With Rosh Hashanah approaching, Manischewitz has added frozen baked goods and matzah balls to its lineup—products designed to taste fresh while offering quick preparation for holiday tables.
JNS sampled several of the new releases, including frozen rugelach, chocolate babka and matzah balls. They tasted fresh and were simple to prepare.
The rugelach need to thaw for about 15 minutes before going into the oven. The babka follows the same process, with an extra step of spraying the dough with water and topping it with streusel from the enclosed packet, which adds extra flavor.
The matzah balls require no thawing. Straight from the freezer, they cook in soup in about 20 minutes.
Shani Seidman, chief marketing officer of the Manischewitz parent company, told JNS that the frozen line reflects the company’s longstanding mission of making iconic Jewish foods widely available.
“Babka and rugelach are such staples in Jewish bakeries,” she said. “If you don’t have a bakery near you or don’t have time to run out, you can buy one of our frozen ones, pop it in the oven for 10 minutes and enjoy your kitchen smelling like a Jewish bakery.”
Seidman said that the products are par-baked. The babka and rugelach are baked until just short of finished and then frozen, so home bakers only need to complete the final 10 minutes of the cooking process.
For the matzah balls, the development team tested different cooking methods to ensure that they held the right texture and absorbed flavor from whatever soup they were added to: chicken, vegetable or otherwise, Seidman told JNS.
“Our passion is matzah balls, and we wanted no prep,” she said. “Just put them straight into the soup and they’ll soak up the flavor.”
Feedback so far has been strong, according to Seidman, who told JNS that customers have referred to “Goldilocks” rugelach—not too flaky, not too dense. They have also referred to the babka streusel topping as a “chef’s kiss,” she said.
The frozen rollout is part of a larger Manischewitz rebrand that Seidman said is designed to make Jewish food feel both nostalgic and modern, with a particular eye towards this new line of products.
“We’re not trying to revive gefilte fish,” she said. “We’re trying to revive the deliciousness of Jewish food and invite anyone to come to our table to try it.”
Part of that strategy is expanding beyond the kosher aisle and into mainstream freezer sections, giving access to consumers who may not live near a Jewish bakery.
Looking ahead, Manischewitz plans to launch a new line of soups this winter, led by matzah ball soup made with real chicken.
The company worked with food technologists and chefs, but also tested the recipe against what Seidman called the ultimate benchmark: “everyone’s grandma.”
Seven additional soups are slated for release, including chicken noodle, chicken broth, mushroom barley and tomato rice.
“Sometimes, you innovate and sometimes you seek perfection,” Seidman said. She added that matzah-ball soup is viewed internally as the “hero” product of the new line.
