Several months ago I came into temporary possession of a bunch of my great aunt's recipe cards. One of the recipes that was in the stack my cousin lent me is the one for challah that you see above. I was intrigued by it, especially since she had taken time to draw a diagram as to how you go about braiding the bread. However I didn't make it, instead tucking it away in the file folder that held the rest of my thesis research recipes.
Then I saw this post over on Two Fat Als, and the picture they posted of the gorgeous, burnished loaf of challah they had made recently and my heart started afluttering. I wanted to make challah. I've put this recipe down as one to try out this weekend, when I have a few minutes to spend kneading and hanging out as it rises. Challah is actually a great Saturday afternoon project because while it's wonderful fresh, it's even better dredged in an eggy batter and fried up into French Toast on Sunday mornings.
11-29-2007 @12:50PM Barkin said... If you understood the religious and cultural significance of challah, you would not have said "Challah is actually a great Saturday afternoon project because while it's wonderful fresh, it's even better dredged in an eggy batter and fried up into French Toast on Sunday mornings."
Challah -- a Hebrew word referring to leavened cake or bread -- is mentioned in the Bible a number of times (first time: Exodus 29:2).
Traditionally (and this holds even for Jews that aren't particularly traditional), challah is eaten on Friday night as part of the family meal that welcomes in the Sabbath. It is customary to have two challot (the plural of challah is challot, not challahs) on the Friday night table.
The very idea of baking your challah on Saturday is kind of silly because halakhically (according to Jewish law), you can't bake on Saturday, the Sabbath. While plenty of Jews aren't stringent about this particular requirement (and the many other laws governing the observance of Sabbath), challah has always been a "Friday night bread."
Also, the post you linked to on Two Fat Als is a crappy challah recipe. It calls for milk. Jewish dietary laws (kashrut) prohibit the consumption of dairy and meat at the same meal. Since Shabbat meals are often meat meals, classic challah is parve (made without dairy and without meat). Challah with milk in it is both gauche and goyische, not to mention inauthentic.
You're right about challah making good French toast, though.
(By the way... Shouldn't this post have a "Jewish food" tag?)
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11-29-2007 @1:27PM Andrea said... Right on, Barkin.
-But cool that Marisa wants to make it herself. If it turns out well she can impress Jewish friends on a Friday night. -But not during passover. :)
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11-29-2007 @1:25PM Marisa McClellan said... Hey folks--
I do actually know the cultural significance of challah, however, I was approaching it more as tasty recipe than a cultural marker. I'm sorry to have irritated anyone with my post, though. I'm Jewish by birth (although I was born into a totally secular families) so I have paid some attention to how things work. It's just that in this day and age most folks don't have the time to bake on Friday nights and so I didn't want to put the burden on them that this was a recipe that could only be used then.
And to address your point about the milk in the recipe, if you look at the recipe I posted, it doesn't contain any dairy.
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11-29-2007 @3:56PM LM said... Wow! So much great info about the significance of challah, but I can't imagine that Marisa's intent was to demean your religious attachment to challah or encourage any Jew to go against religious laws. Challah like so many tradtional foods is now sold in many stores and has become a part of non-religious fare for a lot of people. This post should in no way lessen your joy in serving challah on Friday nights. And lest we not forget the spirit of love and forgiveness. Yes, I am Jewish too.
In this enormous cultural swapmeet called America, I would like to thank Marisa for bringing this delicious bread to a broader audience.
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12-03-2007 @9:40PM Barkin said... I wasn't offended.
I'm just kind of attached to the idea of being as authentic to a food's cultural/ethnic roots when cooking (or in this case baking) it in my kitchen.
One of the cool thing about living in such a diverse food society is that so many foods make up the complex fabric that is the American diet. I'm pretty sure that's a good thing. At the same time, I worry that certain foods' cultural significance can be lost when it is absorbed into the weird amalgamated world we call "American food." (Exhibit A: the bagel.)
I get great joy out of the learning that happens when I try to be authentic to a foods' roots. I wouldn't want to deprive anyone of that joy when it comes to a food related to my particular ethnic background.
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