Teiglach for Rosh Hashana

When I was a kid, my grandma cooked a lot of foods, that are here referred to as cuisine of Ashkenazi Jews. I did not know that when I was growing up, it was just something my grandma cooked. She was an excellent chef, and her tiny kitchen produced many fantastic dishes that now live only in my memories. That is the thing with people... we do not thing that something that is there all the time, one day may be gone.  My aunt says that she has some of grandma's recipes, but I know that its likely, she does not have the ones grandma made for Jewish holidays. Plus, grandma cooked by feel, look, and touch more then a recipe. It is very sad that I do not have her recipes to carry on, still I try my best to keep traditions alive for my kids.

Every Jewish New Year we celebrate with honey. Apples are dipped in the honey to have a sweet year ahead. Every year I make a honey cake, or lekach where I use honey instead or sugar. This year I decided to do something different when I remembered something grandma made once in a while. I remember that grandma prepared a home made noodles as well as little pieces of cooked dough that we put in the soup - mandlen, here called soup nuts. The cooked pieces of dough are similar to nuts in size and texture, so I can theorize that when it was eaten in the impoverished regions within pale of settlement , it was thought of as nuts.

The sweet treat I would like to share is nothing more then cooked dough with nuts caramelized in honey. 
Naturally, since I do not have grandma's recipe to follow, I read all the recipes that I could find and made my own version of this signature dish. I tried to remember the taste of my grandma's recipe and that is what guided me in the ingredients I did or did not use.

dough:

4 eggs

1/4 c salad oil

2 cups of flour

1/8 tsp of salt

oil for frying

candy:

1 lb of honey

1/2 c hazelnuts coarsely chopped

1/2 c walnut pieces

1/2 c  almond sliced or chopped

1/2 pine nuts

lemon peel from 1 lemon

In a food processor blend eggs and oil with salt, then add flour. Once the dough comes together turn it out to well flowered board. Roll the dough into less then 1/2 inch thickens and cut into strips then into bean size pieces. Make sure they do not stick together but shake off any excess flour when cooking. I tried both methods of cooking the dough. about 1/3 of the batch I cooked for about 7-8 min in the 450F oven and the rest fried. Fried pieces of dough is much better looking and much better tasting. I realized that frying is not as healthy as baking the dough, but let's face it, this is a dessert that is made once a year. As with all the desserts it is not meant to be a main dish, but rather shared and savoured in small amounts with family and friends.  The next step is cooking the honey. In a large pan honey is brought to a boil and then simmer, thickening it and reducing it in volume for about 8-10 min. I love nuts and I do not like them toasted. Most recipes out there call for the nuts to be toasted, but I did not. I do not think toasting here, add anything in flavor, so I skipped toasting nuts. Once the honey is ready all of the dough and nuts is added to the honey and stirred carefully, the mixture is very hot. Stir and mix in the lemon peel making sure everything is coated evenly. Cook for additional 5-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the mixture.

Once it resembles more of a ball then a stew, the dish is done. Cooked mixture then transferredd onto the large dish that can be sprinkled with a layer of sliced almonds before turning out the candy. The loose honey will still settle down to the bottom, and make it difficult for the candy to pick off from the plate so do not fret. As the mixture cools it becomes easier to handle and can be formed into individual small portions. I left the plate as it looks in the picture and cut off servings as needed. This was a fun dish to make and eat.