Make It Holiday!
The Hanukkah Tradition My Picky Eaters Look Forward to All Year
Leah Koenig, author of The Jewish Cookbook explores what it means to pass on holiday traditions–and shares the recipe for rosy red applesauce that gets her picky eaters looking forward to latkes all year long.
- Written By
- Leah Koenig
Growing up celebrating Hanukkah with my family, potato latkes were the official star of the show–but I was in it for the applesauce. Along with sour cream, applesauce is a traditional latke topper and my mom always made it fresh. The rest of the year, we poured Mott’s from a glass jar into bowls and called it a day. But on Hanukkah, she started with super red apples from the farmer’s market and left the peels on so that the resulting sauce had this gorgeous rosy blush and smooth, velvety texture. I dolloped it with abandon on her crispy-edged latkes and ate it by the spoonful long after the holiday ended.
The autumn after my first kiddo, Max, was born, my husband and I decided to follow the lead of seemingly every other New York City parent and head upstate to go apple picking. I delighted in watching baby Max frolic in the falling autumn leaves, and make surprisingly quick work of an entire apple pulled straight from the tree. But the real treat, after we arrived home with way more apples than was advisable for our tiny kitchen, was putting several pounds of them towards making my mom’s applesauce.
I blended up an extra-large batch that first year, putting half in the fridge to enjoy right away, and saving half in the freezer for topping Hanukkah latkes. And in that moment, without fully realizing it, a new tradition was born. Our family has gone apple picking every year since then (Max is now 7 and our daughter, Bea, is 2 ½). And while both kids are decidedly members of the selective eaters club, they both look forward to “bubby’s applesauce.” (I may be the one making the sauce these days, but credit definitely goes to my mom for her stellar recipe.)
Some years I blend up the sauce after bedtime when I have the space to cook, uninterrupted. And other years, the kids help me chop the apples–using crinkle cutters or another kid-safe kitchen knife–and sprinkle cinnamon into the food processor. The recipe, which does not require the fruit to be any specific shape before making its way into the pot, is particularly kid-friendly–certainly more so than potato latkes, which involve a frying pan and sputtering oil!
Even before our kids came along, my husband and I talked about the importance of passing down our Jewish heritage and traditions to any future children. As a professional food writer who regularly witnesses food’s unique power to create memories and share traditions, I always assumed that would involve food. I envisioned braiding challah dough together with the kids, or making family pilgrimages to my favorite Lower East Side pickle shop. But I never could have imagined how meaningful it would be to see my kids fall in love with a beloved dish from my childhood. I guess when it comes to Hanukkah in our household, the applesauce doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Rosy Applesauce
This recipe is reprinted, with permission, from The Jewish Cookbook by Leah Koenig (Phaidon, 2019) Fried potato latkes topped with applesauce is a classic Hanukkah pairing in Ashkenazi Jewish households. The sweet-tart flavor of the sauce brightens the oil-crisped pancakes. It is no accident that potatoes and apples became central to the winter holiday in Eastern Europe. Both ingredients store well in cold weather, when little other fresh produce was available. This version of the Hanukkah condiment is made from unpeeled red baking apples, imparting a rosy blush and velvety texture to the sauce. Serves 6 to 8
- 3 lb (1.35 kg) red baking apples (like McIntosh, Jonared, or Cortland), unpeeled, cored, and cut into eighths
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup (100 to 150 g) sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1. In a large pot or saucepan, combine the apples and 1/3 cup (75 ml) water. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples are very soft and falling apart, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for about 5 minutes. If there is excess liquid in the saucepan, pour off all but about a tablespoon or two.
2. Transfer the cooked apples to a food processor or high powered blender. Add the ½ cup of sugar and the ground cinnamon and blend, scraping down the sides as necessary, until very smooth. Taste and, if desired, blend in up to an additional ¼ cup (50 g) of sugar. Serve immediately or store, covered, in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Leah Koenig is a food writer and author of six cookbooks, including The Jewish Cookbook (Phaidon, 2019) and Modern Jewish Cooking (Chronicle, 2015). She also writes a weekly newsletter, The Jewish Table, which shares recipes and stories from the world of Jewish food.