By Lydia Ettinger
We look at bread; we see sugar, eggs, and flour. We look at challah and we are transported back into our Bubby’s sweltering kitchen on Friday night, peeking into her stove, mesmerized by the rising bread. We see our ultimate comfort food. We see home.
Challah is a portable relic of Jewish tradition, stretching back hundreds of years. As an Ashkenazi tradition, challah comforted Eastern European Jews who lost everything to the Holocaust. In some cases, as Jews escaped Hitler, memorized recipes were all they had.
One does not need to grow up in a challah-making home to connect with the ritual. Before my mother, Upper West Sider Paulette Garbuz-Ettinger, started baking her own challahs, Breads Bakery on 63rd and Broadway was her go-to place. She started baking challahs for shabbat after a trip to Israel that spiritually connected her to the tradition. “The trip made me realize that my home was deprived of many – not only religious – but fun traditions.”
Those who grow up in challah-homes appreciate the memories associated with the bread, not just the baking. A neighbor remembers, “My father was not a cook, but he was a feeder. He loved tearing up the challah and giving it to us every week, and I loved it when he got involved.”
She loves another involvement as well. Challah is not easily manipulated and does not come with a “one size fits all” recipe, she says. The best challah is one that is unique. “Even though I always try my best, the end result is always in God.”
For the best French toast-
do it with challah.
@whynot, Thanks for the tip! I will try that.
I was buying challah, and the guy next to me asked what it was. i explained. He bought! It is yumminess.
I would add that for some challah is comfort, but fpr others, it brings up too many painful memories.
Also. Chabad has challah baking classes. Definitely the one on the 60s, not sure about chabad of the upper west side.
best challah recipe: 8 cups flour. 2 cups water. 3/4 cup sugar. 4 eggs. 1/2 cup oil. 1 tbsp salt. 5 tsp yeast.
Proof yeast, mix it all together, put in oiled bowl to rise. Then roll out the dough, shape the loaves, and let them rise again. Brush with egg wash and bake at 350F.
Thanks, with eight cups of flour how many loves does that make?
Lovely to see so much love for challah. Even reading about it makes my mouth water. yum
Best challahs in town. Well said and wonderfully written 🙌🏾 Shabbat Shalom
Just use Manfred Loeb’s recipe and Jamie Geller’s method – watch on youtube. Jamie Geller’s recipe would feed an army. Too big.
Challah is the ultimate comfort food for me. Every Friday night biting into the cake like dough signals the start of Shabbat and the end of work week. Ironically I never got into baking it…not even during pandemic 😜
And let’s face it challah is more cake like than bread like …yum and it does make the best French toast
I’d love more articles on other ethnic food memories from the hood!