arts & life

books

True
Love

Uri Scheft, the Danish-Israeli owner of
Breads Bakery in NYC, shares the love
with a new cookbook.

Sandee Brawarsky | Special to the Jewish News

Con Poulos | Photographer

S

Uri Scheft

48 December 1 • 2016

tart with challah,” Uri
Scheft suggests to a
rookie baker.
Scheft is the creative force
and co-owner of the much-
beloved Breads Bakery in New
York City, owner of Tel Aviv’s
Lehamim Bakery — and now
the author of Breaking Breads:
A New World of Israeli Baking
(Artisan Books). Just published,
the cookbook instructs home
bakers in making the delicacies
served in his bakeries.
In fact, the first recipe in the
book is for challah, the basic
version before Black Tie Challah
(a thin braid over the top is cov-
ered in nigella or black sesame
seeds), Chocolate and Orange
Confit Challah and Challah
Falafel Rolls.
Beyond the challah varia-
tions, there are recipes for
focaccia, kubaneh (a rich
Yemenite bread that’s a cross
between a brioche and a
flatbread), Jerusalem bagels,
burekas, buns, mutabak (means
“folded” in Arabic — a thin,
crisp stuffed pastry), sweets like
tahini cookies and apple stru-
del, Breads’ famous chocolate
babka, savory hamantashen
with beets and hazelnuts, arak

Sufganiyot

and sesame sticks, and, to go
along with the bread, tahina,
labne and distinctive spreads.
I met Scheft, who lives
mostly in Israel, in the origi-
nal Union Square location
of Breads, which opened in
2014. A cafe and bakery, the
place attracts shoppers from
the nearby Greenmarket and
others in search of handmade
bread and pastries, and, par-
ticularly on the weekends, many
Israelis. The decor is modern,
Scandinavian, heimish; the
aroma is heavenly.
Scheft is soft-spoken and
thoughtful. He finds that his

daily practice of yoga, along
with a lot of meditation,
improves the quality of his life.
When he shows his hands, they
look sturdy.
He was born in Israel in 1972
to Danish parents who had
made aliyah 11 years earlier. He
remembers their home being
deliciously fragrant every Friday
when his mother would make
challah with the kindergarten
students who met in their
house. From early on, he was
drawn to the kitchen.
“Bread and home are just
very strong for me,” he says.
When he was 10, the fam-