Nosh on This: Gluten-Free Baking from a Jewish-American Kitchen

Lisa Stander-Horel and Tim Horel's "Nosh on This" (an update of last year's self-published "Gluten Free Canteen's Book of Nosh: Baking for Jewish Holidays & More") is a veritable treasure trove of delicious Jewish-American baked goods like mandelbrot, hamantashen, rugelach, babka, and macaroons rounded out with cupcakes (pumpkin with honey buttercream, dark chocolate cinnamon, cherry chocolate, coconut), donuts, fluffy layer cakes, Danish, éclairs, and Austrian-inspired gems like Sachertorte and Linzer torte. You'll also find several variations of challah and baked savories like kugels, hand pies, latkes, and quiche, as well as homemade confections (peanut butter cups, marshmallows, truffles, and the sinfully delicious coconut matzo rocky road). In addition to being gluten-free, many recipes are dairy-free as well, very handy for those keeping kosher as well as those who are allergic to dairy as well as gluten.I had eagerly awaited this book as soon as I heard it was coming out; in preparation for marathon baking, I stocked up on white and brown rice flour and tapioca starch. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate any local stores selling the recommended Authentic Foods superfine white and brown rice flours and it would have cost me close to $40 to order them online, so I ended up using Bob's Red Mill GF flours. Unlike some GF cookbooks, "Nosh on This" does not use any premixed all-purpose mixes containing starches or stabilizers; the base Nosh flour recipe consists of brown and white rice flours and tapioca starch in a 2-1-1 ratio (given by weight and also volume). Most of the Nosh recipes are (xanthan/guar) gum-free as well; several (particularly the bread recipes) call for Expandex Modified Tapioca Starch to help create the "nice bendy tear" in traditional breads. Many recipes also layer flavor by combining various extracts (vanilla, orange, almond, lemon). In Lisa's words, "Baking gluten-free doesn't have to be taste-free or texture-challenged and whenever possible, use chocolate."I loved the foreword by Arthur Schwartz (his  Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited  is a staple in my kitchen) and reading about Lisa's family ("Oy gevalt - you're so skinny. Nosh something. No one ever died eating two desserts. Nosh on this!") and the vintage family photos sprinkled throughout. Each chapter kicks off with handy tips and tricks, and each recipe has a chatty intro that's like sitting down with a cup of coffee and a good friend. There's a great Jewish holiday baking chart that lists all the recipes alphabetically along with which Jewish holidays they are suited for. The font is easy to read, and I liked that recipe substitutions were printed in a lighter font (although it was a tad hard for me to read as it was light grey; light blue or a different color might have been easier to read from a cookbook holder). Instructions are clear, and there are gorgeous color photos for each recipe.So far I've tried three recipes (Mom's double chocolate gelt, marzipany gooey brownies, and chocolate chunk cherry brownies) and have many more bookmarked (flourless chocolate orange cookies, I'm looking at YOU). I love to bake, but am fairly new to gluten-free baking, so I stuck to familiar territory (baked goods rather than breads; the bread recipes are more complicated than traditional yeast breads as the dough is more fragile and requires careful handling). I'm a chocoholic, and LOVED the double chocolate gelt (next time, I would consider forming the dough into a log, chilling it, rolling it in coarse sugar and slicing it vs. making individual rounds). The brownies were fabulous, especially the marzipan brownies. My only prior experience with GF brownies was from a box mix, and I found it sadly lacking. But these are infused with almondy goodness with the added bonus of mini chocolate chips studded throughout the batter. The macaroons (unlike the recent  The Macaroon Bible  I reviewed as part of Amazon Vine) are conveniently dairy-free (and thus healthier and lighter than using sweetened condensed milk as a binder). One of these days I will work up the nerve to attempt the chocolate babka (the recipe calls for 28 ingredients and spans two pages)!This is one of those rare cookbooks where I actually want to make EVERYTHING (usually I count myself lucky if I tag a handful of recipes out of any given cookbook). You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this cookbook; this should be in every baker's kitchen (especially if you are new to a gluten-free diet; this is SO much better than premade GF frozen baked goods or GF boxed mixes!) "Nosh on This" is perfect for those new to (gluten-free) baking; there are plenty of tips, a "411" on frequently-used ingredients, a handy locator list for equipment, ingredients and information, celiac and Jewish baking resources, and the aforementioned Jewish holiday baking chart. This is a blessing for those who are celiac or gluten-intolerant (I count myself in the latter category), or even if you're an experienced (non-GF) baker looking for a challenge and some new, delicious recipes to add to your baking repertoire (I'm eager to try the apple upside-down cake with honey pomegranate syrup for fall). Thank you Lisa Stander-Horel and Tim Horel (and their blog Gluten-Free Canteen) for making the delicious Jewish-American treats of our childhoods accessible once again!

