A month of returning, and a recipe for spiced apple + walnut cookies

Plus an upcoming Rosh Hashanah cooking class with The Nosher!

Aug 28, 2024

Hi!

Below you’ll find info on an upcoming virtual cooking class, reflections on the month of Elul, as well as my recipe for spiced apple cookies with toasted walnuts (scroll to the bottom for that).

Also, if you’re Portland-based and hungry for community + Jewish text study, I’ve been invited to be the inaugural chef in residence for Learning Lab. Every week, I’ll be cooking up and serving different soups from the diaspora, which will be followed by illuminating conversations in preparation for the High Holidays. There’s still time to register!

Happy cooking and eating,
Sonya

Have you ever wanted to host a High Holiday meal but feel overwhelmed by the planning and preparation?

In an upcoming virtual class for The Nosher on Sunday, September 22nd, I’ll teach you how to make an easy Rosh Hashanah dinner. By the end of this 60-minute class, you’ll learn tips for simplifying entertaining, including how to prepare a crowd-pleasing smoked fish platter, a Slavic one-pot aromatic rice and meat dish, and a one-bowl autumnal cake.

Grab your ticket here.

The other night I dreamed of picking ripe Italian plums and black mission figs that were so juicy they were bursting at their ashy purple seams. The very next morning, I synchronistically found myself harvesting plums from a neighborhood tree; equally happy in waking life as I was in the night. The summer of foraged fruit blessedly continues.

The ripening of the Italian plums always coincides with waning light and a subtle late-day crisp-smelling cool breeze. On September 3rd, the summer evening will coincide with a new moon, which welcomes the Hebrew month of Elul.

Elul is the last month of the Hebrew calendar and precedes the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. In Judaism, Elul is considered a sacred time for cheshbon hanefesh, an “accounting of the soul.” As part of that accounting, one has the opportunity for t’shuvah, which is often translated as “repentance” but also means “return.”

While repentance is imbued with the heaviness of regret and remorse for the past, return invokes the opposite — a cavernous directive that implies future comfort. As an action item, for some return is a call to religious practice and faith, but for others return is nebulous. What or who am I returning to? What can I face that I have turned away from? Can I nurture that which I have not yet allowed myself to be? What do I yearn for that has not been realized? How will I be of service now? Who am I, and who are we collectively?

Last year, I began the month of return with my Rosh Chodesh (new moon) group. We gathered on the beach of the Columbia River, bare feet planted in the sun-warmed sand. During that memorable sunset gathering, my multi-talented friend Alicia stood by the shore and breathed bellowing notes into the shofar — an ancient kind of trumpet made from a ram’s curled horn.

The sound of a shofar is at once deep and throaty, melodic and haunting. When I hear its sharp sound, I hear thousands of years of deep exhales. The vibration of the notes rattles my chest — grasping at me, jostling me. The shofar screams: Wake up! Reflect! Return!

As Jewish people enter a month of holy accounting, we are told the veil between worlds is thin. Right now our connection to the Divine is more accessible. The wisdom of the Hebrew calendar aligns with the natural world’s graceful start of a cycle of disintegration. As seasons shift, seemingly overnight, trees begin to slowly deflate and the tips of leaves become the color of small flames. The tomato plant starts to defensively curl and its intoxicating scent grows dishearteningly muted. Apples swell like tiny red balloons, and the unharvested Italian plums fall off their branches — wine-colored skins sink into themselves as they decay into the earth. Soon, squirrels will get drunk on the bounty of fermenting fruit blanketing the ground beneath the emptying tree branches. One thing decays, as another glutinously celebrates.

Summer’s ending always feels comedically unglamorous. In contrast, at the start of June, we might be full of hopes, fantasies, dreams, and desires. We start the season with lists of places to go, people to see, books to read, and parties to have. We plant gardens and eagerly await growth and productivity. We fastidiously water and weed. As the weeks unfold, maybe the weeding lessens, the watering becomes more erratic. Inevitably, we contend with squash bugs, or tomato root rot, or a cucumber plant that never quite withstood that one heatwave. By August, we discover uncrossed to-do’s and plans not always going as planned.

By some miracle, even in the face of neglect or pests, we might find that the garden still provides bounty; or if not, maybe a friend unexpectedly shares their bumper crop of beans. The call to reflect comes as we might start a new list, one that is full of tasks centered on harvesting, preserving, and hosting. In our fervor of processing late-summer produce, we might take stock of what we sewed that flourished, what we planted that withered, and realize: Maybe it’s all ok anyway?

The late summer plums have become my symbol of return. In all their purple glory, their sweetness is twinged by tartness, with dusty royal skin. Surprisingly often overlooked, they await whoever is fortunate enough to pick them.

