MAKE ROSH HASHANA SHINE WITH SWEETNESS.

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown Friday. It is a time of reflection, joy and hope for the year to come. Rosh Hashana continues for 10 days until Yom Kipper, the Day of Atonement.

The traditional Rosh Hashana table is laden with dishes representing optimism for a sweet future. Honey is typically used to symbolize the wish for a sweet year, and the holiday meal often begins with the dipping of apple slices in honey. There are numerous possibilities for including honey in special recipes.

This year, serve Spicy Cherry Glazed Chicken, an easy and elegant main dish, ideal for busy cooks. Honey, cinnamon and dried cherries make a ``just-right'' sweet and sour glaze over juicy baked chicken thighs.

Stuffed Sweet Peppers is a simple-to-make yet sophisticated dish that can be served either as a vegetarian main dish or healthy side dish. Green bell pepper halves are stuffed with a combination of rice, garbanzo beans, currants, tomatoes and honey, then baked until tender.

Other recipe ideas to serve this year include Round Raisin Challah, Israeli Coin Carrot Salad, Hannah's Honey Cake or Heavenly Apple Cake.

During Rosh Hashana, challah is often shaped into forms other than the usual braid. It may look like wings to associate man with the angels or like a ladder to facilitate prayers reaching heaven. As a round form, such as in the Round Raisin Challah, the challah recalls the crown of God's kingdom or the circle of life.

The Israeli Coin Carrot Salad, picked up by cookbook author Joan Nathan when she lived in Jerusalem years ago, is delicious to eat any time during the year, but especially now to welcome the sweet New Year.

Cookies, cakes, honey-laced goodies and sweets of many kinds recall the hope for sweet and joyful days ahead. Hannah's Honey Cake - almond-topped squares moist with coffee and apples - are a welcome reminder.

Heavenly Apple Cake is very similar to Jewish apple cake, a Polish dessert, that was very popular in church cookbooks throughout Maryland, Nathan notes in ``The Jewish Holiday Baker.''

``I believe it is called Jewish because it is an oil-based rather than a butter-based cake.''

So sweeten up the dining festivities this year with a sampling of these ideas.

SPICY CHERRY GLAZED CHICKEN

1 tablespoon vegetable OR olive oil

6 skinless chicken thighs

3/4 cup frozen apple cherry juice concentrate

1/4 cup honey

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup water

2 teaspoons cornstarch 

Place oil in bottom of a 13x9-inch baking pan; spread to coat bottom. Arrange chicken thighs in pan; set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine apple cherry juice concentrate, honey, salt, cinnamon, crushed red pepper and allspice; mix well. Bring just to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove 1/2 cup sauce from pan; set aside.

Pour remaining sauce evenly over chicken in baking pan. Bake in preheated 350-degree oven 40 to 50 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, turning once. Remove chicken to a serving dish; keep warm.

Pour pan drippings into reserved sauce; stir in dried cherries, water and cornstarch. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly; cook 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until sauce is thickened.

To serve, pour sauce evenly over chicken. Makes 6 servings.

STUFFED SWEET PEPPERS

1 tablespoon vegetable OR olive oil

3/4 cup uncooked long-grain rice

4 green onions, thinly sliced

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 can (14 1/2 ounces) vegetable broth

Water

4 medium green bell peppers, cut lengthwise in half and seeded

1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes in puree 

1/4 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 can (8 3/4 ounces) garbanzo beans, drained

1/3 cup dried currants OR raisins

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat until hot; cook and stir rice, green onions and parsley 3 to 5 minutes or until rice begins to brown. Stir in cinnamon, pepper and salt.

Gradually add vegetable broth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer 18 to 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is cooked through.

Meanwhile, cook green pepper halves in boiling water 5 to 7 minutes or until peppers are crisp-tender; drain.

Combine tomatoes, honey and crushed red pepper in a 13x9-inch baking pan; mix well. Remove 1/4 cup sauce; set aside. Arrange pepper halves on sauce in baking pan.

