, I would say, hands
down, my mother’s apple cake.
For the first Rosh Hashanah dinner
I hosted, I requested the recipe and felt
triumphant releasing it from the pan. I
had a little extra batter, which I baked
up separately to taste before serving it to
company, and when I tried it, it was the
taste I had remembered from home.
Nonetheless, over the years, both my
mother and I, independently and joint-
ly, have experimented with different
recipes, some slight variations on her
standard apple cake recipe, and others
that are more divergent, adding honey
or bourbon or caramelizing the apples,
for example. While I’ve appreciated their
novelty, to me, it is always the tradition-
al recipe that reigns supreme.
It was only after leaving home that I
discovered a whole other world of team
honey cake as well as other traditional
Rosh Hashanah desserts from around
the world. Nonetheless, I will always be
a vocal advocate for team apple cake.
I share with you several recipes for
desserts for a sweet new year. Of course,
I include the recipe for my mother’s
apple cake. Her recipe looks to be out
of a Jewish newspaper of unknown
provenance from many years ago, which
brings us full circle to sharing it here, in
another Jewish newspaper.
For something different, I include a
recipe for a salted caramel chocolate
ganache tart, which is both vegan and
gluten free, to accommodate a variety
of dietary restrictions. The tart contains
both chocolate, for some variety, and
dates, a food traditionally eaten on Rosh
Hashanah as a siman (sign/omen): We
eat dates (temarim in Hebrew) so that
our haters should perish (sheyitamu).
Finally, I share a recipe with some
complementary textures and flavors that
encapsulate my own hopes for the com-
ing year: olive oil shortbread with rose-
mary and chocolate chunks, for a year
that is rosy and in which I, God-willing,
meet someone to marry! Wishing every-
one a good and sweet year ahead.
continued on page 56
JOELLE ABRAMOWITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
ROSH HASHANAH
Food for Thought:
Rosh
Hashanah
Desserts
Ingredients
Filling:
5-6 apples (a mix of tart and
sweet), peeled, cored, & cut into
bite-sized pieces
2 tsp. cinnamon
5 Tbsp. sugar
Batter:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup neutral oil
4 eggs
¼ cup orange juice
2½ tsp. vanilla
Directions
Arrange rack in middle
of oven. Preheat oven to
350°F.
Make the filling: In a large
bowl, sprinkle the apples
with the cinnamon and sugar
and stir until combined.
Make the batter: In anoth-
er large bowl, whisk togeth-
er the flour, sugar, baking
powder and salt. Add the oil,
eggs, orange juice and vanil-
la, and mix with a spatula or
electric mixer until combined
in a smooth batter. Pour
half the batter into an angel
food cake pan. Arrange half
the apple mixture over the
batter and cover with the
remaining batter. Top with
the remaining apple mixture
arranged evenly over the
batter. Place on a foil-lined
sheet pan and bake for 1½
hours or until the cake is
golden brown and a tester
inserted in the center comes
out clean.
Carefully turn the cake
out of the pan onto a wire
rack and let stand until fully
cooled. Store covered at
room temperature for 1-2
days, or store in the refrig-
erator for longer, bringing
to room temperature before
serving.
Note: When using a bundt
pan, I recommend dividing
the batter in thirds, so the
final layer of apples can be
topped with the remaining
batter. (With the angel food
cake pan, end with the
apple mixture.)
MY MOTHER’S APPLE CAKE
Serves 10. Pareve