NEW KOSHER DAIRY FREE COOK BOOK

THE KOSHER BAKER
Over 160 Dairy-free Recipes from Traditional to Trendy

As anyone who has celebrated a Jewish Holiday will tell you, kosher desserts fall in two categories: dry and drier. Without access to butter, cream, milk, cheese, yogurt or other dairy, creating a luscious dessert has been a challenge. No longer. With the publication of THE KOSHER BAKER (September 7, 2010; Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England; $35.00/hardcover) author and baker Paula Shoyer is declaring a new era in pareve desserts, where people who keep Kosher now have access to the same fabulous desserts as everyone else.

THE KOSHER BAKER will become the veritable bible of kosher baking with more than 160 dairy-free desserts, including updated kosher classics (Cinnamon Apricot Pull-Apart Babka, Honey Cake with Pecan Swirls, Orange Poppy Seed Hamentaschen), parve versions of all-American favorites (Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Icing, Iced Lemon Pound Cake, and Fudgy Brownies) and treats you never thought could be made kosher (Crème Brûlée, anyone?). Your favorite cakes, pastries, cookies, plated desserts, and tarts and pies have all been made dairy-free. Shoyer has even converted recipes for the traditionally butter-laden French pastries including Madeleines, Profiteroles, and Tarte Tatin, as well as other desserts not usually found on a kosher table like Classic Cheese Cake, Key Lime Pie, Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake, and Rice Pudding.

Organized into “Quick and Elegant Desserts,” “Two-Step Desserts,” and “Multiple Step Desserts and Breads,” Shoyer’s book allows the busy home baker to choose a dessert based on both taste and time constraints. The first section presents the fundamentals of simple kosher baking, including more than forty-five desserts that can be mixed in one bowl and ready for the oven in less than fifteen minutes. Imagine quick and kosher everyday treats like Chewy Chocolate Velvet Cookies or Orange Tea Cake. The next two sections, for those with more time or who like to plan ahead, teach increasingly more challenging desserts, from Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Honey Cream Cheese Frosting to a Pear & Almond Tart. A special fourth section includes chapters on baking Challah and Passover desserts like Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Biscotti, Marble Chocolate Matzoh, and Flourless Chocolate Cake.

Not only for Jewish households, THE KOSHER BAKER is perfect for anyone baking for those with special dietary needs such as food allergies or diabetes. Included in this comprehensive collection are no-sugar-added, nut-free and gluten-free, as well as vegan desserts. Along with recipes, Paula Shoyer includes advice on storage, freezing, and thawing; must-have tools and ingredients; plus a plethora of tips and techniques.

Out just in time for the 2010 High Holidays, THE KOSHER BAKER is a book no Jewish (or dairy-free) household should be without.

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About the Author:

Paula Shoyer is the owner of Paula’s Parisian Pastries Cooking School in the Washington, D.C. area. Paula has been perfecting her recipes for the last 15 years, after a job transfer relocated her family to Switzerland. There, instead of encountering the equivalent to sugar-covered cardboard she had been eating all her life, she found heavenly pastry shops on every corner and kosher caterers baking delicious pareve desserts. After Geneva, she enrolled in cooking school in France and she learned to bake all the traditional buttery French desserts but could eat none of them after a meat meal. So she set out to slowly and scientifically convert every recipe into a kosher, pareve dessert. She received her pastry diploma from the Ritz Escoffier Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise in Paris in 1996. Paula now teaches classes in French pastry and Jewish cooking both locally and around the country. She is the editor of the popular Susie Fishbein cookbooks Kosher by Design Entertains and
Kosher by Design Kids in the Kitchen. The Kosher Baker is her first cookbook.