SORT OF SEPHARDIC SWEET POTATOES AND SQUASH
APRICOT HONEY CAKE
FIG FLUDEN
HEAVENLY APPLE CAKE
HONEY CAKE
QUINCE IN SYRUP
ZWETSCHGENKUCHEN

SORT OF SEPHARDIC SWEET POTATOES AND SQUASH
Sephardic Jews from Turkey, Greece, Morocco, and other countries of the
Mediterranean region say seven special blessings over seven different
symbolic foods at their Rosh Hashanah dinner. Five of these blessings
are over vegetables - apples (candied or dipped in sugar or honey),
leeks, beet greens or spinach, dates, and zucchini or squash. These
blessings symbolize their hopes for the New Year. Many of these Jews
trace their ancestors back to Spain, which is called Sepharad in the
Bible. Over the centuries, the Sephardic Jews took advantage of the
abundance of vegetables available in the Mediterranean countries, often
throughout the year. Among these vegetables are sweet potatoes and
squash, great favorites of my family. The special blessing you can say
over your sweet potatoes and squash at the beginning of your Rosh
Hashanah dinner goes like this:
Yehi ratzon mi-le-faneha Adonai Eloheinu ve-lo-hei avoteinu she-tik-rah
ro-a gezar dinenu ve-yi-karehu lefa-neha za-hee-yo-teinu.

May it be thy will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that you
should tear up any evil decree and let only our merits be read before
You.

1 pound acorn or butternut squash
1 pound sweet potatoes or yams
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Equipment
Vegetable peeler
Sharp paring knife
Wooden spoon
Frying pan
Mixing bowl
Aluminum foil
Oblong casserole dish (about 9 by 13 inches)

Adult: Preheat oven to 375=B0. Peel the squash.
Child: Peel the sweet potatoes or yams. Then carefully cut both the
sweet potatoes and squash into 1-inch cubes. Place most of the oil in
the casserole. Add the sweet potatoes and bake, covered with aluminum
foil, about 20 minutes.

Adult: Take out the hot dish from the oven and carefully remove the
foil.

Child: Add the squash and the cranberries or cherries. Sprinkle the
sugar and cinnamon on top and dribble with the remaining oil.

Adult: Bake uncovered at 375=B0 for 30-35 minutes, or until well
browned. Serve over roast chicken or pot roast.

Note: If your family likes onions, add one, saut=E9ed in the oil until
soft, to the sweet potatoes before baking.

Serves 6.

APRICOT HONEY CAKE
"One thing I cannot get out of my head" said Ben Moskovitz, owner of
Star Bakery in Oak Park, Michigan. "Was the food better growing up in
Czechoslovakia or were the people hungrier there? My mother made a
honey cake for the holiday, and it was so delicious. Honey was too
expensive for us, so my mother burned the sugar to make it brown. Here
I use pure honey, but I still think my mother's cake was better and I
know I am wrong. The taste of hers is still in my mouth."
Mr. Moskovitz's European honey cake follows, with a few of my American
additions. Other European Jewish bakers interviewed for this book also
bake with white rye flour and cake flour when we would use all-purpose
flour. I have included both choices.

1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
1/4 cup dark rum
2 large eggs
1 cup clover honey
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
Grated peel and juice of 1 orange
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup apricot jam
1 3/4 cups white rye or unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cake or unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup slivered almonds, or roughly chopped walnuts or cashews

In a small bowl, soak the apricots in the rum for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350=B0 and grease a 10- by 5-inch loaf pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Stir in the honey,
vegetable oil, grated lemon and orange rind and juice, sugar, salt, and
apricot jam.

Sift the 2 flours and the baking soda into another bowl.

Strain the apricots, reserving the excess rum.

Add the flour alternately with the rum to the honey cake mixture. Fold
in the apricots. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle
with the nuts.

Bake in the oven on the lower rack for 50-55 minutes, or until the
center of the cake is firm when you pres sit. Remove from the oven and
cool on a rack.

Makes 1 Cake.

