Usher In A Sweet New Year By Preparing A Perfect Rosh Hashonah Family Gathering

The Jewish New Year is just a few days away, and family and friends will be joining for a traditional dinner.

While all families and social circles have their own traditions for this holiday, there’s some trademark dishes you will often see. This involves classic Jewish foods, such as roast chicken, brisket, and matzo ball soup. But as this holiday is also all about ushering in a sweet new year, you’ll also see a lot of apples and honey-centric desserts, such as apple babka and honey cake.

Whether planning a special gathering or attending someone else’s home, you are going to want to focus on the details, and have all the elements needed not only to have everyone leave full and happy, but also with something sweet to usher in the new year.

L’Shana Tovah!

Oh Nuts! Rosh Hashanah Golden Honey Dish Gift Basket

Honey is a central ingredient for Rosh Hashonah, and it’s so important to be present at any new year’s celebration. This gift set would be lovely way to greet a hostess, as it includes 100% pure honey, as well as chocolate-covered cookies, peanut chews, and decorative touches perfect for the occasion.

Fan Fan Rosh Hashanah Celebration Box

Available at Fan Fan from September 15-25, the 8-doughnut box from Fany Gerson, who collaborated with Einat Admony, Leetal Arazi, Pati Jinich, Deb Perelman, Alex Raij, Gail Simmons and Adeena Sussman for this special box to mark the new year this Rosh Hashonah. Each box contains one of the following flavors: Pistachio Baklava, which has pistachio creme filling and orange blossom walnut baklava topping; Caramelized Pear, which is topped with a with a maple glaze; Almond Marzipan with Mexican Chocolate; Salted Honey braided flowers; Ras El Hanout, which has a creme filling and cider caramel glaze; Saffron Sesame, served with honey lotus glaze; Mango Pomegranate; and Chocolate honey. As an added bonus for indulging, $5 of each sale will be donated to Emma’s Torch, which gives culinary training to refugees.

Carnegie Deli New York Pastrami and Corned Beef Kit

Jereme Pozin, Director of Food & Beverage at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville, loves to load up on corned beef and pastrami from Carnegie Deli. He said: “I grew up competing with my brothers on who could finish the most amazing sandwiches from Carnegie Deli for lunch on Rosh Hashanah after synagogue. It’s a pile of Pastrami and Corned Beef on rye bread with a whole grain mustard and halved sour pickles. It’s everything.” The Carnegie Deli New York Pastrami and Corned Beef Kit includes pre-sliced pastrami, corned beef, mustard, rye bread, and sour pickles.

Breads Bakery Apple Babka

Apples are a big part of ushering in the new year, and Breads Bakery is known around the world for their classic babka. This Apple Babka is a seasonal approach, and made with Granny Smith apples and almond cream. It’s available for nationwide shipping, so you can send it as a new years gift anywhere, or have it shipped right to your own dinner to enjoy yourself.

Schofferhofer Pomegranate Hefeweizen Beer

Enjoying pomegranates is a big part of the Rosh Hashanah celebration. Schofferhofer Pomegranate Hefeweizen Beer is a fun and unexpected way to do just that, as it’s a combination of 50% Hefeweizen beer and 50% pomegranate juice. The result has a subtle sweetness and can be a really lovely way to welcome people at a casual and unfussy holiday dinner.

Rastelli’s Elegant Farmer Apple Pie

Whether you enjoy your apples with honey or in a special baked treat, it’s going to be a big part of the holiday. There’s nothing quite like a good apple pie, and this one is baked with fresh-picked Ida Red apples and topped with a buttery crust.

Rosh Hashonah Sugarwish

This is such a fun hostess gift idea for Rosh Hashonah because you can send the Sugarwish gift via email, Slack, or even a text message and the recipient will choose whatever goodies they fashion that just happened to be perfectly themed for the holidays, from Green Apple Jelly Bellys to Stuffed Caramel Apple Pie Cookies, or even just the perfect red or white wine for the dinner table.

Bubbies Speciality Gift Box

This specialty gift box includes jars of ginger apple, spicy, and horseradish bread & butter chips as well as Bread & Butter kitchen-chopped relish. Whether your holiday dinner involves turkey, brisket, or another direction altogether, an assortment of pickles will fit right in.

Sugar Plum Touch of Sweetness Dried Fruit & Nut Tray

I’m all about having all sorts of sweet and salty snacks around when I host a dinner party, and this is an assortment perfect for the holiday, with a variety of nuts as well as dates, apricots, kiwi, peaches and apples.

Katz’s Deli Rosh Hashanah Dinner Package

This feast comes with everything from noodle kugel to potato latkes to matzoh ball soup and hand-sliced brisket & pastrami. There’s even a honey cake included, because it’s so important to ring in the new year with something sweet to set the tone just right.

Li-Lac Chocolates Big Chocolate Apple

This Big Chocolate Apple from New York’s oldest chocolate house comes in milk and dark chocolate and is a beautiful party favor to give at the end of a dinner — or a gift to give to coworkers or fellow members of a class or team. It’s so cute and a perfect symbol of the occasion.

M&H Distillery’s Elements Pomegranate Wine Cask Rosh Hashanah Edition

They only made 3,678 bottles of this special edition Single Malt in honor of Rosh Hashanah. This whisky is matured in pomegranate wine casks, for a resulting floral-infused single malt with hints of baked apple and cinnamon.

Beautiful Briny Sea Truffle Honey Sea Salt

Honey is such a big theme of the new year, and this truffle honey sea salt is ideal because it offers a beautiful finishing touch on everything from dinner rolls or challah during the meal to the dessert apple pie.

Challah Back Girls Apple Cinnamon Sugar

Challah is the most classic of Jewish breads, enjoyed as much with butter and morning coffee as it is with matzoh ball soup at dinner. But this challah is unlike any before it, as it is stuffed with apples and cinnamon before then being topped with more cinnamon and brown sugar. The result is both a dessert and a sweet start to a day, making it just as lovely as brunch during the holidays as it is as a finish. An added bonus to picking one of these up is that portion of proceeds from each Apple Cinnamon Sugar is in support of the B3 Foundation, which helps with resources for empowering youth in need.