The Jewish New Year or Rosh Hashanah begins tomorrow evening at sunset. As is traditional we usher in the new year with a delicious meal abundant with all kinds of sweet dishes symbolizing our wish for a sweet year ahead.
As I’ve been busily preparing all week for this special dinner I realized that much of the menu I will be serving I have already blogged in previous posts over the past couple years since I began Dinner at Sheila’s.
It is the food of my youth, the food my mother cooked and baked for the many New Year dinners she hosted while I was growing up.
And it has been the food I’ve continued to make at the holidays since I first hosted the New Year dinners at my home many years ago.
It is the food everyone expects and wants to eat. The nostalgia we feel and the memories we share of such past holiday meals only serve to whet our appetites for those familiar tastes once again.
Although I try to add something new each year there are some things that never change. So this year again we will have..chopped liver, chicken soup, matzoh balls, brisket, apple noodle kugel, honey cakes, and apple cake.
I’ll break with tradition and serve roasted fingerling potatoes with carrots, fennel, and onions, and this delightful plum cake pictured above.
This Crunchy-Topped Whole Wheat Plum Cake is a recipe from Melissa Clark which had been featured in the New York Times a couple of years ago that I recently spotted online.
It’s in keeping with serving sweets for a sweet new year, but with the addition of whole wheat flour it reinforces that familiar greeting at this time of year to not only have a sweet year, but a healthy and happy one as well.
Who knows, this could become a new tradition!
Crunchy-Topped Whole Wheat Plum Cake (Melissa Clark)
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more to grease the pan
1 and ½ pounds plums, (several varieties if you want), pitted and sliced
1 and ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
½ tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons Cognac or brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons Demerara or Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
Whipped cream, for serving (optional)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
Place the plum slices in a bowl and gently toss with 2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour.
In a separate bowl, combine the remaining whole-wheat flour with the baking powder and kosher salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together ½ cup butter, sugar, Cognac or brandy and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until thoroughly combined.
Add half the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Pour in the milk and continue beating, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until just combined.
Scrape the dough into the pan, smoothing the top with a spatula.
Scatter on the plums in an even layer. Sprinkle the sugar on top.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before serving, with whipped cream if you like. Yield:8 servings