Challah for Shabbat

April 3, 2020

Tonight, as the sun sets, Jews all over the world will gather around their tables and break bread, challah, for Shabbat. Those at the table will likely be limited exclusively to immediate members of their family, rather than extended members who routinely celebrate together each Friday. Watching from afar, I see that my home city of Montreal has become the epicentre for Canada’s COVID-19 outbreak. Côte Saint-Luc, a densely populated Jewish neighbourhood with a large proportion of Holocaust survivors, has been particularly hard hit, with rates of infection rising steadily each day. As a result, all parks, swimming pools, grocery stores, mikvahs, and synagogues have been closed. Gathering is strictly prohibited in both public and private settings. Those found to be contravening these rules will face strict fines. Anxiety and tension are building within and beyond my community. Anti-Semitism and various kinds of Othering are intensifying. Since my life’s work has been devoted to fostering human connection and countering such trends, my deep wish is that the light and peace of the Sabbath may grow within and beyond us tonight and all through the weeks and months ahead.

I first baked this challah in my 20s, taking the recipe from The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas (1972), where it was subtitled “Jewish Egg Bread.” After Peter and I married, and quickly found ourselves with three beautiful sons, I wanted to have more “Jewish” in our lives. I grew up with a big hole where my Jewish heritage should have been and I wanted our children to have something more than what I had experienced. In addition to going to synagogue, celebrating Shabbat was a big part of what Jewishness came to mean for me and my family. I decided to make this bread every week for our Friday night meal. Something special. I adapted the recipe, substituting olive oil for butter in order to make the bread kosher for eating with any meal, including those containing meat. I also added honey, because a respected and plain-speaking elder criticized me for its lack of a touch of sweetness! This challah, thickly coated with poppy seeds, graced our table every Shabbat all through the years of our family’s life together. And then, as our three boys grew and flew, they started writing home for the recipe. Now they make their own.

For me, challah is a choreography of the nourishment and entanglement that are both gifts of my heritage, of any heritage, symbolized in the five or six strands woven in the complex, gorgeous loaves my far-flung family now creates. Last Shabbat we gathered family together digitally, to say blessings over candles, wine, and bread. This was a first, spurred on by this difficult moment in time. Joining Peter and I here in San Antonio, Texas, were my two sisters and our grown children in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Connecticut, Guatemala, and Detroit. My now-grown-up niece proudly showed off the challah she had baked, something I began to teach her when she was just four years old. The Detroiters were also proud to display their loaf. San Francisco had not had a chance to make their own challah but they substituted a very cute drawing of one. As two small grandchildren looked on, witnessing the proceedings from different cities, I felt the bubbling and giggling, the pleasure in each other’s company and in the Sabbath, a beautiful stream flowing out from the moment. Who knows what new growth will be nourished thereby?!

Ingredients

One package or one tablespoon active dry yeast
¼ cup honey
1 ¼ cups warm water
4 ½ cups (roughly) white flour
2 tsp Herbamare salt (plain salt is fine too)
2 eggs
2 tbsp olive oil
1 egg for glaze
Poppy seeds

Directions

Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup of the water and 2 tsp of the honey. Let stand until it froths, about 10 minutes.

Stir 4 cups of the flour together with the salt in a large mixing bowl and add the two eggs, the oil, the rest of the honey, the rest of the water, and the yeast mixture.

Stir vigorously until well blended. Dust your kneading surface with flour and turn out the dough to knead. Knead for about 10 minutes, adding in as much of the remaining flour as needed to make a smooth, elastic, non-sticky dough.

Grease a large bowl and place the dough in it, covering with a clean cloth. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour. Punch it down and let it rise again, roughly an hour or until doubled in bulk.

Punch the dough down and form the challah as follows:

• divide the dough into 4 equal parts

• divide one of the parts into 3

• form one large braid from the 3 large parts and one small braid from the 3 small ones. Place the small braid on top of the large braid.

Place the bread on an oiled baking dish or on a piece of parchment paper on a baking tray. Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rise for about one-half hour.

Separate the white from the yolk of the remaining egg. Brush first with the egg white and then with the yolk. Sprinkle thickly with poppy seeds.

Bake at 375ºF for about 45 minutes.

Special Tips:

I now make this in half the time using Quick-Rise yeast and my food processor with plastic blade. Place 1 cup boiling water with ¼ cup room temperature water in a measuring cup. Add ¼ cup honey and 2 tbsp oil. Stir well.

Put 2 cups flour in the food processor equipped with plastic blade. Add 2 tsp salt and the yeast. Blend 5 seconds at medium speed. Add hot water mixture through the feed tube while spinning. Turn off machine and add eggs. Process about 30 seconds or until well blended and bubbly. Add 2 cups flour and process for about one minute until the dough begins to stick together and form a ball. If dough is too sticky, add a bit more flour.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead for one or two minutes.

Shape dough as above and place on oiled or parchment baking tray. Cover with a clean, light cloth and let rise one hour. Glaze and bake as above.

*On Rosh Hashanah, I form the two braids into circles for the new year, placing the small atop the large braid. One-half cup raisins may be added, if desired, with the eggs.

Bio: Sharon Gubbay Helfer is an oral historian. She conducts research in the area of difficult dialogues and teaches deep listening skills with the Compassionate Listening Project. To listen to her challah story, and the mysteries and shadows she has yet to understand, go to https://vimeo.com/260320403.