Time is precious, particularly around the High Holidays, when you’re balancing cooking up a storm, spending time with loved ones and going to synagogue. Having a dessert recipe (or two! Or three!) up your sleeve that’s quick to whip up will save your sanity and your time. Here are 19 to choose from, from one-bowl cakes to apple pies on a stick, and beyond:
Cakes
Vegan Honey Cake Recipe
This will fool even the most devout honey cake lover.
Apple Kugel Crumble Cake
Sweet noodle kugel meets apple crumb cake in this magical sweet treat.
Sunken Plum Cake
Cure your apple fatigue with this seasonal, understated, subtly spiced cake (or sub plums for apples, which work just as well).
Classic Honey Cake (with a couple of twists)
Amp up this traditional Rosh Hashanah dessert with a sprinkle of symbolic scarlet pomegranate seeds or an extra drizzle of warm honey and scattering of toasty almonds.
Salted Honey Apple Upside-Down Cake
A tender, rich and, dare we say it, quite sexy cake to kick off the new year.
Andrew Zimmern’s Favorite Apple Cake
If this fruit-forward apple crumb cake is good enough for a four times James Beard award-winning chef, it’s good enough for us.
Israeli Honey-Sesame Cake
Sesame seeds are eaten on Rosh Hashanah for increased abundance, as their size makes them too numerous to count. Symbolism aside, this classic flavor combination shines in this delicious cake.
One-Bowl Applesauce Cake with Cream Cheese and Honey Frosting
Dense in a good way, sweet in a good way — simply, a very good cake.
Poppy Seed and Apple Cake
While poppy seeds are typically enjoyed on Purim, when mixed with applesauce and fresh apples, they make for a delicious Rosh Hashanah cake (best enjoyed with a cup of tea).
One-Bowl Apple Sharlotka
Our readers are, quite frankly, obsessed with this recipe — and for good reason. It’s easy, requires only a handful of ingredients and feeds a crowd.
Cookies, Pies and Everything Else
Apple Pie Cookies
Adorable bite-sized cookies with a flaky base and streusel topping. Accompanying teeny-tiny scoops of vanilla ice cream optional, but encouraged.
Apple and Honey Ruffle Milk Pie
Store-bought phyllo pastry is the backbone of this easy-yet-impressive Greek-inspired crinkle cake flavored with tart apples and floral honey.
Tayglach
These nostalgic Ashkenazi dough balls soaked in honey syrup are too delicious to be consigned to history.
Apple Tahini Crumble
An easy, crowd-pleasing dessert that’s quick to throw together to take the pressure off this High Holiday season.
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Make Rosh Hashanah even sweeter with this beloved British pud. Not only is STP infinitely more delicious than honey cake, one of its main ingredients, dates, is traditionally eaten on the holiday.
Mini Almond and Grape Crostatas
“Apples and honey are certainly not the only ways to ensure a sweet new year,” writes Jennifer Stempel. “Cuban families, like mine, have long practiced the tradition of eating grapes for good luck. At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, we enjoy 12 grapes.”
Vegan Apple Turnovers
Flaky (store-bought) pastry, spiced apple filling and a sweet glaze are all we really want in any dessert, at the end of the day.
Meringue-Topped Apple Pie Bars
Tasty, toasty and totally stunning!
Apple and Honey Pie Pops
Everything tastes better on a stick, and these cute-as-pie treats are a cinch to whip up.
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