Chayele Palevsky z”l, one of the partisans of Vilna, describing the sweet delicacy her mother used to make Photo by the Forward

By Eve Jochnowitz and Rukhl SchaechterSeptember 11, 2020

Honey cake is probably one of the most well-known traditional desserts served on Rosh Hashanah to bring in a sweet new year. A close second are teiglach: small knots of dough boiled in honey.

When Chayele Palevsky, who fought with other partisans in Lithuania against the Nazis, told us that she always made ginger candy with the teiglach for the Jewish new year, we knew we had to try it out ourselves. Honestly, I never knew Jews in Eastern Europe even knew what ginger was.

Watch us make it here, followed by the recipe:

Teiglach (Honey Balls)

4 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cup flour plus a bit more as needed
2 cups sugar
1½ cups honey
½ cup sugar
½ cup toasted walnuts

1) Beat the eggs with the sugar and oil. Sift the flour with the baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix the flour into the eggs and knead to make a soft dough. Do not add to much flour. The dough should be quite sticky.

2) Allow the dough to rest, refrigerated, for several hours or overnight. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide into four parts. Roll each into a rope and cut each rope into small pieces. Allow the dough-balls to dry out for about one hour.

3) Bring the sugar and honey to a boil in a large pot. Add the dough balls and cover. Cook over low heat for about ten minutes or until golden brown. Turn over and cook until golden on both sides.

4) Grind the sugar and walnuts together to make walnut sugar. Sprinkle half the walnut sugar on a large platter. When the teygelekh are done, pour 3/4 cup hot water into pot. With a slotted spoon, remove the golden teygelekh, and lay them on the sugared platter. Sprinkle the remaining walnut sugar on top.

Ingberlach (Ginger Candy)

Remaining syrup from cooking the teygelekh
4 cups assorted dried fruits (apricots, prunes, raisins, dates, figs) and nuts
1/3 or ½ cup fresh grated ginger

1) Cut up the dried fruits. Add chopped nuts to make four cups. Add the nuts and fruits to the remaining syrup along with the grated ginger, and cook on the lowest heat, stirring constantly, until it is quite thick. Pour onto a moistened board and allow to cool.

2) When the candy is cool enough to handle, form it into small balls.

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