Portuguese corn torte, brioche bread budding with roots in 11th-century England, and German Franzbrötchen with a caramelized cinnamon-sugar filling. Flipping through the pages of Laurel Kratochvila’s debut cookbook, “New European Baking,” pulls readers in and out of bakeries across the continent––just in time for home bakers to hibernate and heat up their winter kitchens with fresh breads and pastries. Her collection of 99 recipes for breads, brioches, and pastries touches on all corners of Europe, from the ubiquitous French croissant to unique cross-cultural combinations, like nutty baklava Danishes. But at the heart of it all, it’s hard not to notice dos pintele yid––the Jewish spark at the heart of it all. Although hers is not an explicitly Jewish cookbook, Kratochvila weaves the history and evolution of Jewish baking into the pages like strands of a challah. The book is a mixture of European baking classics, like sourdough and a mountain of sweet and savory pastries, alongside her own creations. There’s her buttery challah croissant, a flan with tahini lending it a smooth sesame halva taste, and the Persia-meets-shtetl bialy with roasted garlic and lemony labne. Combining her voice with the on-the-ground reality of 21st-century European baking, Kratochvila’s book sits firmly at the intersection of European and Jewish baking. ...

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