A sweet homecoming

(Photo credit: Copyright (c) Nico Schinco per Andrew Gibeley at W.W. Norton)

Leah Koenig’s modern takes on classic Jewish recipes have captured the hearts of home cooks around the world. 

As an author of seven cookbooks with a devoted social media following, Koenig has earned a reputation as one of the leading authorities on global Jewish cuisine. Her newest cookbook, The Dessert Table: 100 Joyful Jewish Sweets, bursts with her signature modern updates on traditional recipes. This broad survey of new and yet so-familiar desserts is also a deeply personal peek inside Koenig’s own kitchen and family traditions. 

Koenig, an Oak Park native, grew up at West Suburban Temple Har Zion in River Forest. She writes that her “primary motivation for going to synagogue on Saturday mornings had very little to do with religion, and nearly everything to do with the dessert table.” Kiddush sprinkle cookies may in fact have inspired Koenig’s career as a food writer.  

The Dessert Table nods at her childhood—recipes are family friendly; made with common ingredients, they evoke a collective American Jewish memory. Making dessert classics and exploring new favorites with Koenig feels like coming home. 

The Dessert Table is almost three books in one. In addition to creative recipes, it introduces historic communities as far-flung as Italy, Curaçao, Syria, and India. The stories are infused into the ingredients, bearing witness to the cross-fertilization of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi culinary traditions. Koenig’s travels through contemporary Jewish communities, especially New York, may have you making a list of delis and restaurants for your next trip.  

Third, headnotes dive into the origins of a recipe, or take us to the kitchens where Koenig learned what she’s about to share. Essays interspersed throughout the book tell the Jewish stories behind Bazooka Bubble Gum, commercial yeast, chocolate and sugar trades, and more. If your Ashkenazi grandmother served coconut macaroons from a round can at Passover, you may be surprised to learn of their pre-Inquisition Sephardic origins. And if social media has brought Israeli sufganiyot to your Chanukah celebration, their beginnings as Polish jelly doughnuts may be news. 

Admitting she wasn’t always a confident baker, Koenig writes recipes intended to empower and inspire any home cook. Mysterious techniques, like twisting a perfect babka, are simplified.  

Accompanied by luscious design and bright, vivid photographs, Koenig’s recipes invite you to bring centuries of history to your own kitchen table. Plus, nearly every recipe can be adapted for a dairy-free or vegan diet, and all can be made kosher. 

Koenig’s Honey Cake with Apple Butter Frosting is simple enough to turn into cupcakes or bake any day of the week. She also suggests freezing batches of Italian Anise Seed cookies or Lemon- Fig Scone cookies to have on hand as a hostess gift or a last-minute treat. Readers will find new versions of their family’s classic dessert, and maybe a new tradition as well—the delightfully pink Triple-Pomegranate cake, for example, will stand out in any Sukkot spread. 

The Dessert Table is more than another dessert cookbook. With Koenig as your guide, its invitation to savor traditions, sample new flavors, and enjoy the stories unite Jewish dessert tables across generations. Traveling the global Jewish world with Koenig, budding bakers want to make every meal an occasion for dessert. Her words are so inviting that you can sense her alongside you, laughing as you lick the spoon. 

Ilene S. Goldman cooks, gardens, and writes in Evanston.