Light Jewish Holiday Desserts [Hardcover]

Jewish cooking is tied to dishes reflecting where families came from and to ingredients with symbolic meanings. For Penny Wantuck Eisenberg, these links are more essential than specific recipes. It is the significance of honey on Rosh Hashanah that matters, not whether the cake is studded with nuts or made using applesauce in place of oil to cut down on fat. From this viewpoint, in Light Jewish Desserts, Eisenberg offers alluring desserts for every conceivable occasion, from the High Holidays to Tu b'Shevat, a minor holiday celebrating trees and their fruits, and for weekly Shabbat dinner.

There are recipes for less common treats, like Tayglach, crunchy dough balls bound together with gingery honey syrup, and Bimuelos, the yeasted doughnuts fried in oil enjoyed by Jews of Spanish heritage at Hanukkah. There are also very American sweets, from Maple Baked Apples to flaming Bananas Foster, the New Orleans creation symbolically suited to Hanukkah. If you think low-fat desserts are unexciting, the quality of Eisenberg's Chocolate Baklava; buttery Hamantashen, triangles filled with sweet poppy seeds or thick prune purée; and her spectacularly showy, creamy Lemon Charlotte will dispel all doubts. In fact, serve anyone the wonderful Rum Raisin Cheesecake Squares, Sherry-Soaked Mixed Fruit Trifle, and nutty, raspberry-filled Chocolate Sandwich Cookies and be prepared to hand out the recipes.

Hesitant bakers will appreciate the careful guidance Eisbenberg provides for choosing and using ingredients. Kosher cooks will find the recommendations for certified ingredients most helpful. --Dana Jacobi

Written in a no-nonsense style, this baking book will expand the range of holiday treats without drastically expanding their waistlines. Caterer and cooking instructor Eiesenberg cuts much of the fat out of traditional recipes, replacing portions of the butter with lower-fat substitutions such as canola oil, nonfat sour cream and pureed fruits. Babka, for example, contains just three grams of fat rather than the usual 18. And Apple Latkes require less oil than usual. But Eisenberg has her priorities straightAflavor comes first. Aside from offering healthier variations, she also presents some unexpected variations. She enriches her repertoire with dozens of tempting ideas from Eastern European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern traditions. The recipes follow the calendar, from the High Holy Days to the Sabbath observed each week, providing a concise overview of each holiday's significance and the food associated with its celebration. For Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there's traditional Honey Cake and an Apple Mousse concoction. For Sukkot a refreshing Lemon Mousse Charlotte can grace the table, as well as a Deep Dish Pear Cherry Gratin topped with crunchy buttered bread crumbs. For Passover there's Fresh Strawberry Torte. Cookie recipes include chocolate spiral Rugelach with only one-third of the fat of unmodified recipes, as well as Sephardic Half Moon Cookies and date-filled Middle Eastern Filled Crescents. (Sept.)
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