When rice is cooked, remove from heat; stir in garbanzo beans, dried currants and reserved 1/4 cup sauce. Divide rice evenly among pepper halves in baking pan. Cover pan tightly with foil.

Bake in preheated 350-degree oven 30 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

ROUND RAISIN CHALLAH

2 packages active dry yeast

1/8 teaspoon saffron threads

2/3 cup warm water (about 110 degrees F)

6 egg yolks, lightly beaten

3 whole eggs, lightly beaten

7 tablespoons vegetable OR canola oil

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons salt

4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups raisins

In a large bowl, soak yeast and saffron in warm water about 5 minutes. Stir in 5 egg yolks, 3 whole eggs, oil, sugar and salt. Add enough flour to form a stiff but sticky dough, about 4 1/2 cups.

Turn dough out on floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes, working raisins in dough while kneading. Form into a ball and place in a greased bowl. Turn dough to grease entire surface. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Punch down dough and knead briefly. Roll dough into a rope about 24 inches long. Coil rope into a spiral round loaf. Place on a greased baking sheet. Brush with remaining egg yolk, beaten, and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Bake in preheated 375-degree oven 35 to 40 minutes or until dark golden brown. Cool thoroughly before slicing. Makes 1 loaf.

From ``Jewish Holiday Feasts'' by Louise Fiszer and Jeannette Ferrary, Chronicle Books.

ISRAELI COIN CARROT SALAD

1 pound carrots

Water

1/2 teaspoon salt OR to taste

1/4 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons diced candied ginger

Handful of raisins

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Peel carrots.

Add 6 cups cold water to a saucepan. Bring to a boil and add salt. Put in carrots and simmer, uncovered, about 10 to 15 minutes or until tender. Drain and pat dry with paper towels.

When carrots are cool enough to handle, slice in rounds about 1/4-inch thick. Place carrots in a serving bowl. Cover with orange juice and sprinkle with ginger, raisins and chopped parsley.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 6 hours, turning occasionally so that flavors blend. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

From ``The Children's Jewish Holiday Kitchen'' by Joan Nathan, Schocken Books.

HANNAH'S HONEY CAKE

1 cup hot brewed coffee

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 cup honey

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable OR canola oil

3 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 large apple, cored and grated

12 whole blanched almonds

Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.

In a small bowl, combine coffee and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat honey, sugar and oil until well blended. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until mixture looks homogenized.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.

Beat flour mixture into honey mixture alternately with coffee mixture until well combined. Stir in apple. Pour batter into prepared pan. Place almonds on top of batter to mark center of each of 12 squares.

Bake in preheated 350-degree oven about 45 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares. Makes 12 servings.

From ``Jewish Holiday Feasts'' by Louise Fiszer and Jeannette Ferrary, Chronicle Books.

HEAVENLY APPLE CAKE

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons wheat germ (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

6 small Rome, Granny Smith, Yellow Delicious OR other low-moisture apples

Juice of 1/2 lemon

4 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan.

Mix flour, wheat germ, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.

Peel, core and slice apples into eighths and place in another bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice.

In a third bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Add vegetable oil and 1 3/4 cups sugar; beat well. Stir in vanilla.

To egg mixture, alternately add dry ingredients and orange juice. Pour 1/2 of batter into prepared pan. Cover with 1/2 of sliced apples.

In a small bowl, mix remaining 1/4 cup sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle 1/2 over apples. Cover with remaining batter.

Starting at outside of pan, neatly place remaining apple slices in overlapping concentric circles. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Put some foil on bottom of oven in case batter leaks.

Bake cake on middle rack in preheated 350-degree oven 1 1/4 hours or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool on a rack before you carefully remove cake from pan. Makes 1 cake.

From ``The Jewish Holiday Baker'' by Joan Nathan, Schocken Books.

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Photo: (Color) Spicy Cherry Glazed Chicken is a delicious entree for Rosh Hashana.