FIG FLUDEN
This is one of those recipes that has pretty much disappeared in the
United States, but those who remember it rave about it. A fluden, which
comes from fladni or fladen, "flat cake" in German, is just that, a
flat, double-or often multilayered flaky pastry filled with poppy
seeds, apples and raisins, or cheese. It was originally common to
southern Germany and Alsace-Lorraine, later spreading east to Hungary,
Romania, and other Eastern European countries. Often flavored with
honey, it was eaten in the fall at Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot and is
symbolic, like strudel, of an abundant yield. I have tasted apple
two-layered fluden at Jewish bakeries and restaurants in Paris,
Budapest, Tel Aviv, and Vienna, sometimes made with a butter crust,
sometimes with an oil-based one. But only in Paris have I tasted the
delicious fig rendition, a French fig bar, from Finkelsztajn's Bakery.
(Figs, my father used to tell me, were often eaten in Germany as the
new fruit on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.)
This recipe is a perfect example of the constant flux of Jewish foods.
Today, with the huge population of Tunisian Jews in Paris, it is no
wonder that the Finkelsztajn family spike their fig filling with
bou'ha, a Jewish Tunisian fig liqueur used for kiddush, the blessing
over the wine on the Sabbath. You can, of course, use kirsch or any
other fruit liqueur instead.

The dough:
2/3 cup unsalted butter or parve margarine (or half butter and half
vegetable shortening), cut into tablespoon-size pieces
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup ice water
The filling:
4 cups water
2 tea bags
Grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
2 cinnamon sticks
3 cups dried figs, stemmed
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons bou'ha, or other fruit liqueur
1 large egg, lightly beaten

The dough:
Place the butter or margarine (or butter and vegetable shortening),
flour, and salt in a food processor fitted with the steel blade.
Process until crumbly and gradually add the water, continuing to
process until a ball is formed. Wrap the dough in waxed paper and
refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Filling and baking the fluden:
Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat and add the tea bags,
the lemon peel and juice, and the cinnamon sticks. Steep for 1-2
minutes and remove the tea bags. Place the figs in the water and poach
for about 5 minutes.

Drain the figs and the lemon peel, reserving the poaching liquid. Then
place the figs, the lemon peel, the sugar, the liqueur in a food
processor fitted with the steel blade. Process but do not pur=E9e; you
want the figs to have texture. Add a tablespoon or so of poaching
liquid if the filling is too dry.

Preheat the oven to 400=B0 and grease a 9-inch-square pan.

Roll out half the dough to a 1/8-inch thickness. Put it in the bottom
of the pan (it should not go up the sides), and trim off excess dough.
Prick the dough with a fork. Spoon in the fig mixture.

Roll out the second half of the dough and cover the fig mixture. Prick
a few holes in the top and brush with the egg.

Bake the fluden for about 25 minutes, or until the crust is golden.

When done, cut the fluden into 16 squares. It is wonderful served warm,
with whipped cream or ice cream. Or you can let it cool and eat it as
you would a fig bar.

Makes 16.

HEAVENLY APPLE CAKE
In my family we always inaugurate the Jewish New Year with our first
apple dessert of the fall season. The tradition in Andra's home is to
begin the year with a round challah and to end it with a cake topped
with concentric circles of sliced apples. This dessert is very similar
to Jewish apple cake, a Polish dessert that was very popular in church
cookbooks throughout Maryland. I believe it is called Jewish because it
is an oil-based rather than a butter-based cake. Andra's version is
particularly easy, attractive, and delicious.

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons wheat germ (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
6 small Rome, Granny Smith, Yellow Delicious, or other low-moisture
apples
Juice of 1/2 lemon
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon

HONEY CAKE
Honey cake is often served during Rosh Hashanah because honey
symbolizes wishes for "sweet" things to come. The cake becomes moister
and its flavors deepen a day or two after it's made.
Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 3 hr (includes cooling)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup honey (preferably buckwheat)
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup freshly brewed strong coffee, cooled
2 large eggs
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons whiskey or bourbon
Special equipment: a 9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat to 350=B0F. Oil loaf pan
well and dust with flour, knocking out excess.
Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and
ginger in a small bowl. Whisk together honey, oil, and coffee in
another bowl until well combined.

Beat together eggs and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric
mixer at high speed 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low, then add honey
mixture and whiskey and mix until blended, about 1 minute. Add flour
mixture and mix until just combined. Finish mixing batter with a rubber
spatula, scraping bottom of bowl.

Pour batter into loaf pan (batter will be thin) and bake 30 minutes.
Cover top loosely with foil and continue to bake until cake begins to
pull away from sides of pan and a wooden pick or skewer inserted in
center comes out clean, about 30 minutes more. Cool on a rack 1 hour.

Run a knife around side of cake, then invert rack over pan and invert
cake onto rack. Turn cake right side up and cool completely.

Cooks' note:
=B7 Cake keeps, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap or in an airtight
container, at room temperature 1 week.

Makes 8 to 10 servings.

QUINCE IN SYRUP
(Mele Cotogne in Giulebbe)
Poached quinces in a clove-and-cinnamon-scented syrup are served at
Rosh Hashanah and to break the fast at Yom Kippur. In this version, the
quinces are left unpeeled for the preliminary cooking in water, and
then peeled and cooked in syrup. In La cucina livornese, Pia Bedarida
recommends peeling the quinces, letting them rest to take on a reddish
brown color as they oxidize, and then cooking them in syrup. Other
cooks peel the quinces and cook them immediately, but suggest saving
the peels and seeds and cooking them along with the sliced quinces.
Still another recipe uses wine instead of water.

2 pounds quinces
For the syrup:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water, or as needed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks

In a large saucepan, combine the quinces with water to cover. Bring to
a boil over high heat and cook, uncovered, until barely tender, 10 to
15 minutes. Drain the quinces and, when cool enough to handle, peel,
halve, core, and cut into slices.
To make the syrup: In a saucepan large enough to accommodate the sliced
quinces, combine the sugar, 1 cup water, cloves, and cinnamon sticks.
Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the
sugar. Add the quinces and additional water if needed to cover. Simmer
for 5 minutes. Then, over the course of 12 hours, bring the quince
slices to a boil in the syrup 3 times. boiling them for 5 minutes each
time. This helps to bring up the rich red color of the fruit and allows
them to absorb the syrup over time.

Transfer to a serving dish and refrigerate. Serve chilled.

Makes 6 servings.

ZWETSCHGENKUCHEN
(Southern German and Alsatian Italian Plum Torte)
This torte is served traditionally at the high holidays in early fall,
when small blue Italian plums are in season. In southern Germany and
Alsace the pie was made from zwetsche, a local variety of these plums.
My aunt Lisl always used to make a murbeteig crust (a short-crust
butter cookie dought) for this tart, and sliced each Italian plum into
four crescent shapes. She lined the tart with breadcrumbs and then
apricot preserves, which protected the dough during baking, leading to
a crispy crust. She went light on the cinnamon, a spice she felt was
overused in this country. (I agree with her.) My aunt's results, simple
to prepare, were simply delicious.

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
dash of salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or parve margarine
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons dried breadcrumbs
1/3 cup apricot preserves
1 tablespoon brandy
2 pounds Italian plums
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Confectioners' sugar

To make the crust using a food processor, fitted with a metal blade,
pulse the flour, salt, and 1 tablespoon of the sugar together. Cut the
butter or margarine into small pieces, add to the bowl, and process
until crumbly. Add the egg yolk and process until a ball is formed,
adding more flour if necessary.
To make the dough by hand, use your fingers or a pastry blender to work
the butter or margarine into the flour, salt, and 1 tablespoon sugar
until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and
work the dough into a ball.

Remove the dough from the bowl, dust with flour, and pat into a
flattened circle. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least
a half hour. When you are ready to make the crust, dust your hands and
the dough with flour. Place the dough in the center of a 9-inch pie
plate and with your fingers gently pat in out to cover the bottom and
go up the sides.

Preheat the oven to 400=B0F.

Prick the crust with the tines of a fork in several places and prebake
the crust on the middle rack for 10 minutes. Remove the curst from the
oven and let it cool slightly. Turn the oven down to 350=B0F.

Pit and cut the plums into fourths. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on the
dough, then spoon the apricot preserves on top and drizzle with the
brandy. Place the plum quarters on the crust in a circle so that each
overlaps the next and they eventually form a spiral into the center.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and the remaining sugar. (At this point, if you
wish, you can wrap and freeze the tart, to bake it later. Just remove
the pie from the freezer one hour before baking.)

Place the tart in the oven and bake about 30 to 40 minutes or until the
crust is golden brown and the plums are juicy. Remove from the oven.
Just before serving, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.