On The Bread Trail: Jewish Baking Around the World
Venture on a captivating journey to uncover the deep historical, cultural, and spiritual connections embedded in a wide spectrum of Jewish breads.
In this sequel to On the Chocolate Trail, Rabbi Deborah Prinz explores the values that inform Jewish baking, the cherished seasonal and holiday breads that adorn our tables, and the everyday breads that accompany us throughout our lives.
On the Bread Trail feeds our souls with global recipes, historical insights, and delicious inspiration. From babka to berches, challah to lachuch, this book is a celebration of heritage, resilience, and the stories that emerge from Jewish kitchens around the world.
Breads are heroic foods, voyagers through time and space, from home to home, from generation to generation, victoriously returning to festive tables season after season. through their migrations and adaptations when you dig into these stories.
25 Bread Recipes From Jewish Communities Around The World
Doughs As Expansive & Mysterious as the Survival of the Jewish People
Explore Surprising & Diverse Treats for All Seasons
Feed Your Family & Friends from the Spirit & Creativity of Our Ancestors
Sequel to On The Chocolate Trail, the Book On The Bread Trail Started as The Chocolate Babka Project, a Search for the Best Chocolate Babka
Along the way I found that many cultures enjoy similar yeasty, celebratory treats with shared sources or ancestry, what I have started calling “cognate bread cakes.” These special occasion, often egg-rich loaves reflect a diversity that is at once distinct and also universal. In non-Jewish traditions they might include korovai, kulich, pandora, panettone, and more. In a Jewish setting, they extend beyond my family’s Ashkenazi (Central European)-centered menu to include Sabbath and holiday breads from Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.
I have prepared and dipped happily into Shabbat breads such as Moroccan khobz, Ethiopian dabo, along with Yemenite saluf and lachuch. It has been fun decorating an Ethiopian special occasion pan-bread called ambusha, a shlissel or key challah for the Sabbath following Passover, and an elaborate 7 heaven (Los Siete Cielos) challah of Salonica for Shavuot. Oh, the scent of fenugreek, coriander, orange zest, and other spices waft from my oven, the fluff of warm bread in my mouth. I had underestimated the comfort of that multi-sensory blanket enfolding me.
Praise
A book as substantial as it is delicious, and so soul affirming that you should say HaMotzi before reading it.
—David Sax, author of Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen
On the Bread Trail is a delicious recipe for Jewish cultural discovery: a generous measure of fascinating history, a cup of baking know-how, a helping of rabbinic wisdom, and a pinch of humor. Rabbi Debbie Prinz follows Jewish breads across centuries and continents—from Ethiopia and Yemen to North Africa, Europe, Israel, and America—to reveal how our loaves carry stories of migration, adaptation, ritual, hospitality, identity, and belonging. This is so much more than a cookbook; it is an invitation to break bread with generations of Jews who came before us and a reminder that im ein kemach—if there is no flour, there is no Torah.
—Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, author of Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging
Anyone curious about Jewish history and bread will devour this book. Rabbi Deborah Prinz brings together deep historical knowledge, compelling storytelling and reflection, and recipes that trace the remarkably diverse world of Jewish bread traditions. Spanning communities around the globe and drawing on countless Jewish texts, this book takes readers far beyond the familiar territory of challah, babka, and matzah.
—Shannon Sarna, author of Modern Jewish Baker and Modern Jewish Comfort Food
This book is a delicious dive into how Jews around the world have made meaning through bread and other treats. As Prinz reveals, Jews have expressed their identities and sustained their communities through baking and breaking bread.
—Rachel B. Gross, PhD, John & Marcia Goldman Chair in American Jewish Studies, San Francisco State University, and author of Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice
With extensive research and a clear love for the topic, Rabbi Deborah Prinz takes us on an exploration of the place bread holds in Jewish identity and memory. Even I got hungry and learned new things reading this book—and I own a bakery.
—Niki Russ Federman, fourth-generation owner, Russ & Daughters, and cookbook author
A delicious feast of a book that is guaranteed to nourish the body and soul. Rabbi Prinz provides the perfect blend of history, recipes, and spiritual insights, paying attention to the multiplicity of Jewish traditions across time and space. This book is for anyone who enjoys baking, eating, or just knowing more about Jewish culture.
—Laura Arnold Leibman, PhD, Leonard J. Milberg ’53 Professor in American Jewish Studies, Princeton University, and author of Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family
Rabbi Deborah Prinz speaks by zoom and in-person for scholar-in-residence weekends, adult learning programs, auxiliaries, fund raisers, donor programs, and food festivals
The next time you pick up a piece of chocolate or bread, consider that you are partaking in aspects of our Jewish heritage. Rabbi Deborah Prinz writes about the connections between people, chocolate, and Jewish celebratory breads.
Those interested in the connectedness among peoples will crave this unique approach. Delight your mind and your taste buds as this book unscrambles the mysteries of religions and chocolate along a trail of economic development spanning cultures, countries, centuries, continents, and convictions.
Rabbi Deborah Prinz is the author of On The Bread Trail, On The Chocolate Trail, and The Boston Chocolate Party.
On The Bread Trail Blog Posts
Jewish Bridal Breads, Instead of Cake*
Weddings this summer sure are different. Cocktail hour? Not likely. Dancing? Probably not. Friends and family? Perhaps a very few. With the pandemic limiting celebrations this year, perhaps it’s time to turn to the comforting traditions of Jewish bridal breads. Read...
Celebrate the First Shabbat After Passover with a Shlissel Challah
Hasidic communities mark the first Shabbat after Passover with a special challah as they transition back to the world of chametz. They shape the first post-Passover Shabbat challah into a key. The key, or shlissel as it is called in Yiddish, is meant to symbolize...
Atayef: Double Fried Filled Pancakes for Chanukah
Aka Ataïf, atayif, qata’if, qatayif, katayef, these pancakes may be filled with nuts or also prepared with cheese fillings for Chanukah or Shavuot. They are also popular at weddings spread with cream and rose petal jam or simply topped with pistachios or almonds. This...