creative jewish mom

Today Is The Day To Bake Shlissel Key Shaped Challah!

In preparation for the first Shabbos after Passover, many Jewish women (mostly of Eastern European descent) have the lovely custom of baking challahs in the shape of keys, or baking challah with a key placed under the loaves or in the pan. I've done all of these versions, but have settled on the idea of making the challahs in the actual shape of a key, as you can guess!

I am rushing to clean up the kitchen and still do some more household tasks, but I had to share these photos with you, in case you too will grab some moments of precious time for this fabulous custom. And if you'd like to learn more about the Jewish women's mitzvah of "taking challah", there's plenty of info out there, or drop me a line!

You can see my previous attempts here, and learn more about the custom here, enjoy! Gotta run, shabbat shalom, hope to have a few moments to photograph them after baking!

I took this photo with my nine year old dressed in his shabbos best just as he was running out, and am posting this photo now, after the key challahs were devoured and a beautiful shabbos has come to an end, Shavua Tov !

P.S: Key shaped challahs are quite fragile at the neck, so handle carefully or they can break easily. Good thing I made two, this is the one that survived intact!

Challah Rolls For A Crowd!

Yesterday afternoon I baked 64 nice sized challah rolls for a sheva brachot celebration that we the neighbors were holding for another neighbor's daughter who got married last week.

After the traditional Jewish wedding the couple does not go on a honeymoon, they stick around for at least a week to continue the celebrations with friends and family, and get accustomed to their new status with loved ones close by. Once a day, for seven days, a festive meal is made, usually for a nice sized crowd, and specific blessings are said for the couple, which are called sheva brachot (seven blessings). As it turns out this particular meal was prepared for 150 people, and so everyone pitched in. I happen to know that the mother of the bride loves my rolls, so I just had to volunteer to make them, or at least 64 of them!

To make nice sized challah rolls, I recommend making no more than 32 rolls per 2 kilo batch. Of course you can adjust this number, this is just the exact number of rolls that fits perfectly on my oven tray. I should add that my oven is a 90cm freestanding oven, so the rack is almost (?) twice the size of that found in a regular built in oven. (The 90cm built-ins are substantially smaller, so consider that if you get to design yourself a kitchen!  The six burners and the huge oven in my freestanding oven was one of the best purchases I ever made!)

You'll Need:

• my no egg white challah recipe
• 2 kilos of flour per 32 rolls

How To:

Follow the instructions for making standard challah loves, just when making the balls, make 32, instead of the number you'd make for braiding loaves. After balls have rested, roll each ball in your hand to make a rope, about 8-9" long. (My kids gladly helped with this part!) Loosely cross the right side over the left, and bring the top of the right side up through the hole just a bit, sort of like a belly button. Tuck the end of the left side under the roll and voila! Check out the photo above to see if yours look like mine. Set aside to rise until their nice and fluffy, and bake. Yummm! 

For lots more posts about baking challah, simply type challah into the search bar on the top right of my blog, and you'll get a list of all my previous posts. You'll be a pro in no time, and believe me, there's nothing like the smell of freshly baked challah on a Friday afternoon!

Cooking For Shabbat.....And Doing Acts Of Kindness!

Actually this short story is about being blessed with the opportunity to do acts of kindness! Yesterday we went to a new store in town to do our weekly shopping, and I thought I was buying enough food for two shabboses......double chicken, double fish etc. When we were unpacking the groceries the phone started to ring.

Ring Ring Ring....."Hi Sara, I know it's a little late to be asking, but could you make salads for Limor again this Shabbos?" Limor just gave birth to baby number 10 or so, and we the community cook meals for two weeks following birth. Last Shabbos I give them a nice spread of salads and they even sent a rose and a note as a thank you! So who can say no, knowing how much pleasure I was able to give them, plus I had purchased more than enough vegetables.

And then the phone rang again. Ring, Ring Ring....."Hi Sara, Smadar isn't feeling well and hasn't even been able to enter her kitchen. (Neither have I, I'm thinking!) I'm trying to find meals for them (a small family of five), could you possibly host them? These are newish neighbors that I've been wanting to invite, so here was my chance! So, yes of course, we'd love to have them Friday night. And of course I did have more than enough fish and chicken on hand, having bought what I thought was enough for next week as well!

