Tag Archives: Rosh Hashanah

Celebrate Rosh Hashanah with Sweet Crumble Topped Challah

Round Challah for Rosh Hashanah is topped with a sweet crumble topping.

It’s round challah season people! Celebrate Rosh Hashanah with this Sweet Crumble Topped Challah. It is traditional to shape challah into a circle for the Jewish New Year. A round challah has no end, symbolizing our wish for a year in which life and blessings continue without end. This round beauty also incorporates a sweet crumble topping, symbolizing our desire for a sweet new year. This year, more than ever, we need some sweetness.

The shaping of this round Sweet crumble Topped Challah looks complicated, but it’s actually one of the simpler braids I have tried. I learned how to do it from @challahprince over on Instagram. He created it with a sesame seed topping. I swapped out my crumble topping. Flour, brown sugar, turbinado sugar for extra crunch and butter come together to form the topping. Feel free to use a plant based butter if you want to keep it dairy free.

Check out the video to see how it all comes together:

Keys to success:

Make sure to use a scale when following my recipe. Weigh the dough it and divide by 10 to make equal sized pieces of dough for shaping. Roll each piece into a round ball. Cup your hand and roll quickly over the dough, using your palm, to form a smooth round ball. Combine balls 9 and 10 to make one larger ball. You will have 8 smaller balls and one larger ball.
Let the balls of dough rest for about 10 minutes and then roll each ball into a rope. Start with your hands in the center and work your way out to the ends. The finished ropes should be about 14-inches in length and have slightly tapered ends. You will have eight 14-inch ropes. Roll the large ball into a 21-inch length rope.
Roll 4 of the 14-inch ropes and the 21-inch rope in egg wash and crumble topping. The remaining 4 ropes will stay uncoated.
After the challah has been baking for about 20 minutes, the seams will have opened up a bit, exposing more raw dough. Remove from oven and brush more egg wash on the plain ropes and more crumble topping on the crumble areas, to fill in any newly exposed dough. Continue baking.
Egg yolks will give the plain ropes of dough a more golden burnished colour.

Sweet Crumble Topped Round Challah

This braided sweet round challah looks complicated, but it's actually not that difficult to create. The crumble topping takes this challah to the next level and is perfect for ushering in a sweet new year.

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Servings slices

Calories 325 kcal

Ingredients

Challah

7 grams traditional active dry yeast or 1 envelope
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water 115°-120°F
425 grams all-purpose flour
125 grams whole wheat flour
112 grams honey
1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt or 1/2 teaspoon Morton's Kosher salt
1 large egg lightly beaten
50 grams vegetable oil

Topping

113 grams butter or plant-based butter
150 grams brown sugar
50 grams turbinado sugar
140 grams all-purpose flour

Assembly

2 large eggs beaten with 2 Tablespoons water
2 large egg yolks

Instructions

In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 cup warm water. Sprinkle yeast on top and let stand for about 5 minutes, until yeast gets all bubbly.
Make the dough in a stand mixer: Place 140 grams all-purpose flour and honey in the stand mixer bowl, fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix briefly to combine. Pour dissolved yeast mixture into machine and mix for about 1 minute. Add egg and oil and mix again for about 30 seconds. Add remaining 285 grams of all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour and salt and mix on medium-low speed for about 1 minute. Switch to dough hook and knead for 8-9 minutes.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for a minute and then form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a large oiled mixing bowl. Turn dough until all sides are coated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Let it rise at room temperature for about 1½-2 hours, or until doubled in bulk. A good test to see if the dough has risen enough is to insert your finger to a depth of 1 inch and wait to see if the impression remains. If the impression fills in, wait another 15 to 20 minutes to let rising continue.
While dough is rising, prepare topping. Place ingredients in a food processor and pulse several times until crumbly. Store in fridge until needed.
After the dough has risen, punch it down to deflate it. Divide dough it into 10 equal pieces (Do yourself a favour and weigh dough and divide by 10 to be precise). Roll each piece into a ball. Join the last 2 balls together to make one larger ball. You will have 8 smaller balls and one larger ball, for a total of 9 balls of dough. Place balls on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with a towel and let rest for about 10 minutes.
Roll each of the smaller balls into a 14-inch-long strand with slightly tapered ends. Roll the large ball into a 21-inch strand. Lightly dust each strand in flour and place on parchment lined baking sheet so they do not stick.
Beat eggs with water and place in a shallow baking dish. Place crumble topping in a second shallow baking dish. Dip 4 strands in egg and then in the crumble topping. Gently press topping into dough so that it sticks well. Coat the larger strand in crumble topping as well. You will have 4 plain strands and 5 crumble coated strands.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350°F. Watch this how to video on my blog for shaping instructions and form the challah. Cover the loaf with a tea towel and let rise at room temperature for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Beat egg yolk with water. Using a thin brush, brush only the plain strands with the egg wash. Add a bit more crumble topping to the crumb coated strands. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and on the parts where the bread has expanded, paint any newly exposed dough with egg wash on the plain strands and fill in with more crumble topping on the expanded bits of crumb coated strands. Place challah back in the oven and bake for a further 20-25 minutes until golden brown, or until an instant read thermometer, inserted into the center of the loaf, registers 190°F. Remove challah to a wire rack and let cool before serving.

