Friendship Bread

It is fitting, as get close to the end of the year, that I made this friendship bread.  My friend Maxine was the one who issued this challenge. Every year her family, my family, and three other families go away for Labor Day weekend together.  Of course I had to make a special labor day challah.  Maxine had suggested a friendship symbol, saying that she imagined that as two hands holding each other. I pictured something like this:

But how do you make that in challah?

It creates a level of three dimensionality that I would have a hard time recreating.

So first I made two hands.

These were literally traces of my fingers.  You can see there is a left and a right.

Then I sculpted them to hold each other. After trying a few positions, I decided curling fingers under each other made the most sense and looked the most like two friends.

It baked up well.

Lag B’Omer Challah

This was a fun theme.  Lag was actually not Shabbat but it was a good inspiration. A bonfire challah didn’t seem practical (though it would be fun to try to cook challah over a fire sometime). So I did a bow and arrow.  They turned out great!

May Day Challah

What do you do for Shabbat on the first of May?

a beautiful flower of course.  You cam see how it was made when unbaked…

It it baked up beautifully!

Yom Ha’atzmaut Challah

For challah this week I turned to the Torah portion.  Then realized that it was the part of Leviticus about skin lesions and that would not make an appetizing challah.  Luckily, this week was also Yom Ha’atzmaut which is Israeli Independence Day, a much better idea for basing a challah.  So I brainstormed ideas. A flag challah was the first idea. And a map of Israel was the second.  However, the map idea seemed difficult, as which borders would I use?  So to avoid the political, I did the flag and a braid, with a strand of blue.

i wanted to try a new way to color the challah, so I made blue salt.  I took my blue dye and mixed it with coarse salt.  The outcome was beautiful!

Tgat at then decorated the challaot!

The challah was salty, but not overly so, like a pretzel not a salt lick!

Shlissel Challah

It’s been a while since I posted.  Passover happened, so I didn’t make challah for two weeks. But I’m back!

There is a tradition that, for the Shabbat after Passover to make a challah with a key in it or key shaped. I’ve seen lots of explanations for this tradition, relating it to the key to heaven or to a humbleness of our understanding that our needs were provided for in the desert.  I’ve also seen two versions, one with a key inside and one with a key shape.  Since I needed two loaves for Shabbat, I made both!

first the key shaped one:

First I cleaned the key with soap and water then with alcohol.  Then I put it on a braid

and covered it with a bit of dough.

The end result had a hidden surprise!

Eclipse.

On Friday, March 20th, in addition to being solstice, there was a total eclipse.  Although it was not viewable from Seattle, I made challah to honor it.

A moon and a sun.

 We had our own eclipse at the table!

Pi day challah!

If Facebook is any indication, if you are my friend you already knew that today is Pi day.  In fact it is “super pi day” with a date that occurs once every hundred years…3.14.15!

In honor, I made two versions of pi challah.

       

They both turned out beautifully!

Happy nerd holiday!

Ginger. Bread. House.

My mom’s birthday was this month.  The past few years I’ve tried to focus on consumable gifts, better for the environment and less clutter for her.  She loves candied ginger, so I’ve learned to make it and give it to her annually, for the past three years or so.  The process is pretty straight forward,  you peel and slice the ginger, then boil it in simple syrup for about 45 min (until soft ball stage for the candy makers out there).  The byproduct of this process is a delicious ginger syrup, as well as the goal candy. Since I had a little of the ginger left over after mom’s birthday present, I decided to try a candied ginger challah.

First I chopped the ginger, finer than I had for eating as candy.

Then I mixed that into the dough,  working it through.  Now, because this is ginger and bread, I HAD to shape it like a house.

Since I had the ginger syrup, I did a wash of that on the outside.

  I just added a bit of water to it and brushed it on.  The result was beautiful.

It it also got rave reviews from those who ate it.  My housemate, who has eaten a lot of my challah this year, gave it a 9 out of 10!  Our Shabbat guest didn’t know what she was biting into and was totally delighted when she got a mouth full of sweet ginger.  I’m not a huge candied ginger fan, but have to say it was a delightful challah.  I’d make it again, for a gingery special occasion (or maybe next year, after mom’s birthday.)

Valentines Challah

What would be a better challah for Shabbat that is erev Valentines day than my own heart challah?  I have made this before for a sheva bracha for a newly married couple.  It is based on a child craft that looks like this:

I basically did the same thing with dough.  I started with two oblong balls of dough:

Then I cut slits to make four straps to weave with:

Placing the two dough balls at a 90 degree angle to one another, I wove their straps in a four by four grid.

Then I futzed with it a bit to get a better shape and baked it.

You can still see the heart shape in the final product, but the point isn’t as sharp as I would have liked. Next time I’ll bake it in the corner of the pan like I did with the grapes.  It will give it a much better shape.

Happy New Year to the Trees!

I made a little challah to celebrate the trees.  I think is is one of my prettier ones.  Happy Tu B’shvat!