Baking Challah Bread with Kenny Goliff

Growing up in a half-Jewish/half-Christiann household, I have become very familiar with a few traditional Jewish and Christian customs alike. One of these customs is the making of challah for "the Jewish Sabbath and other holidays" (Suzuki 32). However, I had never experimented with making challah until I got my new recipe book. The experiment was, like my apple pancakes, mostly a success. According to my aunt, making the bread made me "an honorary Jew."

However, there was just one small flaw in every one of my loaves.

After a short period of slowly adjusting and improving the recipe in the book by adding personal favorites like garlic butter or cinnamon sugar toppings, I realized that I was still terrible at making the one thing that makes challah what it is- the braid.

Towards the end of summer vacation, I went to visit my aunt and uncle in Oregon. My uncle, a master of the braid, attempted to teach me how to make one that didn't look like someone tied a bad, loose knot out of a very frayed rope.

He failed.

When I realized that a challah loaf was not complete without a fire braid and that my skills were clearly the opposite of fire, I decided to turn to the book for help. I had neglected to use the book because in the informational section of the recipe, the author said even she had feared the braid more than any other part of the process (Suzuki 32). Reading this somewhat scared me away from the braid because I thought that if a professional baker such as herself (that came up with some of the best recipes I've ever had) was intimidated by the braid, there was no way that I would be able to do it.

But then, when I actually went through the recipe again, this time trying the suggested braid, it turned out to not be as bad as I thought. It was actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be from just reading it and the product turned out pretty well.

The one on the left here was made by me.

I've been thinking about what I should bring from my book to class at the end of the unit. If I were to bring a loaf of challah for the whole class to share, what kind of topping/toppings (if any) would you want to be on it? Think big, the possibilities are endless!