So here's the menu:

• White challah (I have two loaves in the freezer, that will have to be enough white bread)
• Spelt oatmeal rolls Ended up making a double batch of rolls below....added too much water!
• Spelt yeast free rolls

• Moroccan Fish
• Moroccan Hummous
• Moroccan Beet Salad
• Moroccan Carrot Salad
• Egg Salad with carmelized onions
• Kohlrhabi, carrot and red pepper salad, with fennel and celery
• Moroccan Roasted Pepper salad, with mostly green peppers
• Moroccan Roasted Eggplant salad
• Techina
• Moroccan cabbage salad  Mixed salad with baby greens, yellow peppers and sprouts
• Raddishes marinated in salt water
• Roasted hot peppers
• Sprouts with olive oil and lemon juice vinaigrette Used sprouts above

• Moroccan Yellow Chicken with Fennel and Garlic
• Yellow Basmati Rice  whole wheat couscous
• Cholent/Hamin, for lunch tomorrow, without guests

• Spiced Apple Cake (served with a little store bought ice cream) Forgot take ice cream out of deep freezer, whoops but below was a great accompaniement
• Baked Apples and Pears (maybe, if there's time!) Yes, baked sliced pears in maple syrup, yumm

Fortunately, all of these recipes are tried and true, and found on this blog! When I have a moment I'll post the links to them all, or you can do a search for them in the upper right corner of this blog. 

Ring, Ring Ring....."Hi Sara, I'm hosting a meal for Esther, the bride, do you have some centerpieces or decorating ideas for the table? You have those vases of flowers you did for party earlier in the week right?" Of course, come on over!

Being busy helping others is the very best kind of busy one could wish for! Gotta run!

PS: I just added some comments regarding what the final results were, and fortunately I received rave reviews on the salads that the neighbors enjoyed, and on the meal that we hosted Friday night. Phew! Oh, and I even had some left overs which I took to a women's gathering at a neighbor's for the third meal on Shabbat to celebrate with a kallah (bride) who will be getting married on Wednesday, mazel tov!

And I got a few more ideas for some delicious salads from my a friend, that I can't wait to try, maybe next week! Until then, back to crafting....one can dream right?

Homemade Spelt Tortillas!

Sorry, I don't have a photo for you, at this point the tortillas are history! I made a batch of spelt tortillas right before shabbat, because my oven isn't working and I really didn't have time to bake some pitas using my whole wheat pita recipe, (but with spelt) and my pita pot (which only seems to be available in Israel). And, I'm trying to stay away from yeast (which the pitas do have) as well as wheat, so this seemed like the perfect solution. And guess, what? They were quite tasty, and even my husband who was munching away on my traditional challah (with white flour and sugar, alack alas) agreed!

I also think this recipe, whether using spelt or whole wheat is a good thing to know for those who for example have dietary restrictions, or keep kosher and may find themselves somewhere in the world where the kinds of food they'd normally eat are unavailable. All you need is some basic ingredients, a rolling pin, and a frying pan! And if you're traveling, these tortillas certainly are easy to take with you, kind of like the matzo that our ancestors baked and took with them on their way out of Egypt!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups spelt or whole wheat flour, try organic, it's the real thing and delicious!
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (or just a tad more)
• 2 T olive oil
• 1/2 cup warm water, or the amount necessary to achieve a non sticky dough.

How To:

1. Combine flour, Baking powder and salt. Add olive oil and stir will. 
2. Put in warm tap water in increments, and add more water or more flour if necessary. 
3. Knead dough on floured surface. 
4. Let dough rest for 15 minutes or more. 
5. Divide dough into 10-12 equal portions and shape into balls. 
6. Dip each ball in flour, and using a rolling pin roll out each ball as thin as possible, the thinner the better, and the larger your tortillas will be! To get round tortillas (or pitas) I roll in one direction and then lift up the resulting ellipse, rotate 45degrees and roll again. Of course once your tortillas are really thin they'll be difficult to lift up, so only do this a few times.
7. Bake on an un-greased skillet over medium-high heat on each side about 30 seconds or until puffy. 
8. Wrap in a towel to stay warm, and serve. Freeze the extras to enjoy later.

These were delicious with purple cabbage salad and techina. Enjoy!

