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Ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry cuts into 12 squares (about 12 × 12 cm). Cheese filling: feta + ricotta + egg + parsley + nutmeg + pepper, mashed to a thick paste. Filling spoons onto each square; corners fold across to a triangle; edges crimp with a fork. Brushes with egg wash; sprinkles with sesame and nigella seeds. Bakes for 25 minutes at 200°C till deep gold and puffed.
Strong bread flour worked with eggs, honey, oil, salt and warm water until the dough is smooth and elastic. Two long rises, the first slack and the second tight after braiding. A six-strand braid if you're showing off, three-strand if you want the loaf made before the candles. Brushed with egg yolk for the lacquer-deep crust, scattered with sesame or poppy seeds, baked until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
Brioche-style dough: bread flour, yeast, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, salt. Kneads 10 min till elastic; rises 1 ½ hours. Chocolate filling: dark chocolate + butter melted with cocoa, sugar, cinnamon, cools to spreadable. Dough divides in half; each rolls to a rectangle 40 × 25 cm; filling spreads to edges; rolls up tight; cuts lengthways down the middle; the two halves twist around each other (the iconic babka braid). Lifts into a buttered loaf tin; rises for 45 min; bakes for 35 min at 180°C. Sugar syrup brushes over hot.
A rich enriched dough is mixed and kneaded; first rise overnight in the fridge for the best flavour and easier handling. The next day, the cold dough rolls into a wide rectangle; chocolate filling spreads thick to the edges; rolls into a tight log. The log is sliced lengthwise, twisted into a braid (cut sides facing up to expose the chocolate), tucked into a loaf tin and proofed. Bakes; brushes with sugar syrup hot from the oven.
A sugar syrup is cooked to soft-ball stage (118°C). Tahini is warmed slightly. The hot syrup is poured into the tahini and mixed with a wooden spoon just until ribbons form, this is the critical moment. Over-mix and halva turns to crumbs; under-mix and it stays soft. Poured into a lined tin; pistachios are sprinkled on top; set at room temp 4 hours.
This is the brisket that anchors every Ashkenazi holiday table - Rosh Hashanah dinner, the Passover seder, a Friday-night Shabbat. You sear the meat hard until the surface is mahogany, then build a slow braise on its rendered fat: onions caramelised down to gold, garlic and tomato paste deepened with paprika and brown sugar, wine and stock pulling the lot together. The brisket goes back in fat-side up and the pot disappears into a low oven for three hours plus, until a fork meets no resistance. The trick almost every recipe insists on is the overnight rest. You cool the meat in its sauce, slice it cold against the grain (warm brisket shreds, cold brisket slices clean), then reheat the slices in the sauce before serving. Spoon the onion-rich gravy generously over mashed potato, kasha or buttered egg noodles.
Floury potatoes grate fine; onion grates fine; both squeeze in a tea towel to remove water (the water-squeeze is what gives crisp latkes). Mixed with egg, matzo meal (or flour), salt and pepper. Dropped by spoonfuls into hot oil; flattened with a spatula; fried for 3-4 minutes per side till deep gold. Drained on a rack. Served hot with sour cream and applesauce.
Rugelach dough: equal weights butter and cream cheese, beaten together, with flour and salt, like a cream-cheese shortcrust. Chills for 2 hours. Filling (chocolate version): cocoa, sugar, butter, sometimes chopped chocolate. Dough divides into 4 portions; each rolls into a circle 28 cm across; spreads with filling; cuts into 8 triangular wedges like a pizza. Each wedge rolls up from the wide edge toward the point. Brushes with egg wash; dusts with sugar. Bakes for 22 minutes at 180°C.
A rich yeasted dough, flour, yeast, sugar, salt, butter, eggs, milk and a splash of vanilla. Long first rise for 1 hour. Roll to 1 ½ cm thick; stamp 6 cm rounds; second rise for 30 minutes. Fry at 175°C 2 minutes per side. Drain; inject jam into the centre with a piping bag; dust heavily with icing sugar.