It's cold outside today and will be cold for at least another week. I am all caught up on my chores and I got bored today. So, I decided to try making a Jewish Challa Bread.
I come from a family of mixed marriage of religion. Today, this has little value but back in 1930 when an Italian Catholic man wanted to marry a Jewish woman, this was kind of frowned upon. As they were first generation Americans, their parents came from Eastern Europe and Italy. What resulted was that my brother and I were both confirmed in the Catholic Church and also learned Hebrew and were Bar Mitzvah'd. After this emphasis upon religion, my desire to participate diminished and my Dad admitted to me that this was his fault because this was an appeasement to two families who put contingencies on this marriage that lasted for over 50 years until my Dad passed.
Be that as it may, I always remember the Challa bread that my mother made from scratch in the old days and how wonderful the aroma would be in the kitchen when that bread was in the oven. I happen to have a fairly good memory and as I watched my mother cook or bake, I, literally, remember all of her recipes. So, I took a shot at making Challa.
If you are not familiar with Challa Bread, it contains a large volume of eggs and it does have a very noticeable yellow look to the inside bread itself. It is also distinguished by the fact that the top crust is bathed in an egg wash which leaves that crust on the shiny side and that the bread itself is braided together to have the traditional look.
As I was waiting for the bread to cool down, my wife came home and a number of our friends and family came over. Everyone wanted to try this bread including myself. So, here are a couple of pictures of what is left over. I never got a chance to shoot the whole thing. But for your information the bread was 17 inches long and 10 inches wide and 5 inches high.
In all due respect to Mom, this was a great first attempt and tasted good. But, Mom, you do it better than anyone.
Ed
