{"id":12652,"date":"2015-05-22T00:08:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T07:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=12652"},"modified":"2015-05-21T12:10:33","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T19:10:33","slug":"baking-from-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/05\/22\/baking-from-the-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Baking from the soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marat Dreyshner in action. (photos from Ella Dreyshner)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I can tell it\u2019s going to be delicious even before I\u2019ve taken a bite. I\u2019m sitting in the Richmond home of Marat and Ella Dreyshner, owners of iKosherbake. I\u2019m holding a slice of their chocolate chip banana bread. This golden cake is dense and moist; the semi-sweet chocolate is the perfect complement to the fruity sweetness of the bananas.<\/p>\n

It all started with bagels. \u201cWe love bread in this house,\u201d said Ella. It\u2019s hard to find a good, kosher bagel, but iKosherbake has crafted its own variety. \u201cIt all comes down to time,\u201d said Marat. \u201cHow long you boil the dough…. It\u2019s a science!\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last year, iKosherbake has gone from making bagels to cakes, to granola and catering birthday parties and personalized cakes.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Ella Dreyshner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s not always easy for a husband and wife to share a kitchen, but the Dreyshners have found their groove. Marat\u2019s specialty is their line of savory products, while Ella leads with desserts. While Marat has trained professionally, Ella\u2019s talents have flourished at home.<\/p>\n

Marat explained, \u201cShe\u2019s gotten to a level that would make a professional chef happy to work with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to find a kosher fondant, so Ella makes her own \u2013 \u201cI like to paint on the actual fondant.\u201d She has even molded a unicorn by hand. Her other specialties include kosher ice cream sandwiches: chocolate chip cookies filled with pineapple ice cream.<\/p>\n

Their granola tells a story of its own. While working with students at Vancouver Talmud Torah, they were challenged to create a dish that included the seven flavors of Israel. The result was a granola bar containing ingredients like honey, olive oil, pomegranate juice and raisins. It was such a hit that they took the recipe home and developed a bagged granola.<\/p>\n

The Dreyshners describe the flavor as \u201cthe perfect ratio of sweet and salty,\u201d which is borne out when I opened the package at home. Slightly tangy, with a smoky hint of cocoa, the texture is a satisfying blend of chewy fruit and crunchy seeds. And that salty tang really does make the taste buds tingle!<\/p>\n

Now that their product line is growing, the Dreyshners are serving the North Shore market, as well. Queensdale Market and City Market on Lonsdale have both snapped up bagels from iKosherbake.<\/p>\n

Organic markets are a good fit. iKosherbake uses no additives or preservatives in their cooking and, whenever possible, they purchase ingredients from local, organic growers.<\/p>\n

For the Dreyshners, kosher cooking isn\u2019t just about finding ingredients with the right labels. The process of making food is a spiritual experience.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
A unicorn custom cake. iKosherbake also makes varieties of bagels, now carried at Queensdale Market and City Market on the North Shore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cCooking is an art form that wakens your soul. It\u2019s more than just filling your stomach \u2013 it\u2019s digested on a spiritual level, as well,\u201d Marat suggested. He added, \u201cThere\u2019s a pleasure in the Torah aspect of the food, but also in the traditional aspect, as well \u2013 when you have the opportunity and the good luck to share with friends, family and community, the food becomes something real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ella agreed. For her, kosher baking \u201csymbolizes peace and unity,\u201d by following a strict, methodical process with every recipe. Separating eggs, checking flour, keeping the wet and dry ingredients apart until the right moment: \u201cThese steps create a sense of calm and unity, when you finally combine all of these things together.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a sneak peek into the Dreyshners\u2019 kitchen, you can watch Marat at work on YouTube with Rabbi Yisrael Shurack in their series of witty videos. In The Rabbi and the Chef<\/em>, Marat talks about how the food is made, and the rabbi picks up on the symbolic, spiritual significance of dishes. These are lessons in Judaism served at high speed with delicious menus and a side dish of kooky humor.<\/p>\n

Shula Klinger<\/strong> is an author, illustrator and journalist living in North Vancouver.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marat Dreyshner in action. (photos from Ella Dreyshner) I can tell it\u2019s going to be delicious even before I\u2019ve taken a bite. I\u2019m sitting in the Richmond home of Marat and Ella Dreyshner, owners of iKosherbake. I\u2019m holding a slice of their chocolate chip banana bread. This golden cake is dense and moist; the semi-sweet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3797,3798,3799],"class_list":["post-12652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-baking","tag-dreyshner","tag-ikosherbake"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}