On the Chocolate Trail

Weddings this summer sure are different. Cocktail hour? