Modern Jewish Baker: Challah, Babka, Bagels & More Hardcover – September 5, 2017

I learned to make babka and challah years ago, from very long-winded, overly complicated recipes that took most of the day, if not 2 days before producing a finished loaf. It was immensely frustrating and as a result, I hardly ever made them. Shannon Sarna makes seemingly tricky recipes so, so easy, and more importantly- fun. Yes, there's a "base" recipe with variations, no it's not a ripoff, because you can easily take the one recipe and transform it into anything you want. Want to make a sweet babka and a savory one? You can do that from one recipe. Only want to make one loaf of challah? The measurements are easily divisible. Have a bunch of random tasty things floating around that would be good as hamantaschen or rugelach? Make the one dough and go nuts. The best part of this cookbook is how versatile the recipes are and how it encourages you to be creative, without worrying too much about getting every recipe right. And it's full of photos! Loads! Nothing irritates me more than a baking book that doesn't have photos of each recipe. Yes, it doesn't have weight measures, and I do bake by weight 90% of the time, but as long as you're not packing your flour when measuring, you'll be fine. I've also been making bread for so long, I just went and converted a few of these to grams with no issue. I have plenty of cookbooks with overly fussy bread recipes and to be honest, after 30 years of baking, I go back to what works reliably, and I've used this book so much, it's got post-its stuck in everywhere and is coated with flour on every page- the sign of a really good cookbook. Get this, especially if making things like bagels and babka seems intimidating for you, this book makes it so, so easy. I've recommended it to every person I know who bakes, and those who bought it love it as much as I do and regularly make these recipes for their families. Shannon's recipes on The Nosher website also contain many more amazing variations (like King Cake Babka!) I'm eagerly awaiting her next book.

Rather than cover expansive ground, Shannon Sarna takes 7 core Jewish baked breads/sweets and then gives us a number of variations, some obvious, others quite innovative. The baked goods are challah, babka, bagels, rugelach, hamantaschen, pita and matzah. Yes, matzah. Home baked matzah tastes so much better than the cardboard-like mass produced matzah you normally buy in the store. The variations for babka, for example, start with the common chocolate and cinnamon, but then vere off into S'mores, peanut butter and jelly, guava and cheese, and even birthday cake. You get quite diverse alternatives for each chapter.That would have been enough, but Jewish baked goods are as much about shape as flavor. Sarna gives us instructive photographs for forming the dough. There are 6 different ways to shape challah from the basic 3 strand through the stuffed turban. And of course, there are beautiful photos of the finished products.This is a fantastic cookbook for the home baker. The one weakness is that the measurements, especially for the flour, are in cups, not by weight. Because flour can vary, it is more accurate to measure by weight.

This cookbook on challah, babka, bagels, rugelach, hamantaschen, pita, matzah, and related things like dip is possibly my favorite cookbook of the year. Even though it's a "niche" cookbook. The range of flavors and possibilities presented within the context of Jewish bread baking is staggering. Should I make the buffalo blue cheese babka first, or the S'mores babka, or the birthday cake babka? What about the harissa and goat cheese rugelach versus the rye crust hamantaschen with grape jelly filling? Honestly, every single recipe in this book is something I'm eager to make (and eat/serve to friends & family). That's pretty rare -- I usually think a cookbook is exciting when I catch myself marking every few recipes.Shannon's instructions on bread baking, particularly her excellent diagrams on braiding, filling, etc, make this accessible even to the novice bread baker, while there's plenty here to learn for more experienced bread bakers. Her instructions are concise but thorough and so far the one recipe I've tried - everything bagel challah - yielded a delicious, flavorful, tender bread that I've eaten entirely too much of.I'm really thrilled with this cookbook and I can't wait to keep baking/eating more from Shannon's genius book.

This cookbook puts all the yummy baking recipes every Jewish baker needs into one place. Bagels, Challahs, Ruggelah, Matzo, Babkas recipes! And fillings for each recipe too, with some sweet, and some savory. I gave this book to my daughter for Chanukah, and she tried the Smore's Babka first! It was fantastic. I think I need this book for myself!! If you are looking for a unique baking cookbook of classic Jewish baked goods I recommend this. I love the modern twists on traditional recipes.

Really enjoyed the way this is put together. Lots of pictures, very descriptive, and solid recipes. Made the rugelach, and was told that it was the best they’ve ever had by my in-law. Looking forward to trying some others!

I really, really, really enjoyed this cookbook. So much so that I ran out of library renewals and purchased a copy for myself.The recipes are easy, everything tasted amazing, and they all come out looking very impressive.I only gave it four stars however, for a couple of reasons. One, the recipes all require way more sugar than I'm comfortable using, use a lot of yeast, and have extremely long rise times. Two, it would be nice if the book included prep times and serving sizes.But - the flavor combinations are delicious whether following the recipe exactly or using as inspiration to combine with your own dough recipes. I love this book.