I’m going to be baking homemade challah today. Bread is always an intimidating thing, but I make it from scratch, and if I can do it, you definitely can, too.
You need yeast, sugar, some lukewarm water, and some olive oil, five large eggs, salt, flour, fenugreek leaves and a little coriander. Dump that in, and we put about a cup and 3/4 of warm water, not too hot. Whisk it together, and give it 15 minutes to start bubbling. So once the yeasty concoction is bubbling, you start mixing in other wet ingredients. I like olive oil, because I love the taste. Then I dump the yeasty water in there, some salt, a bunch of sugar, four eggs. I can’t do it with one hand, but I do my best. I start putting some in and combining it. It’s just the arm workout of the century. Use your challah-covered fingers to open the bag, and add a bunch more.
Try to wipe off all the fingers that just become very swamp creature. Basically, all I’m doing is giving it a little fold and then a tuck. This is a very pleasant, meditative activity. And then I take a bowl, grease it up with my hands, put the dough inside. Put it near a warm area to help move it along. Punched it down, and then I gave it a second rising for another half an hour. So what I do, it’s actually a ritual, which is separating about an ounce of the challah. The idea is you’re just supposed to not consume it, so I burn it, keep it in the oven for a long time. And then the rest of it is for your family. I use all of my skills from elementary school, braiding my friends’ hair, doing our little braiding circles, and that’s still my strategy for my bread. I like to do a little egg wash to get it really shiny. Just brush on the challah, and that just gives it the glistening glow. And then I just play around with whatever toppings I have. Put some oil on it, and let this rest for about an hour, until they’re a little bit fluffier. And then I just pop them in the oven for 45 minutes, whatever it is, until they get golden brown. It’s really good.Ĭhallah is, as in many Jewish households, a staple of her family’s Shabbat dinner. She bakes three loaves almost every week - two for Friday night, and an extra for lunch on Saturday - sometimes freezing an extra ball of dough to use the following Friday. And while her children usually help (Ruth, 8, and Solomon, 6, are both within the ideal challah-decorating, dough-punching age bracket), it’s no small feat, particularly on top of running her namesake clothing line, Batsheva.
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