Pumpkin Spice Almond Butter

Makes 1½ cups

2 cups raw almonds ½ teaspoon kosher salt 1½ tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil 1 to 2 tablespoons maple syrup 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground cloves ½ teaspoon ground ginger ⁄ teaspoon ground nutmeg Preheat oven to 325°F.

Place almonds on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, until fragrant. Let almonds cool for 1 minute, then place in a food processor (while still warm). Process 1 to 2 minutes, until dry and crumbly. Scrape down the bowl.

Turn on the processor, then with motor running add kosher salt, oil and 1 or 2 tablespoons maple syrup (use 1 tablespoon for a slightly sweet, thinner version and 2 tablespoons for a sweeter, thicker version). Continue processing 6 to 9 minutes, scraping down the bowl often in the beginning stage, adding ½ to 1 additional tablespoon of oil if almonds are too dry. (This process takes multiple times of stopping and scraping.) Continue to process until the dry almonds start to clump into a dough ball, and then even longer until they form into a creamy liquid. When creamy, while motor is running add cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Stop to scrape down sides of the bowl, then continue processing until spices are fully integrated.

Culture

A look inside the delicious eats of the Jewish High Holidays Noshes for a New Year

all is just around the corner. That means that in a few weeks, if you drop by my house, you’re liable to find me in the kitchen with my daughters. We’ll be chopping up apples and stir-F ring them into a mass of honey and sugar lightened with a little lemon juice, heating water in the canning pot, sterilizing jars and getting ready to can our annual batch of apple-honey jam.

The Jewish High Holidays— known as High Holy Days—are the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is the head of the year and Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement. The celebration of the 2016-17 year is actually the Hebrew/Jewish year of 5777.

Th e jam is a sticky and delicious treat that’s worth eating any time, but the girls and I always make it to give to teachers and family friends to say Shanah Tovah (Happy New Year) during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah is the fi rst of the Jewish High Holidays, and its combination of celebration and spiritual refl ection is a highlight of the religious year. Apple-honey jam is a perfect gift to mark the holiday because Jews have dipped apples into honey for centuries in order to wish one another a Shanah Tovah umetukah—a good and sweet New Year. Th at wish informs a lot of the cooking and eating we do during Rosh Hashanah. Sliced apples dipped into honey are the simplest variation. Th e jam I make is just a more portable version of that. Honey cakes of every variety are a popular treat—whether ordered in from fancy bakeries or made at home from a recipe Grandma handed down. My own great-grandmother made taiglach for Rosh Hashanah. Th ese little knots of dough are boiled in a honey syrup until golden brown and then rolled in nuts. Th ey guarantee sticky fi ngers as well as a sweet year!

Honey is everywhere during the holiday. It sweetens tzimmes, a glazed carrot and raisin side dish. And honey-roasted chicken is an increasingly popular choice as the centerpiece of dinner on Rosh Hashanah. If you still haven’t had enough sweetness, you can always smear honey on a big slice of challah—the traditional braided bread eaten on Friday nights for Shabbat (the Sabbath).

During Rosh Hashanah, though, that challah looks a little diff erent. Instead of forming one long braid, during Rosh Hashanah challah is formed into a round braid. Th e circular shape symbolizes the renewing cycle of the year. Th e fact that a circle ends by returning to its beginning is also a reminder that the end of an old year is a chance to return to the good intentions with which we began it, no matter how far we may have drifted from them.

Some families make a practice of celebrating the New Year with foods that are jokes and puns. Because Rosh Hashanah literally translates as “the head of the year,” fi sh heads are a feature of some celebrations. Other foods, like beets or dates and gourds like pumpkin or squash, are sometimes eaten because the Hebrew words for them sound like the words for “to tear,” “to consume” and “to remove,” which is what we hope will happen to our sins and to evil-doers. Th e Yiddish word for “carrot” sounds a lot like the Yiddish word for “increase,” and the carrots that go into tzimmes are sliced into rounds so they look like coins. So those simple carrots can be seen as a wish for a New Year fi lled with prosperity. Ten days after Rosh Hashanah comes the most solemn holiday in the Jewish Calendar: Yom Kippur, the day of repentance. When it arrives, Jews fast from sundown on one day to sundown on the next day—eating no food and drinking no water during that time, and spending as much time as possible in prayer, contemplation and study. Knowing that, it might seem funny to talk about traditional foods for Yom Kippur. (I like to joke that my recipe for dinner on Yom Kippur is “air and prayer.”) But after you have fasted for a full day, you’re ready to eat!