When I am that person, I ask myself: “How did I get so lucky?” I collect the fruit, and I set out to follow in the footsteps of the matriarchs in my family and I make plum jam. Their tradition infuses my own customs. Every year for the first night of Rosh Hashanah, I fill my challah with the preserves from these last days of summer. A bridge from one side to the other that sweetens the first moments of the new year.

Elul is rooted in the exploration and discovery of one’s core. The Jewish tradition calls for repentance as a moral imperative. On the flip side is forgiveness. The sacred combination of amends and acceptance threads its way down a path toward return.

In the past, my younger self focused on all I had done “wrong” in the last cycle. But I see it differently now. Taking stock is imperative, but no longer an act of self-condemnation. I now think of t’shuvah as facing and accepting one’s core enoughness — finding the sanctity of simply existing, flawed and gorgeous — emersed in an enriching cycle of decay and growth.

I find myself arriving again for another Elul, like a plum, full and heavy, ready to be picked from a tree.

Are you in need of a helping hand for the upcoming holiday season?

Braids: Recipes from my Pacific Northwest Jewish Kitchen, includes trusted recipes for easy entertaining: an approachable aromatic wine-braised brisket, simple savory potato kugel, spiced honey cake, a veggie-sheet pan meal, one-bowl apple Charlotka, and tons of make-ahead salads that will add color and vibrancy to any autumnal table.

As one kind reviewer shared:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely stories, delicious recipes!

Sonya Sanford’s “Braids” is such a welcome addition to my cookbook library. I came for the matzah ball soup and the challah recipes (both of which I fell hard for at her beloved Beetroot), but stayed for the tons of other delicious recipes and the heartfelt writing about cooking and sharing food with friends and loved ones. It’s clearly written from her heart, and that shines through in every dish!

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RECIPE

These cookies are a version of the chai-spiced cookies I’ve been making for years. If you like neither apple nor walnut, you can skip both and you’ll still end up with a crispy-edged, soft, and chewy cookie that’s like a sophisticated cousin of the snickerdoodle. However, if you love bursts of tartness and nuttiness, the addition of crumbled apple chips (not to be confused with apple rings) adds dimension and texture. I am typically anti-nut in most cookies, but here, the walnuts add an essential savory note — toasting them before adding them to the dough makes all the difference.

Spiced apple and toasted walnut cookies

Makes 22-24

Ingredients

1 cup raw walnuts
2¾ cups (360 g) all-purpose flour
1¾ cups (350 g) sugar, divided
1 cup (227 g/ 2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground allspice (or ¼ tsp ground clove)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon fine table or sea salt (or 1 tsp kosher salt)
1 lg egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or 2 teaspoons extract
1½ cups (57 g) apple chips, crumbled

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment or a silicone mat.

In a small pan over medium heat toast your walnuts until just browned and fragrant, about 5-6 minutes. Resist the urge to walk away, as nuts can easily go from toasted to burnt. Allow the walnuts to cool as you prepare the dough.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice or cloves. Remove a ¼ cup of the spiced sugar mixture and reserve it in a small bowl (you will need this later for the exterior of the cookie).

To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or to a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, add the remaining 1½ cups of the sugar mixture, butter, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix on medium speed until light and fluffy, 4-5 minutes. Do not rush this step, having a light and fluffy base is essential to the texture.

Add the room temperature egg and vanilla to the bowl, and mix on medium speed until well combined, about 1 minute.

Add half of the flour mixture to the batter, and mix on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds. Add the remaining half of the flour, and mix again on low until just combined. Be careful not to overmix the dough at this point.

Chop the cooled walnuts and crumble the apple chips. Remove ¼ cup and reserve. Add the remaining walnuts and apple chips into the bowl, and mix until just combined and evenly dispersed, 30-60 seconds.

Scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough, and form it into a ball. Roll the ball in the reserved sugar and spice mixture and place on the lined baking tray. Gently press down and slightly flatten the ball. Garnish with extra bits of the apple and walnut mixture you reserved. Continue rolling each ball of dough in sugar, and placing it on a baking sheet 1.5-2 inches apart.

Bake 1 sheet at a time for 8-10 minutes in the center of the oven until just slightly golden at the edges. Once baked, allow to fully cool on a rack.

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days at room temperature. These spiced cookies always taste better the next day and freeze very well, making them ideal for gifting and hosting.

Note: To freeze the cookies, roll them out and place them in a single layer on a baking sheet in the freezer, once frozen transfer to an airtight container or bag. When ready to bake, place on a lined baking sheet and bake for 10-13 minutes at 350°F.

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