Rosh Hashanah Preparations Get Cooking

TEANECK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- The baking has begun.

With a little more than 48 hours until the start of Rosh Hashanah, kosher bakeries are busy preparing breads and cakes eaten to celebrate the Jewish new year, CBS 2's Elise Finch reported.

Susan Silberman, of Tenafly, was buying challah bread, a staple for Rosh Hashanah.

"The challah is round and symbolizes the circle of the year and the beginning and the end, and the beginning of the new year and what you hope for your family and friends and for the world," Silberman said.

At Butterflake Bakery in Teaneck, employees are working around the clock in order to meet demand.

"Twenty-four hours a day from now through Wednesday afternoon, we have bakers in the building baking, baking, baking," owner Richard Heisler, said.

"Volume ramps up five, six times what normally we're doing," he added.

Round challah bread is by far the biggest seller at this time of year, but items such as honey cake and an assortment of fruit-flavored pastries are also in high demand.

"We stop and we contemplate life, contemplate the year past and find ways to make the next year sweeter," said Felix Halpern, of Wayne.

As a result, Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown Wednesday, includes meals that are filled with foods symbolizing sweetness.

"Traditionally, we make items like honey cake. Make a traditional item, teiglach -- that is little cookies drenched in honey and then molded into a form, which is a very old European item," Heisler said.

There are also apple crisps, apple pies, apple tarts, seven-layer cakes and a host of cookies and other baked treats to usher in a sweet new year.

Over just three days, Heisler says he'll use 1,000 pounds of honey to make pastries.

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