Th at means what matters most for the “break the fast” meal after Yom Kippur is that there’s good food, plenty of it, and that you can get it on the table quickly. My friend Rachel relies on bagels and lots of spreads. She doesn’t like to cook during the fast since she wouldn’t be allowed to taste anything. I feel the same way, so I make a coff ee- and spice-rubbed brisket that needs to marinate in its sauce for 24 hours after cooking. I take it out of the oven before the fast begins—put it in the fridge and ignore it while I’m fasting—and quickly reheat it once the sun goes down. My friend Leah’s food traditions are Sephardic—from the Jews of Morocco, Spain, Portugal and North Africa. Her family loves hot pepper salad and borekas, which are savory pastries stuff ed with a wide range of fi llings, for their break the fast.

Other families will rely on kugel (a baked noodle pudding with infi nite sweet and savory variations), strata or other familiar brunch food. My fi ancé doesn’t feel like he’s really broken his fast until he has a good garlic dill pickle, and some friends of his always start their meal with a fast shot of slivovitz—a highly alcoholic plum brandy. Less adventurous souls will ease out of their fast with a cup of tea and a slice of challah or plain cake before they move on to more serious eating.

Th e High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the backbone of the Jewish year. And the foods we eat during those holidays help us to celebrate together, to restore us after a day of atonement and prayer, and to symbolize our hopes and our wishes. So have a little something sweet on the evening of October 2, when Rosh Hashanah begins, and maybe grab a bagel for dinner on October 12, when Yom Kippur ends. And may your New Year be fi lled with sweetness and new recipes.

Sarah Skwire lives in Indianapolis. She is a senior fellow at Liberty Fund, Inc., serves on the board of directors of Indiana Humanities and is a regular columnist for The Freeman on literature and economics.

Recently published, Th e Community Table: Recipes & Stories from the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan & Beyond explores traditional Jewish recipes—updating them for today’s cooks—and presents new and innovative takes on contemporary dishes. Authors Katja Goldman, Judy Bernstein Bunzl and Lisa Rotmil collected and created recipes that celebrate living and eating season by season with local farm fresh ingredients while enjoying the traditions of their Jewish culture. Enjoy these three adventurous recipes from the cookbook. Find Th e Community Table on Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble.

Recipes from Th e Community Table: Recipes & Stories fr om the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan and Beyond, courtesy of JCC Manhattan. For more information on the book, please visit jccmanhattan.org/communitytable.

Honey Cake with Grilled Peaches

Makes 3 loaf cakes

2¼ cups boiling water 4 teaspoons baking soda 2 cups sugar 2 cups honey 2 cups vegetable oil 6 extra-large eggs ¾ cup raisins (optional) 4 cups unbleached all-purpose fl our 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest Grilled Peaches with Lemon-Honey Drizzle (recipe follows) Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Oil three 9- by 5-inch loaf pans and line their bottoms with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, combine ¼ cup of the boiling water with the baking soda (to eliminate any bitterness). In the bowl of a standing mixer or with hand beaters and a large bowl, combine the sugar, honey and oil and beat at medium speed until completely combined, 2 to 3 minutes. (Alternately, mix by hand in a large bowl.) Add the eggs, 1 at a time and beating after each addition. Add the dissolved baking soda and beat until combined. Add the raisins if using, and stir to incorporate.

In a medium bowl, combine the fl our, cinnamon, ginger, salt and zest and blend with a fork. With the mixer at low speed, gradually add the fl our mixture to the honey mixture. When combined, slowly add the remaining 2 cups boiling water. The batter will seem quite thin and a bit runny; this is normal.

Divide the batter among the pans. Bake the cakes on the center rack until a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean and the tops are springy to the touch, 45 to 50 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Cut the cakes in ½-inch slices and serve with the grilled peaches. Grilled Peaches with Lemon-Honey Drizzle

Serves 6 to 8

4 fi rm-ripe peaches, unpeeled, halved and stones removed 2 teaspoons grapeseed or light olive oil 2 tablespoons honey Pinch of kosher salt Juice of 2 small lemons (about 4 tablespoons) 2 tablespoons shelled pistachios, chopped (optional) Place the peaches in a shallow bowl and brush with the oil, coating them completely. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of the honey on the peaches, sprinkle with the salt, and pour over 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Gently move the peaches around to coat them.

Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Grill the peaches cut side down until the edges have begun to soften and brown, about 5 minutes. Gently turn the peaches and grill until fork-tender but still fi rm, about 5 minutes more (the ripeness and size of the peaches may alter the timing). Transfer the peaches to a platter, skin side down.

Make the drizzle: In a small saucepan bring the remaining honey and juice to a gentle simmer over low heat. Stir and simmer to combine, 1 minute more. Drizzle over the peaches, sprinkle with the pistachios if using and serve. Recipe photography featured on page 40.