Dis­cov­er the vast and var­ied Pol­ish bak­ing tra­di­tion, old and new, Jew­ish and dias­poric, in this author­i­ta­tive col­lec­tion of 120+ recipes from James Beard Award final­ist Lau­rel Kratochvila.

Poland’s dis­tinc­tive bak­ing cul­ture is a prod­uct of its rich and com­pli­cat­ed his­to­ry, from the World Wars to the rise of Com­mu­nism to the cul­tur­al exchange that inevitably hap­pens to a coun­try with sev­en neigh­bors and end­less migra­tion. Step into the Pol­ish piekar­nia (bak­ery) and be greet­ed by an abun­dance of tiny cook­ies and rugelach, dec­o­ra­tive lay­er cakes and cheese­cakes, sweet yeast buns and dan­ish­es, and hearty rye breads and sour­dough loaves.

In this reper­toire-expand­ing bak­ing book, Amer­i­can-born, Berlin-based bak­er and 2023 James Beard Award final­ist Lau­rel Kra­tochvi­la brings you more than 120 famil­iar and inven­tive trea­sures – inno­v­a­tive recipes of her own and from pio­neer­ing Pol­ish bak­ers, including:

• Horse­rad­ish, Beet, and Sum­mer Greens Bialys
• Sun­flower Rye Loaf
• Plum But­ter Car­ni­val Donuts
• Rano Piekar­ni­a’s Sum­mer Bil­ber­ry Buns
• Choco­late and Whipped Cream War­saw Cake
• Karpat­ka (Cream and Choux Cake)
• Soft Iced Toruń Gingerbread
• Rose and Almond Jew­el Rugelach
• Twist­ed Krakow Bagels
• Sauer­kraut and Mush­room Rolls
• And much more.

Vivid sto­ry­telling and fas­ci­nat­ing his­tor­i­cal details illu­mi­nate each recipe’s sig­nif­i­cance:
If you want to start a fight with a French per­son, tell them that baba au rhum is Pol­ish. In the eigh­teenth cen­tu­ry, while exiled in France, Pol­ish King Stanis­law I sent a dry bab­ka back to the kitchen, spurring his pas­try chef to soak it in sweet­ened alco­hol to every­one’s delight – and thus, the emblem­at­ic French dessert was born in a Pol­ish court.

Beau­ti­ful pho­tog­ra­phy makes it feel as if you’re right there beside Lau­rel, step­ping into a warm bak­ery on a cold win­ter’s day, pick­ing bas­kets of wild bil­ber­ries in July, and bit­ing into a soft yeast­ed bun, jam­my straw­ber­ries ooz­ing down your chin. Cheese­cakes, wafer cook­ies, gin­ger­bread, coun­try loaves: These recipes aren’t just for those curi­ous about the new wave of Pol­ish bak­eries or nos­tal­gic for the old-world treats or Jew­ish delights of their child­hood – they’re for any home bak­er look­ing to fill their cook­ie jars and bread box­es with inspiration.

EXPERT AUTHOR + RELI­ABLE RECIPES: Laud­ed pro­fes­sion­al bak­er Lau­rel Kra­tochvi­la is the own­er of Fine Bagels bak­ery and café in Berlin and author of the award-nom­i­nat­ed cook­book New Euro­pean Bak­ing. Her thor­ough­ly test­ed, reli­able recipes range from easy to advanced and include clear instruc­tions and step-by-step direc­tions for mak­ing and shap­ing var­i­ous base doughs.

SUR­VEY OF POL­ISH BAK­ING: Dobre Dobre​’s curat­ed selec­tion of more than 120 recipes encap­su­lates the wide range and diver­si­ty of Poland’s excit­ing bak­ing cul­ture. Dis­cov­er con­tem­po­rary spins on the clas­sics, tra­di­tion­al hol­i­day treats, desserts from the dias­po­ra, recipes with Jew­ish roots, includ­ing bagels, bialys, and chal­lah, and much more. No one book can cap­ture a coun­try’s entire bak­ing cat­a­log, but Dobre Dobre comes close.

UPLIFTS PIO­NEER­ING BAK­ERS: In addi­tion to Kra­tochvi­la’s work, the book spot­lights ten stars on the Pol­ish bak­ing scene and in the dias­po­ra by fea­tur­ing their recipes.

BEAU­TI­FUL TRAV­EL­OGUE: Vis­it Poland via these stun­ning pho­tographs and delec­table recipes, per­fect for arm­chair trav­el­ers and her­itage seekers.

Per­fect for:

• Home bak­ers of all levels
• Bak­ers of Jew­ish or East­ern Euro­pean heritage
• Those curi­ous about the ongo­ing bak­ery renais­sance in East­ern, Cen­tral, and North­ern Europe
• Cook­book collectors
• Buy­ers of books like Moon­cakes and Milk Bread by Kristi­na Cho, New World Bak­ing by Bryan Ford, Scan­di­na­vian from Scratch by Nic­hole Accet­to­la, Mamush­ka by Olia Her­cules, and The Nordic Bak­ing Book by Mag­nus Nilsson