Notes

This recipe is a marriage of two different recipes. The challah recipe comes from my friend Margo. The topping part of the recipe is adapted from my sister’s cousin’s friend, Elaine. Elaine and Margo have never met, as far as I know. My sister would like to introduce them. She thinks they’d like each other. In my little cyber world, they are already great friends!

Nutrition

Serving: 1sliceCalories: 325kcalCarbohydrates: 51gProtein: 6gFat: 11gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 207mgPotassium: 91mgFiber: 2gSugar: 19gVitamin A: 258IUVitamin C: 0.04mgCalcium: 18mgIron: 2mg

Keyword Rosh Hashanah

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Apple Challah Babka

2 Replies

Watch what happens when challah and babka collide.

On Rosh Hashanah, it’s traditional to dip apples in honey, to symbolize our desire for a sweet year ahead. In my quest to be efficient and practical, I thought it would be clever to bake my honey and apples right into the challah.

Adding apples to challah dough is tricky. Raw apples would leach too much moisture into the dough and make the challah soggy. Sautéing them first, solved that problem. To further boost the apple flavour, I spread some apple butter onto the dough. Apple butter does not actually contain any butter. It is made by cooking down apples into a very concentrated state. it’s quite tart, as no sugar is added to it.

I sprinkled my dough with golden raisins, but I know how contoversial raisins are, so leave them out if you have a family of raisin haters.

While a babka is traditionally baked in a loaf pan, on Rosh Hashanah, challah is round, a circle without an end, to symbolize our wish for a year in which life and blessings continue without end. So once the dough is twisted, just coil it into a knot.

Wishing you all a sweet and healthy new year.

Click here to print recipe for Apple Challah Babka.

Salted Honey Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches

4 Replies

I consider Honey Cake to be the Jewish equivalent to Fruit Cake. It’s always served at Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) celebrations but no one really likes it.

Honey figures prominently in Rosh Hashanah menus as it symbolizes our desire for a sweet new year. The choice of honey was brilliantly explained on the website torah.org with this insight:
“A bee can inflict pain by its sting, yet it also produces delicious honey. Life has this same duality of potential. We pray that our choices will result in a sweet year.”

But nowhere is it written that honey must be baked into a cake. This year, Salted Honey Gingerbread ice Cream Sandwiches are on the menu. I’m a rebel.

Watch how they come together.

The cookie stamps I used are from Nordic Ware. Rolling the cookie dough in granulated sugar prevents the cookie from sticking to the cookie mold. You could certainly just bake the cookies without the bee themed stamps, but I couldn’t resist.

I tested out this recipe this summer and I wrapped each ice cream sandwich individually in plastic wrap and stored them in the freezer. We quickly discovered that the frozen cookies become rock hard making the sandwiches really difficult to eat. So in the recipe, I suggest you cut out the ice cream circles and store them a baking sheet wrapped in plastic wrap in the freezer. Assemble the sandwiches, with the room temperature, soft and chewy cookies, just before you want to eat them.

The addition of the salt to the honey ice cream keeps it from being cloyingly sweet. The spicy chewy ginger cookies are a perfect match for the sweet honey ice cream. Wishing you all a sweet and healthy new year.

Click here to print recipe for Salted Honey Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches.

