August 24, 2007 | 3:47 pm

Shabbat Shalom, Hey! (challah)

Posted by Dikla Kadosh

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Shabbat would not be Shabbat without challah. The soft golden-brown loaf of bread that graces Jewish dinner tables around the world each Friday night has about as many recipes as there are Jewish mothers. Wheat, eggless, sesame seed, poppy seed, raisin, chocolate chip, olive, jalapeno…challah comes in every size, shape, and flavor you can imagine.

Take your enjoyment of this Jewish comestible icon to the next level by not only devouring handfuls of the sweet bread, but by making it yourself!

Making the challah and performing the ritual of separating a small piece of dough from the rest of the batch, called hafrashat challah in Hebrew, is considered one of the three greatest mitzvot a woman can do.

My dear friend Anita Schmidt, a Mexican Jew and the Program Director at Sinai Temple, was kind enough to give me the recipe to her mom’s special challah - which I had the pleasure of tasting myself one Friday night. Mrs. Schmidt’s recipe is simply and confidently titled “Delicious Challah Recipe” and looks fairly easy to make. The only reason why I have not yet made it myself is because of that 2 1/2-hour rising period. With the rest of the preparation, it would take me 4 hours to make the challah, which means I would either have to wake up at 5 am on Friday morning or leave work at 3 pm in order for it to be ready for dinner. Not too convenient.

But if you like waking up early, don’t work on Fridays, or eat Shabbat dinner really late, I highly recommend trying this recipe. Shabbat Shalom!!!

Ingredients:

4 packages of dry yeast
4 cups of warm water
1 cup of sugar
2 tbsp. Of salt
1 cup of oil
2 eggs
13-14 cups of flour

Directions:

1. Mix yeast, water and sugar.  Let sit covered until mixture is bubbling.
2. Add salt and 1/2 of the flour, and mix together.
3. Add eggs, oil and then the rest of the flour, one cup at a time.
4. Cover, place in a warm place, and allow to rise for 2 hours.  Punch down, and allow to rise again for 20 min.
5. Shape the challah.
6. Take a small piece of challah dough, about the size of an olive, and repeat the following:
“Blessed are you who has commanded us to separate challah from the dough.”
7. Place challah on a greased cookie sheet, including the small piece of dough.
8. Bake for 1/2 hour at 350 degrees.

(Chocolate chips and/or raisins can be added for an extra touch)

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