The World Of Jewish Desserts : More Than 400 Delectable Recipes from Jewish Communities

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Summary: if u think Jewish desserts stopped at honey cake, read this
Review: Gil Marks, a rabbi, historian, linguistic detective and the author of three other books on kosher cooking and entertaining, provides a taste of not only the dishes, but the history of the Jewish communities that developed and transformed the dishes. And I don't mean an insert here and there, I am talking a page for each essay. For example, the story of German Jewish cooking, or Salonika Greek Jewry. I guarantee that you'll never look at a latka the same way after reading his latest book. The book opens with a treatise on cooking and baking. Did you ever wonder why fat is added to Jewish desserts (butters, oils, etc)? Is it any wonder that the person who introduced dry yeast (the kind that can be activated in your home by adding water) was a Hungarian Jew named Fleischmann? It's in the book. The chapters headings follow this format: Yeast Cakes and Pastries; Cakes; Cookies; Filled Cookies; Strudels and Phyllo; Fried Pastries; Pan Cakes; Baked Puddings and Kugels; Stovetop Puddings; Fruit based Desserts; Confections; and a whole chapter for Passover Pesach desserts/ For each recipe, Marks adds a tidbit of history or Semitic semantics. For example, for the Kuchen Buchen recipe, Marks discusses Yiddish rhyming, or for the recipe for Makosh Poppy Seed Rolls, he writes about how the German Mohn (poppy) filled cakes evolved into the Polish Makowiec rolls and German Makosh. Add some Hungarian cocoa, and you turn Makosh into Kakosh. Recipes are included for Debla; Lokmas; Loukoumades (in time for Hanukkah); Bombay Malpuah Banana Fritters; stuffed dates; blintzes; latkas of all sorts; marzipan, the Indian Jewish rice pudding called Kheer; Seffa; Brot Kugel; an Indian Carrot Halvah Pudding; an Alsatian Apple Charlotte (ApfelSchalet); a grandmother load that Seinfeld would know as a Babka; Schnecken; Haman-taschen; prune lekvar; Sephardic style Parmak, Moroccan Jewish Fakasch; Persian Klaitcha; Apfelkaka (don't you just love that name?); Iraqi Jewish Rayka Tamir; Lakach honey cake; Lepeny; strudels; Rugelach with a variety of fillings; Kadayif; Kindli; Kranszli; Farfel bars (not just for soup, you know); Biscotti (did you know that means twice baked?); Basboosah (a dessert, not a type of bus); Dobostorte 7 layer cake; and even a Gebleterter Kugel (a type of fluden).

Rating:
Summary: An appealing, involving cookbook
Review: The World of Jewish Desserts provides recipes with a fine background by gourmet cook Rabbi Marks, who gathers Jewish recipes from Jewish communities around the world. The international focus of the Jewish dessert recipes makes for an appealing, involving cookbook which provides a very surprising variety of Jewish dessert choices. No photos, but the amount of research and depth to this title makes them less necessary.