Rosh Hashanah Twisted Apple and Honey Challah

2 Replies

The last time I made this challah was Rosh Hashanah 2019. We had 35 guests around the table celebrating the New Year. We won’t discuss 2020, except to note that there were only 3 of us at the table. But this year, most of our clan are double vaxxed, so we will be 16 strong around the table at the cottage in 10 days. It’s time to celebrate again.

It’s traditional to dip apples in honey, to symbolize our desire for a sweet year ahead. In my desire to be efficient and practical, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to bake my honey and apples right into the challah.

My starting point was my favourite challah dough, (Margo’s Challah) made with honey instead of sugar. On Rosh Hashanah, challah is round, a circle without an end, to symbolize our wish for a year in which life and blessings continue without end. I was inspired by cloudykitchen’s Mixed Nut and Dulce de Leche Brioche Knot. Her clever twisting method was perfect for Rosh Hashanah.

See how it all comes together.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and sweet new year.

Click here to print recipe for Rosh-Hashanah-Twisted-Apple-and-Honey-Challah-Download

Ombre Apple-Honey Galette

2 Replies

If you were at the Smiths Falls YIG (Your Independent Grocer) last week, and saw a masked woman pawing through every apple bin, looking for perfect specimens in every colour of the rainbow, that was me. I apologize for getting my germs over every apple!

I realize that August is a bit early to start posting about fall apples, but Rosh Hashanah is in two weeks and we’ve got to get our ass in gear. I’m not a fan of traditional honey cake. I find it too cloyingly sweet. I wanted to find a way of incorporating both apples and honey into a dessert.

Apples and honey go together on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), like cookies and milk, every other day of the year! We dip apples in honey to symbolizes our wishes for a sweet year for family, friends and all the Jewish people. While this explanation makes sense, I have often wondered why specifically apples and honey? Why not figs dipped into date syrup?

In researching this question, the interpretation I discovered on the website torah.org, resonated quite strongly with me.Their insight regarding the apple part of the equation, is explained this way:
“On most fruit trees the leaves appear before the fruit, thus providing a protective cover for the young fruit. The apple, however, makes a preemptive move by appearing before the leaves. The Jewish people are compared to an apple because we are willing to live out our Jewish lives even if this seems to leave us unprotected. “

The choice of honey was brilliantly explained with this insight:
“A bee can inflict pain by its sting, yet it also produces delicious honey. Life has this same duality of potential. We pray that our choices will result in a sweet year.”

And so apples and honey it is again, this year on my holiday table.

You’ll need 5 different varieties of apples if you want to make the Rainbow/Ombre effect I produced here. You’ll need two of each kind of apple. Look for dark red apples, pink apples, red-orange apples, yellow apples and green apples. A very sharp paring knife and about 20 minutes of concentration and you will be ready to assemble.

I used my favourite galette dough as the base. Impossibly flaky and delicious it is a versatile dough. I mixed some ground almonds, honey, egg and flour to make a honey paste (frangipane) as the base for the apples. The dough is folded up around the apples in a very casual way. Nothing precious here. Sprinkle it all with some cinnamon sugar and then into a hot oven.

The colours do fade a bit when baked, but the taste is so delicious. I brushed it with a honey glaze when it was still warm, for extra shine.

A scoop of vanilla ice cream would be very welcome.

Or just plain with a cup of coffee or tea.

Click here to print recipe for Ombre-Apple-Honey-Galette Download

Apple and Honey Challah Twist

12 Replies

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is just a few weeks away. It’s traditional to dip apples in honey, to symbolize our desire for a sweet year ahead. In my desire to be efficient and practical, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to bake my honey and apples right into the challah. I have been hard at work the past two weeks, figuring out just how to achieve that.

My starting point was my favourite challah dough. On Rosh Hashanah, challah is round, a circle without an end, to symbolize our wish for a year in which life and blessings continue without end. I was inspired by cloudykitchen’s Mixed Nut and Dulce de Leche Brioche Knot. Her clever twisting method was perfect for Rosh Hashanah.

After baking 5 versions of apple and honey challah, I believe I have nailed it. My husband, my chiropractor and my UPS man were happy to eat my experiments. None were a total fail, but there were a few issues along the way. The first hurdle to overcome was how to add the apples. Raw apples leached too much moisture into the challah, and made for a soggy bread. Sauteeing them first, solved that problem.

