Rosh Hashanah Recipes: Honey Ice Cream, Candied Ginger and Apple Donuts

The food traditions of Jewish New Year are pretty straight forward: Apples and Honey (and a round Challah).

Honey Ice Cream

Pour 1/2 cup of local honey (I used wildflower, the stronger the flavor of the honey the stronger the flavor of the ice cream) into a medium size heavy bottomed pot, split 1 Vanilla bean in half and add it to the honey along with 2 cups heavy cream, 1 cup 1/2 and 1/2 and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  Heat over medium low heat until the mixture is hot but not boiling.  Turn off the heat and let sit for 30 minutes. Scarp the seeds from the Vanilla pod and let the seeds and pods infuse the cream and honey mixture.  I use my spatula to scrap the seeds from the Vanilla pods (afterwards when I am done with the pods I rinse them and put them in my home made Vanilla extract, which is just vodka and Vanilla beans).

Place 6 large organic egg yolks into a bowl and slowly heat the cream mixture until hot again (watch carefully you really don't want to boil it!) whisk a 1/3 cup of hot cream into the egg yolks,  when mixed add another 1/3 cup of hot cream into the yolks, then stir the tempered yolks into the cream mixture and stir constantly heat until the custard coats the back of a spoon or reaches about 165 F on a thermometer.  Remove from heat and pass through a sieve into a medium size bowl which is sitting in an ice cold water bath.  This will help chill the custard down so you can place it in the fridge.  Stir in 2 Tablespoons of Armagnac or Brandy.


Chill until cold preferably over night then process as per your ice cream makers instruction.

Candied Ginger and Apple Donuts

In a small sauce pan melt 4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter and cool. Place cooled butter into a large bowl.

In a medium sized bowl sift together 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 Teaspoon baking soda, 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon Salt.

To the melted butter add 1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger, 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, 1 large organic egg, 1/2 cup buttermilk (if you can get full fat farmer made buttermilk, Saxelby Cheesemongers sells it here in the city) 1 large Apple (I like Macintosh they are soft and melt away, a harder apple like Granny Smith will retain it's shape more...up to you) peeled cored and roughly chopped, mix until everything is well incorporated.  

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and still until just combined.  You may need to add a little more flour if it is too sticky, but it is a soft, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured pastry stone or counter top and kneed a few times to bring together and get a consistently soft texture.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large pot (or deep fryer if you have one) pour in enough high temperature oil (like Sunflower or Peanut ) to go about 2" up the pan.  Over medium high heat warm the oil until it reaches 375F on a thermometer. 

While you are waiting for the oil to heat roll out the dough to about 1/ 2" thickness and using a donut cutter (or a 2-3 inch glass with something smaller to cut out the hole....I only recently bought a donut cutter and always managed to find something in the kitchen that would work) start cutting the dough, placing the donuts and donut holes on the prepared baking sheet.

Gather up the scraps bring together re-roll and repeat.

Drop several holes and some donuts into the hot oil a few at a time, turning after 2-3 minutes.

Drain cooked donuts on a paper towel and if you want dredge them in ginger sugar*.

*1 Tablespoons of dried ginger and 1/2 cup sugar

Pictures to come I wanted to get this out before it was too late!