This week on our book blog Members of the Scribe, we’re hosting guest-blogger Stanley Ginsburg, author of Inside the Jewish Bakery. In his first post today, he’s asking a question that’s astounded and confounded us for years — what exactly does calling something a “Jewish bakery” mean?
I have to confess, I was stunned: no one had ever asked me that question, nor, indeed, had I ever asked it of myself. In my world, everyoneknows what a Jewish bakery is – a bakery that sells Jewish baked goods.
But here’s where it gets complicated. What exactly are “Jewish baked goods?” The ones that come first to mind – bagels, rugelach, onion rolls, challah – appear to be no-brainers, but in fact all can be traced back through their
Yiddish forebears to the gentile Central and Eastern European societies in which the Jews found themselves living at various times.
And while you’ve got Jewish bakeries on the brain (stomach), here are a few of our favorite recipes:
* Bagels
* Second-time Around Challah
* Jelly-filled Hanukkah cupcakes
Happy Hanukkah! Happy eating!
Hanukkah
Pronounced: KHAH-nuh-kah, also ha-new-KAH, an eight-day festival commemorating the Maccabees’ victory over the Greeks and subsequent rededication of the temple. Falls in the Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually corresponds with December.
