Seeking A Shikker Challah
When I found this recipe for challah baked with brandy, it called out “Purim.” What could be better than a shikker challah to fulfill the Talmudic opinion of Rava: “One must drink on Purim until that person cannot distinguish between cursing Haman and blessing Mordechai.” (Megillah 7b)
Chaleh I
“Chaleh I” was published in the 1946 Jewish American Cook Book of over 1600 recipes, all previously published at the Forward . Not surprising for its day, it simply calls for yeast, though likely refers to fresh compressed. The instructions mention flour but doesn’t clarify whether to use all purpose or bread flour. I figure just regular flour. Would “hot oven” intend the oven temperature for most challah recipes today, around 350º? I wasn’t sure. Plus, its five pounds of flour would be unmanageable in my kitchen and consumption, so I try decreasing quantities. And most importantly for Purim purposes, how much is in a “small glass of brandy?” I substitute the iconic Slivovitz for the brandy since Polish Jews were big distillers of this plum brandy and it often appears at Shabbat kiddush. Sadly, despite several attempts, I couldn’t get the proportions right in my attempts at updating the recipe.
Challah au Rum
Persisting in my quest for a liquor infused challah, I poked holes into a store bought, slightly stale challah. Dousing it with liquor transformed it into a boozy challah au rum.
And, then I remembered …. read more at the Jewish Week… and recipe.
Recent Posts
-
Sweet Treat: Chocolate and the Making of American Jews
You may wonder: how did chocolate help define American Jews? Through chocolate, we see that Jews were part of America since its earliest days. Well, since 1701 at least, Jews in the Colonies made part of their living through chocolate. Several Sephardim, leaders of their New York and Newport Jewish and secular communities, participated in
Read more › -
How About Some Uterus Challah?
When Logan Zinman Gerber felt enraged about the loss of reproductive rights in the U.S., she baked challah. Not any challah. She shaped it into a uterus. It wasn’t long after the birth of her daughter that Gerber, a longtime challah baker and staff member of the Religious Action Center of the Reform movement, considered
Read more › -
A Manhattan synagogue explores the rich, surprising history of Jews and chocolate
I’m grateful for this story written by Rachel Ringer, published at JTA/NY Jewish Week on December 20, 2023: (New York Jewish Week) — In 2006, Rabbi Deborah Prinz was on a trip to Europe with her husband, Rabbi Mark Hurvitz, when they wandered into a chocolate shop in Paris. While meandering about the store, Prinz picked
Read more › -
Exhibit Opens! Sweet Treat! Chocolate & the Making of American Jews
Sweet Treat is a delicious gastronomic adventure into the history and resilience of American Jewish chocolate making. This exhibition invites you to follow the chocolate trail to America, a scrumptious journey through time and place. Chocolate gives us a lens to understand Jewish migration, as the chocolate trade parallels the migrations of the Jewish
Read more ›
Some Previous Posts
(in alphabetical order)
- "Boston Chocolate Party" Q&As with Deborah Kalb
- 2022 Media for The "Boston Chocolate Party"
- About Rabbi Deborah Prinz
- Baking Prayers into High Holiday Breads
- Boston Chocolate Party
- Chocolate Chip Politics
- Digging into Biblical Breads
- For the Easiest Hanukah Doughnuts Ever
- Forthcoming! On the Bread Trail
- Funny Faced Purim Pastries
- Good Riddance Chameitz or, The Polemics of Passover's Leaven
- Injera*
- Israeli Chocolate Spread
- Jewish Heritage Month: Baseball & Chocolate!
- Matzah - But, the Dough Did Rise!
- Plan a Choco-Hanukkah Party: 250th Anniversary Tea Party
- Prayers Into Breads
- To Shape Dough: A Trio of Techniques
- Why Is Challah On My Matzah Box?