Joan Nathan's knowledge, enthusiasm, and experience have made her prize-winning books on Jewish cooking a staple in every Jewish kitchen. Now, drawing upon the recipes, stories, and secrets of a baker's dozen of bakers from around the world, she captures the art of Jewish baking. Here are fifty original recipes for the traditional baked goods associated with the major holidays -- challah for Shabbat, hamantashen for Purim, macaroons and matzah for Passover, jelly doughnuts for Chanukah -- as well as delicious and exotic alternatives from around the world: Yemenite kubbanah, Turkish boyos, German schnecken, Russian babka, Hungarian strudel, Parisian pletzel, Mexican banana cake, Syrian ka'ak. But why wait for the holidays? Along with challah, bialys, and bagels, you will want to bake and enjoy all of these cakes and breads with your family and friends throughout the year. The bakers who have perfected these recipes represent the breadth of Jewish history and geography: they come from America, Israel, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Syria, and Egypt. Their personal stories offer a fascinating window into the Jewish experience of this century. With step-by-step instructions on kneading, rising, braiding, rolling, and folding dough, as well as tips on how to make baking a rewarding and even relaxing part of the busiest lifestyle, The Jewish Holiday Baker will turn any novice into a baker, and give any expert a command of the sweetness and craft of Jewish baking. s knowledge, enthusiasm, and experience have made her prize-winning books on Jewish cooking a staple in every Jewish kitchen. Now, drawing upon the recipes, stories, and secrets of a baker's dozen of bakers from around the world, she captures the art of Jewish baking. Here are fifty original recipes for the traditional baked goods associated with the major holidays -- challah for Shabbat, hamantashen for Purim, macaroons and matzah for Passover, jelly doughnuts for Chanukah -- as well as delicious and exotic alternatives from around the world: Yemenite kubbanah, Turkish boyos, German schnecken, Russian babka, Hungarian strudel, Parisian pletzel, Mexican banana cake, Syrian ka'ak. But why wait for the holidays? Along with challah, bialys, and bagels, you will want to bake and enjoy all of these cakes and breads with your family and friends throughout the year. The bakers who have perfected these recipes represent the breadth of Jewish history and geography: they come from Am Joan Nathan's books include The Jewish Holiday Kitchen , The Children's Jewish Holiday Kitchen, and Jewish Cooking in America, which won the IACP Julia Child Award for Best Cookbook of the Year in 1995 and the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook. She contributes articles on international ethnic food and special holiday features to the New York Times , the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Hadassah Magazine, Food and Wine, and Food Arts. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Allan Gerson, and their three children. "You are to take flour and are to bake it (into) twelve loaves, two tenth-measures shall be the one loaf" (Leviticus 24:5). God instructed Moses to place these round loaves -- two rows of six challot each -- on a table before Him in the tent of meeting: "Sabbath day (by) Sabbath day he is to arrange it before the presence of God, regularly, from the Children of Israel as a covenant for the ages" (Leviticus 24:8). After the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 c.e., the home table became a metaphor for God's table; it was likened to the altar in the Temple. And the Sabbath bread became a sacred offering from every family. By the eighteenth century, when twisted breads had come into vogue in Central and Eastern Europe, the twelve round loaves of bread in Leviticus became two loaves with at least six humps from the braids in each. Some bakers still carefully braid the challah dough so that six humps will show in each of the two traditional loaves used on the Sabbath. There are several explanations for the two loaves. One is that they represent the double portion of manna that the Lord provided on the sixth day in the wilderness during the forty years of wandering, so there would be enough for the Sabbath and the Israelites would not need to collect it on the day of rest (Exodus 16:22-23). Another is that the two loaves represent two different versions of the Fourth Commandment. In Exodus 20:8, the words are to "remember the Sabbath day, to hallow it." In Deuteronomy 5:15, in the repetition of the Ten Commandments, the Jews are reminded that they were slaves in Egypt, but that "God took you out from there with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore your God commands you to observe the day of Sabbath." The Sabbath bread closest to that of the ancient Israelites is baked by Iraqi and many Sephardic Jews. It is a flat bread, more like pita, sometimes in a larger size tha