Our Best Desserts for a Sweet Rosh Hashanah

If there aren’t any cookies on the table, can you really call it dessert? Like many Jewish foods, these cinnamon twist cookies are enjoyed throughout many Jewish holidays. Although they don’t feature apples or honey, the cinnamon spice elicits the feelings of sweetness (the sugar helps too!) to ring in the new year.

Halva is a really popular Middle Eastern dessert and literally translates to the word “sweet.” These halva bars can definitely help celebrate a sweet new year, especially with the addition of ingredients like dark chocolate.

Related: Healthy Middle Eastern Recipes You’ll Make on Repeat

Next on the list of Rosh Hashanah desserts is this sweet, tender apple cider coffee cake that’s topped with a cinnamon crumble. It’s the quintessential dessert for this time of year, featuring apples in the form of apple cider. This sweet, apple-infused beverage gets baked into the cake and is also needed to make the sticky glaze. The spices, like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, all help to elevate the apple flavour making this a real treat on Rosh Hashanah.

When making a list of Rosh Hashanah-inspired desserts, obviously an apple crumble is a must. Crumbles are one of the easiest ways to incorporate apples into sweets, even for the most novice baker. This simple, unfussy dessert elevates your typical apple crumble with the addition of miso, adding saltiness and a rich caramel flavour.

You may think French toast is reserved only for breakfast time, but this indulgent baklava French toast bake will make all dessert lovers swoon. It may be a less traditional Rosh Hashanah dessert, but the incorporation of honey helps celebrate the sweetness of a new year. Baklava is a very popular dessert for many cultures and religions, including Jews, making this a wonderful sweet for celebration. The base of the French toast is croissants, rather than bread, giving it that puff pastry, baklava flair.

Babka is that delicious twisted cake-bread that’s commonly swirled with chocolate, cinnamon, raisins or jam. It originates from Eastern Europe as “babka” translates into “grandmother” in Polish. Babka is a classic Jewish dessert for most holidays, especially on Rosh Hashanah.