Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Recipes

Sheilah Kaufman: Hi, I am Sheilah Kaufman, Cooking Teacher, author of 26 cookbooks, Food Editor and Culinary Lecturer. I am here today to share some of my favorite recipes for the Jewish High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with you. All three recipes that we're going to do can be made ahead and frozen. There are some hints and tips to make baking and cooking these recipes easier for you. I wanted to tell you just a little bit about the High Holidays, if you're not familiar with them.

Rosh Hashanah is the 'Head of the Jewish New Year', Rosh means 'Head'. On Rosh Hashanah we have a celebratory meal and it usually consists of chicken soup, Gefilte fish, I would like to tell you I made this Gefilte fish myself. We're going to have homemade challahs, apples dipped in honey, which is a tradition on New Years to help celebrate a happy and sweet New Year. In the old days apples were thought to be medicinal and had healing properties, so they were given as gifts to people who were ill. We're always going to have chicken or brisket and kugels and for dessert a honey cake again for a happy sweet New Year or Jewish apple cake.

Now, up until recently I've always served Manischewitz wine which some men and some women consider too sweet for the holidays, but now there are Kosher wines from Italy and California for those who have the more of a select palate so this will be a special treat to serve at this New Year's celebration. The challahs are usually made round to indicate the year in nature are cyclical that it will be a happy healthy New Year for us.

Some Jewish people do not eat bitter or sour foods during the High Holidays and others do not eat foods made with nuts, because the Hebrew word, the numerical value of the Hebrew word for nuts is the same as the Hebrew numerical value for sin. So some people avoid those. But today we are going to make a wonderful challah, little bit unusual because it has saffron in it. This is my friend Jackie Ben-Efraim's recipe. We're going to make Eileen's absolutely utterly fabulous noodle kugel and we're going to make my Jewish apple cake.

We're going to be working with some knives, we're going to be working with the oven, the stove, boiling water, and an apple corer which can be lethal if you're not careful. You don't need a lot of fancy tools or accouterments. You're going to need a hand and a stand mixer. You're going to need a cutting board, you're going to need a strainer, you're going to need rubber spatula. You're going to need some baking pans. You're going to need measuring cups and measuring spoons and bowls.

For Jackie's challah, you need a tablespoon of yeast and a tablespoon of sugar. Now listen carefully because you need a half a cup of warm water and a half of cup of sugar. Then you need a half a cup of boiling water and a quarter cup of canola oil. A teaspoon of salt and a pinch of saffron, a large whole egg, one egg white and save the yolk, a quarter cup of cold water and 5-6 cups of bread flour, but you could use all-purpose flour. For your egg wash you need the egg yolk you saved, mixed with a teaspoon of water.

I've been a traveling cooking teacher for the past 40 years from Alaska and Hawaii, Maine to Mexico, written 26 cookbooks and I travel around trying to take the intimidation out of cooking and entertaining. My philosophy is 'Simply Irresistible: Easy, Elegant, Fearless, Fussless Cooking', and that means that most recipes only take 20-30 minutes preparation time. Don't use any fancy equipment, don't make the big mess, taste fabulous and your friends probably don't have the recipe.

So come and join me in the kitchen as we begin our culinary adventure with the fabulous challah.