Schlissel Challah, Key Shaped Bread Baked After Passover

There is a custom amongst Ashkenazi Jews to make challahs in the shape of keys the first Shabbat after Passover. You can read more about this custom in my previous posts here. Now, while I had planned to do this in preparations for the first Shabbat after Passover, I just couldn't find my mixer, though I'll admit I didn't really look all that hard. You see my husband was away and I was making a very simple Shabbat for just me and three little ones......you got the picture right? So, now that the husband is back and I have located the mixer, I figured I'd make key shaped challah for this shabbat, after all I'm only a week late, and better a bit late than never I figure! 

This time rather than make a huge key, I made three smaller key shaped loaves together with three six-stranded braided challahs from 2 kilos of flour. Lucky for you now that Shabbat doesn't start until 7pm, I have much more time to spoil you all with photos of what's going on around here even on a Friday!

In just a bit I will brush on some raw egg and maybe sprinkle some sesame seeds, well at least on the braided loaves, and into the oven they go. I think I will be taking a little nap just as they come out of the oven, so no promises for an after photo, we'll just have to see!

Note: If you want to make key shaped rolls that will really hold their shape, so make them from something that rises much less than white challah, you know like whole wheat challah, or half whole wheat and half spelt......great looking, delicious and certainly the most healthy version. Shabbat shalom!

Latest breaking news: Here are the challahs baked and ready to be eaten. They were delicious!

This is the very top loaf from the photo of the unbaked challah, and the next photo shows the other two slightly smaller ones:

And by the way, if you'd like to make some delicious white challah too, here's my recipe, and while you're at it, check out this previous post about decorating your challahs!

Shlissel Challah Reminder!

Key shaped shlissel challah, photo sources here and here.

Dear readers, I hope you all had a wonderful Passover holiday! While I haven't quite gotten back into the crafting yet, creativity takes place in our home in so many ways, and so I did want to remind you that this week is the week that we make shlissel challah, the key shaped challah that is traditionally baked by Ashkenazi Jews the first Shabbat after Passover. I have yet to bake mine, and by the time that I do, and have a moment to post the photos, it may be too late for you to do the same, so I thought I'd just pass on the idea while there's still time to make it happen!

I'm happy to say that this will hopefully be my second year making actual challah in the shape of a key, as opposed to sticking a key under the challah (which it turns out could be very unhealthy due to lead in the keys.) You can see the results of my first effort last year here, and read a little more about this wonderful tradition. 

Baking Challah With Children

Baking challah with kids is a great activity to do together in the kitchen, and a wonderful way to help them develop a love for this timeless Jewish tradition. When I bake their favorite challah recipe, there's always plenty of dough to let the kids have fun shaping little loaves which they'll proudly eat at our Shabbat table Friday night.

 
I'd recommend spending a little time practicing braiding and shaping rolls with modeling clay, such that when it comes time to work with the real thing everyone will feel confident and there will be smiles all around. And don't forget to let the kids brush on the egg white and sprinkle on some sesame seeds, the final touch before baking. And if your kids aren't around when you find the time to make challah, why not save a little dough for them in the fridge?

Baking Challah After Passover— Schlissel Key Shaped Challah

Baking schlissel challah, the key shaped (or baked with a key) challahs is an Ashenazic Jewish custom which I'm happy to say I have been doing for quite a few years. And the time to do this custom is NOW! Namely when one is baking the challahs for the first Shabbat after Passover. Schlissel means "key" in yiddish, and as far as the meaning of this custom, well you can certainly consult google on this one, but I'll just say that the key is about bringing blessing into our homes and specifically the blessing of livelihood.

There are a few ways in which one can make schlissel challah, and this year I'm doing the three ways I know of in order to cover my bases, and hey, maybe this blog will even start bringing in a little income! I'm putting the key in the photo under one challah, I'm pressing a key into another challah to leave the imprint in the dough before baked, and I've made an old fashioned key shape from challah dough, not the most beautiful key you've ever seen, but my seven year old thought it was great, so that's good enough for me!

And since your next question may be "what recipe do you use?" Well I'll be happy to share that with you soon, so stay tuned!

p.s. The key shaped challah actually turned out nicer looking than I expected, so here it is! And let me tell you, it was delicious too. The exact same recipe that I bake almost every week, but it had a little extra something in it. It even reminded my husband of his grandmother's Moroccan shabbat bread, go figure!