Cookies rich in flavor, tradition
Savoring desserts especially for Jewish new year
For most of my life I have courted a reputation as an excellent baker. Now, with Rosh Hashana a few days away (the holiday begins at sundown Sept. 9), I get to defend that title by baking a tempting sweets table of yum.
For years, my holiday desserts were an emblem of history, embracing the Ashkenazic Jews who came to the U.S. in large waves, bringing memories or even recipes for the classic apple cake, walnut or almond cake with syrup, apple and nut strudel, and always and forever, the platter of apples with a jar of honey.
But not all Jewish cooking traditions come from Eastern Europe. For centuries, Jewish people lived and cooked in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East — what we think of as the Mediterranean.
So, pure Ashkenazi that I am, the irony is that my heart and my stomach are elsewhere: among the ancient yet enduring Jewish communities of the Mediterranean. Like Italy. And the Syrian, Lebanese and Israeli Jewish communities.
This year, my desserts are cookies. None of them border on dainty, and they will still leave you room for a wedge of your beloved apple cake.
The tradition of baking sfratti cookies (see recipe below), which is traditionally prepared at Rosh Hashana, comes from a small southern ItalianJewish community from the picturesque hilltop town of Pitigliano.
Claudia Fariello, a friend who splits her time between Chicago and Rome, translated this text from the town of Sorano’s municipal website:
“This custom goes back to the 17th century when Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, published an edict that ordered the Jews living in the areas of Pitigliano, Sovana, and Sorano to leave their homes and move into the ghetto in Pitigliano.
“A century later, the Jews of Pitigliano created this cookie (s’fratto means eviction) to remember the event of the messengers beating on the doors of the Jews (with sticks) and ordering them to leave. In fact, the shape of the s’fratto is elongated like a stick. The filling of honey, orange peel, walnuts and nutmeg give a sweet flavor and intense aroma.”
Symbolic foods commemorating the struggles of Jews is a recurring theme, yet in this story, the Jews took an unfortunate event and turned it around. It is a mouthwatering treat, a perfect alchemy between crunch and sweetness.
If you’re looking toward a very busy holiday season, when Jewish families are in a constant cycle of celebration and socializing — which means a lot of eating — Jews have never had a better opportunity to breathe new life into that well-known narrative of baking the classic desserts that symbolize the wish for a sweet new year.