So much of my Rosh Hashanah menu is set in stone. We have to start the meal with kreplach in chicken soup. The main course is brisket obviously. And a beautiful braided round challah is the centerpiece of the table.
But what about dessert? I have never quite found the Rosh Hashanah dessert. The one I want to serve year after year. The traditional ingredients for Rosh Hashanah desserts, at least for Jews from Eastern Europe, are apples and honey. (For Sephardic Jews, the new year meal typically ends with fresh dates, figs and pomegranates.) Honey cakes tend to be dense. Apple cakes are fine, but not that exciting.
So every year, I look around for Rosh Hashanah dessert inspiration. I don’t limit myself to desserts that are specifically labeled “for Rosh Hashanah.” I just look for desserts that are appropriate for an autumn holiday and happen to catch my fancy.
Which is how I ended up copying down a recipe for an applesauce cake from an old Lee Bailey cookbook that I found in our rental house on Martha’s Vineyard this summer. If you don’t know who Lee Bailey is, he was a lifestyle guru before there was any such thing as lifestyle gurus. A designer by trade, Lee Bailey was known throughout New York for his wonderful dinner parties and parlayed his talent for entertaining into a series of glossy cookbooks such as 1983’s Lee Bailey’s Country Weekends.
Although it is less than 25 years old, Lee Bailey’s Country Weekends seems incredibly dated today. As an example, the book includes a recipe for something called Bulgar Wheat Salad, which is basically just tabbouleh, and the headnote contains a long explanation of what bulgar is.
I suppose in 1983, tabbouleh was downright exotic fare. Now we stock harissa and pomegranate molasses in our cupboards and every supermarket in American sells sushi. It just goes to show how much we have learned about different global cuisines in the past three decades and how many once-unfamiliar ingredients (like bulgar?) are now commonplace.
But because I knew how revered Lee Bailey was, I did not pass up the opportunity to thumb through the many books of his, most of which are now out-of-print, that were stashed around our beach house. I was not particularly interested in, say, the recipe for veal loaf. Or really anything that ends in “loaf.” But some recipes are timeless. Like a good applesauce cake.
So although it was July when this recipe caught my eye, my first thought was “Rosh Hashanah.” The fact that it’s an applesauce cake means that it is incredibly moist. And you know, apples. Applesauce. Same diff. It still works as a Rosh Hashanah dessert. The raisins and pecans make the recipe seem pretty Jewish as well.
But the real star of this cake is the brown sugar frosting, which hardens to a firm, almost candy-like consistency that then melts once you put it in your mouth, almost like a brown sugar divinity. Together you have a moist cake, redolent with warm spices and filled with chewy raisins and crunchy pecans topped with an irresistible brown sugar candy coating. Yeah, this is what is gracing my Rosh Hashanah table this year. Because of the amount of moisture this cake keeps very well, so feel free to make in advance of your holiday. Like today.
Not Jewish? Don’t worry. This applesauce cake should be a staple in your kitchen as well. If anything, it’s the perfect American fall dessert. Who needs pumpkin spice when there is applesauce cake with brown sugar frosting? If you can use your homemade applesauce, so much the better.
What is on your Rosh Hashanah menu this year?
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, unsalted
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups applesauce
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 ground cloves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted
- 1 cup raisins
- 2 cups light brown sugar
- 6 TB heavy cream
- 2 oz. butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 and butter and flour a Bundt pan, or spray it with nonstick baking spray.
- Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer until light and fluffy, three to five minutes.
- Add the applesauce and mix. (It will not mix in completely so do not be concerned.)
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.
- In a smaller bowl, toss the raisins and pecan with 1/4 cup of the flour mixture. (This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake when baked.)
- Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture, scraping down the sides as necessary.
- Add the vanilla extract followed by the nuts and raisins. Mix just until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 80 to 90 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Cool in a pan set on a wire rack for ten minutes, then turn cake out onto a rack to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, combine the brown sugar, butter and cream in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and powdered sugar.
- Pour the frosting over the cooled cake. It hardens quickly, so don't try to spread it. Just let it drizzle down the sides of the cake.