I have only used one recipe, but it is wonderful= gluten free challah, with poulish. I have tweeked it a bit. adding a 30 minute rest after beating with dough hook. Then adding the water and giving it a minute or so on high before pouring it into the royal challah silicon mold. (see my review of it for hints.)The first time I took it to Shabbat for my many gluten free friends, they were amazed and delighted.BUT I really am dismayed by the light colored fine print the ingredients and amounts are printed in. WHY would anybody format a COOKBOOK so that a magnifying glass has to be used to read them?????????? Otherwise I would have given it 5 stars. But sadly it isn't the only one. I just got another great cook book with the same fatel flaw. Just appaling!

This has been my favorite cookbook for these past eight years. I wish it had been a more popular publication when it was new, and I would LOVE to have more of the author's recipes. Every recipe turns out perfectly for me every time, and all my friends & family prefer this food to their gluten-filled options for desserts and holidays - I never have leftovers. Also: BEST pound cake recipe ever!! To the authors: Thanks for publishing; this cookbook has been such a blessing to me and I'm thankful to have it.

A big part of my Jewish identity is in the kitchen. I look forward to each holiday, and the special foods we enjoy with each season. When I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I was devastated. My first thought was "You mean I have to spend the rest of my life without bagels and challah?" I didn't know how I would make it through my Jewish year without honey cake, blintzes, rugelach, sufganiyot, cheesecake and all kinds of Passover sweets.This book was very helpful in getting me through my first gluten-free Hanukkah. So far, I've made the Big Fat Baked Sufganiyot, the Rugelach and the quick challah. I won't lie. They don't taste quite as good as their counterparts made of wheat, but they don't make me sick either. As you probably know, substituting gluten-free "flour" for wheat flour in recipes just doesn't work, so I am grateful that this book has recipes for gluten-free versions of my hamantaschen, mandelbrot, honey cake, chocolate babka, kugel, latkes, and many recipes for challah.This book was marketed as a Jewish gluten-free cookbook, but it is also full of random recipes for all kinds of cakes, cookies, pies and pastries that I didn't need. I find it irritating that the authors took the time to include recipes for Puppy Pumpkin Crackers and Pastry Cream-Filled Eclairs, but neglected to print even one recipe for that quintessential dish of Jewish cooking: matzoh ball soup. For this oversight, the book loses one full star!I would have liked to see fewer recipes for pies and cupcakes and more savory gluten-free Jewish recipes such as Cholent, Bagels, Blintzes, gefilte fish, knishes, kreplach, bourekas, mock couscous, and felafel on gluten-free pita. I would have also liked more utilization of flours higher in protein and dietary fiber like quinoa, chickpea, almond meal, sorghum, and coconut flours.The recipes were printed a bit oddly. This cookbook will give the name of the ingredient, and THEN how much to add, first in weight, and then in volume, for example, "Unsweetened chocolate: 150 grams, 5 ounces or 1 1/4 cups" instead of "1 1/4 cups unsweetened chocolate." While the syntax of this book may be more logical, it takes a bit of getting used to. Some of the recipes were very long, but otherwise, easy to follow.This book asks you to make a large quantity of their custom-blend gluten-free flour. This is a plus and a minus. While it does mean finding an extra-large container to store it in, it also standardizes the quality of the recipes, as every brand of store-bought gluten-free flour mix is a little different, and not all brands are available across the country. For the same reason, this book loses an entire star for relying on items which are extremely difficult to find. For example, many of the recipes require Expandex brand modified tapioca starch, which I can't find at my local grocery store, Whole Foods Market or even on Amazon.com! I believe this product has been discontinued, as it is only available from a few online retailers where it costs $26 per five found bag plus $17 shipping. I hope Ms. Stander-Horel learns her lesson about relying too heavily on name-brand products, and fixes her recipes in future editions of this book if those brands go out of business.

Well written exquisite and inspirational book.

If you are a coelliac or gluten intolerant then this book is excellent but what a lot of ingredients for each recipe

Lovely book and so looking forward to trying out some of the recipes. It will be a great help when entertaining my friends who can't eat gluten