Learn to COOK - A Blessing of Bread: The Many Rich Traditions of Jewish Bread Baking Around the World
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2004-11-15
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Editorial Reviews:
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A Blessing of Bread grew out of an interview that author Maggie Glezer conducted with a rabbi's wife about the symbolism of challah, that bakery staple deeply rooted in Jewish traditions. Captivated by the myriad meanings in every twist of the bread's braid, she spent years doing research and recipe testing. The result is this landmark guide to the amazing variety of Jewish breads found in communities all over the world, from Guatemala to Russia and everywhere in between.
In it are more than 60 impeccably tested recipes both old and new, for challah and other Sabbath and holiday loaves and an exploration of the rich symbolism of their hisory, the rituals governing their baking and eating, and the sacred texts and commentaries from which these rituals derive.
There are best-ever recipes for babka and honey cake, bagels, matzot, crackers, and everyday breads such as Jewish-deli rye. It is also loaded with totally unexpected breads that thrill, such as anise, almond, and sesame-studded Moroccan Purim bread; the spiced and leaf-wrapped Ehtiopian bereketei (whole wheat Sabbath bread); and the pitalike nooni honegi of the Bukharan Jews. Oral histories, ancient legends, shtetl folktales, aphorisms, and proverbs delight and inspire, and stories of grandmothers and great-grandmothers that recall life as it once was complete this volume, the most in-depth and wide-ranging one ever published on the subject.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Czernowitzer challah - yum yum!
Comment: This is an excellent book in every way (see other reviews). Do yourself and your family a favor and make this easy, delicious, beautiful challah. If you follow the simple tips for "retarding" the process, you don't need to make a big day of it; you can fit baking into the busiest schedule without exhausting yourself, and it will transform your Shabbat table, or family dinner. Just try it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Sourdough Instructions
Comment: I bought this book primarily for Glezer's information on soudough. If you are interested in starting your own culture, this book (combined with a precise digital scale) will get you the results you want. The instructions on starting and maintaining a culture are somewhat more detailed than in Artisan Baking Across America. The recipes are well written and, as with Artisan Baking, very reliable. Overall, a great book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bread as a religious experience
Comment: Maggie Glezer's labor of love "A Blessing of Bread: The Many Rich Traditions of Jewish Bread Baking Around The World" is truly that: a blessing. Not just a survey of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, North African, and Near Eastern breadmaking traditions, she also sprinkles in family stories, folktales, Yiddish proverbs, and prayers, including a section on the mitzvah of challah.
In addition to providing the blessing for Challah, Glezer also includes the Hebrew Shabbat blessings of the washing of hands and Hamotzi (Blessing of Bread).
On to the recipes themselves: divided by region, there are numerous challahs, from the relatively plain Lithuanian Challah (no sugar or eggs) to Doris Koplin's Sweet Challah, liberally glazed with confectioner's sugar, maraschino cherries, raisins, and pecans. For those of you who enjoy working with sourdough, nearly every recipe has a sourdough version available. Although I've yet to experiment with sourdough starters, I appreciated the versatility.
In addition to challah, there are also yeast breads like the Polish coffeecake Babka, an onion and poppyseed Purim ring, onion rounds, bagels, and Hungarian walnut and poppyseed pastries. From the Sephardic tradition, we have the Churek, Greek walnut and currant rolls, and the intriguing Pan de Calabaza (Pumpkin bread). North African recipes include whole wheat Sabbath Bereketei, the incredibly ornate Chubzeh, and Rarif (Egyptian Cheese Rolls). From the East, Persian and Iraqi flatbreads, pitas, several Yemenite recipes for pancakes and smoked preserved butter, Israeli matzoh, and Syrian and Iraqi pastries.
The preface also includes an incredibly detailed guide to braiding challah, from a simple single strand braid to a challenging nine-strand compound braid, along with folkloric shapes like little birds, braided wreaths, pinwheels, key challah, ladder challah for Shavuot, and hand challah.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Inspiring and incredibly thorough.
Comment: Wow, this woman has really taken the time to research and record everything you could want to know about Jewish baking. She takes baking to a whole new level. So far I have made one challah recipe two times, and it was absolutely fantastic. She details all sorts of different types of challot based on regions. I plan to make one that would have originated from my grandparent's region back in Eastern Europe. Who knows if they would have made this challah, but it's fun to feel the connection. The recipe for bagels is not for the faint of heart! My only criticism, and it is slight, is I wish she had a couple of recipes for some of the other baked goods. She has one honey cake recipe, but I would like 2 or 3 to choose from. But I am so glad this book is in my collection. Even if you don't bake a thing, you will find it inspiring!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Learning about the world from this book in your kitchen
Comment: Other reviewers have written in glowing terms about the results of using the recipes in "A Blessing of Bread:...," and while I agree with their conclusions, I feel obliged to comment on another aspect of the book that impresses me. I am impressed--make that amazed, at how Ms. Glezer has traced so many of her recipes' histories back to their origins. Reading her book is almost like getting an insider's view of Jewish kitchens around the world. Another thoughtful part of the book is the list of sources for unusual or hard-to-find ingredients used in many of the recipes. Such a list might not be particularly useful to readers in New York or Los Angeles, but for me, a resident of greater metropolitan Boise, it is a must-have if I want to actually make some of the more esoteric offerings of this great book. All I can say is "Thanks, Maggie Glezer!"
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