The apple flavour was kind of muted in the finished bread. In order to amp up the apple volume, I spread the dough with a thin layer of apple butter. Apple butter is simply very concentrated applesauce. There is actually no butter in it, only apples. It’s tangy and really packs a wallop of flavour. Some brown sugar, cinnamon and golden raisins provided a perfect counterpoint for all that zingy apple flavour.

Check out my video to see how it all came together.

https://youtu.be/KY80IAQMm14

Any leftover bread makes amazing toast the next morning. It’s a perfect way to segue gently from summer into fall. I’m not quite ready for pumpkin, but I will happily embrace apples in any form.

Click here to print recipe for Rosh Hashanah Twisted Apple and Honey Challah

Apple Maple Pecan Tart

Click here to print recipe for APPLE MAPLE PECAN TART

Apple Beehive

5 Replies

I’m not sure what Elisabeth Prueitt had in mind when she created the Apple Beehive, but my mind immediately went to Rosh Hashanah. For the Jewish New Year, it is customary to dip apples in honey to symbolize our wishes for a sweet year for family, friends and all the Jewish people. There are quite a few sweet options available for us to choose from. Why specifically apples and honey?

In researching this question, the interpretation I discovered on the website torah.org, resonated quite strongly with me. Their insight regarding the apple part of the equation, is explained this way:
“On most fruit trees the leaves appear before the fruit, thus providing a protective cover for the young fruit. The apple, however, makes a preemptive move by appearing before the leaves. The Jewish people are compared to an apple because we are willing to live out our Jewish lives even if this seems to leave us unprotected. “

This dessert is gorgeous in its purity. Gossamer thin slices of apples are shingled with butter, cinnamon and sugar. That’s it. Nothing else. When baked, the apple slices fuse together into a sweet-tart conglomeration that belie its simplicity. This is one of those cases where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The flavours are surprisingly complex for so few ingredients.

A mandoline makes slicing the apples easy. If you have stellar knife skills, you can just use a sharp knife. Granny Smith apples are the perfect choice for this as they are tart and hold their shape when baked.It really looks like a beehive before it goes into the oven.During baking, the apples shrink and caramelize, losing the lofty height it once had. It doesn’t quite resemble a beehive as much after baking, but this is so delicious, no one will complain. Just remember to take a before picture to show everyone!Once the beehive comes out of the oven, brush it with some melted apricot jam to give it a glossy coat. Delicious warm or at room temperature, it can be served plain.Or gild the lily and add some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.Or do as I did and drizzle it with salted caramel sauce.Wishing you all a happy, healthy and very sweet new year.

Click here to print recipe for Apple Beehive.

A Sweet New Year with Honey Sticks

4 Replies

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins next Sunday night. We have 20 coming for lunch next Monday and I have been busy planning my menu. I wanted to do something creative and pretty for the table setting, somehow incorporating honey which we dip apples in to signify our wish for a sweet new year.

There is no shortage of inspiration on Pinterest. I loved these honey dipper place cards and thought these place cards, tied to the cutlery were just adorable. In theory, I really like the idea of place cards. They are a great way to dress up a table. In practice however, in my family at least, no one really sits where they are told. On my husband’s side of the family, they just ignore the place cards and sit where they want. On my side, we at least attempt to be polite about it. Someone, quietly goes into the dining room, before the meal and rearranges the place cards to suit their preferences. (Not mentioning any names here!). So no place cards at my house.

My problem with those spiral wooden honey dippers is the drippy mess they make all over the table. When I did an online search of honey dippers, I discovered these honey sticks. They are the perfect size and I am hoping they will be quite tidy. I ordered 2 varieties, wildflower and blackberry. I created these stickers using the Avery online label design program. It’s very user friendly and has many design options. I used these 2 inch round glossy labels and stuck them on some scalloped round cardboard gift tags I found at Michaels craft store. I tied everything up with a bright red ribbon.

I’ll put one at each place setting. Everyone can sit where they want! Wishing you all a sweet and healthy new year.

Apple, Honey and Almond Tartine for Rosh Hashanah

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Tag Archives: Rosh Hashanah

Celebrate Rosh Hashanah with Sweet Crumble Topped Challah

Keys to success: