Sweet, sticky treats are standard for Rosh Hashanah

Happy New Year! Rosh Hashanah is here and for Jewish people around the world the year 5757 has begun. To bring in a sweet year, sweet foods are the bill of fare. One of the food traditions of this holiday is apples dipped in honey. As the apples are dipped into the golden liquid a prayer of renewal is recited. In some families Tzimmes is eaten at Rosh Hashanah. This sweet stew is made with carrots, symbolizing the prosperity to come and the sweetness of the new year is provided by sweet potatoes, honey, raisons or sweet fruits.

When I asked my friend Celia for a food memory from Rosh Hashanah she immediately said "Gooey-sticky-sweet-dough-ball-things!" I remember eating these gooey-sticky-sweet-dough-ball-things with her in college. They were unbearably sweet and irresistibly delectable. Nuts and cookies stuck together with a thick syrup. Celia's mother, Nancy, sent these delicacies deep into the wilds of Virginia (where I was attending music school) from her home in New York. Celia shared her Rosh Hashanah treats with all her "culturally" deprived college friends and students.

With little to no prodding Celia called her mother and asked for the name and recipe of the gooey-sticky-sweet-dough-ball-things. Be warned! These candies will stick to your teeth and your waist longer than it takes to finish a Bachelor's degree! But they are well worth it.

Nancy Friedman's Taiglach
(gooey-sticky-sweet-dough-ball-things)

2 1/2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons salad oil
2 cups chopped nuts not peanuts (walnuts, almonds, or any other nut except peanuts)
1/2 cup candied cherries, optional (Ma Friedman says she never puts these in the recipe)
1 cup honey
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together. Make a well in center of the dry ingredients and put the eggs and oil into it. Work the wet ingredients into the dry until you have a soft dough.

Roll the dough into several pencil thin long pieces. Chop these into half inch pieces. (You should have lots of little bits!) Bake on a lightly greased cookie sheet for 20 minutes. Shake the pan twice during baking. Cool.

In a very large, heavy bottomed pot combine the honey, brown sugar, ginger and nutmeg. Stirring constantly, over medium high heat, bring this mixture to a light boil. Cook for 15 minutes or until the syrup starts to become clear. (Nancy says the syrup will never become totally clear, but it should be clearer than when you started or you need to cook it more. This is a very important step!)

Once the syrup is clear (or mostly clear) throw in the cookie bits and cook for five more minutes. Add the nuts and cook ten more minutes. Remember you should be stirring constantly! To test if the candy is done spoon a bit onto a wet surface. If it holds together it is done.

When the candy mixture is cool enough to handle, but still warm enough to shape, roll the taiglach with wet hands, on a sheet of slightly damp aluminum foil, into 3 inch diameter balls. This is a very messy procedure.

The taiglach can be stored in cupcake papers. That's the way Nancy stores them.

A bit of advice from Nancy Friedman: This is a very time consuming recipe. You must watch it constantly. Don't go and do your laundry or housework or anything else while you are making this sticky delicous recipe. Nancy dropped me an e-mail to say she is sure no one will be brave enough to try this recipe. Go ahead they are worth the work.

Food is life. May the plenty that graces your table truly be a vast repast.

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