Cookbook Chronicles: Challah Cheesecake Buns

A straight-forward sweet recipe with lots of potential

Cookbook Chronicles is an on-going series at The Bookery. Over the course of the next year, we’re exploring Deb Perelman’s 2022 cookbook Smitten Kitchen Keepers, cooking one recipe a month and sharing our thoughts. 

It’s a new year, so, of course, we’re exploring a new cookbook. In 2024, we’re delving into Smitten Kitchen Keepers by Deb Perelman. You don’t have to hang out here at The Bookery long to discover we love Deb and often turn to her website (Smitten Kitchen) for kitchen inspirations. (I mean, her zucchini butter spaghetti was on repeat in my kitchen this summer!) Knowing all that, we’ve been excited to dive into this cookbook and find some new favorite recipes! 

The recipe: Challah Cheesecake Buns

The cookbook: Smitten Kitchen Keepers by Deb Perelman

The details: When I first got this cookbook, I spent a fair amount of time just paging through it, looking at the pictures and trying to figure out what I wanted to make first. Then, at some point, I decided it might be good to take a more structured approach to this year’s Cookbook Chronicles by making sure I moved methodically through each section. So, that means that I’ll do a recipe from each section and when I’ve done one from all of them, I’ll start over at the beginning! 

The first section of the cookbook is called “Breakfast Anytime,” which, if you know anything about me, could be the tagline for my life. Breakfast is pretty much my favorite meal. And I’m always looking for a great sweet roll recipe, so I could not wait to try out this one, which uses a challah bread base swirled with cream cheese and jam. 

The adjustments: Let me be the first to admit that I have issues following a recipe as is. Sometimes, it’s because I don’t have exactly the ingredients it calls for, but a lot of the time, it’s just because I want to try something else and possibly think I know better. 

This time, I made one adjustment—and it’s actually one Deb accounted for! The recipe calls for raspberry jam but says you can use whatever jam you’d prefer. I have this cherry almond jelly that my family is obsessed with. And when I say “my family,” I mostly mean me. I. Love. This. Stuff! We buy it at the Amish store in Branson, Missouri, and literally every time I’m there, I get another jar! 

In hindsight, it would have been better to use a jam as called for rather than a jelly, since jams include the actual fruit. 

The verdict: While the recipe involves a few steps (and letting bread dough rest and rise) it wasn’t hard, and the instructions in the cookbook are clear. But maybe it was the yeast or maybe because I was trying to get bread to rise during the coldest weather we’ve had in years in Nashville and my house was only about 65 degrees for that whole week of below-freezing temperatures, but my dough did not rise very well. I’d love to try this recipe again when the house is warmer to see what happens. 

Other than that, I think it would have been better to use a jam, as I previously stated. With the jelly, there just wasn’t enough fruit flavor. I liked that these rolls weren’t overly sweet and the poppy seeds were a nice, unexpected touch. I did, however, wish the dough had been a little more tender, but that could have more to do with me than the recipe! All in all, they were good, but I want to try them again to test out a jam and perfect my challah bread dough skills! 

Up next: Farro Salad with Roasted Tomatoes

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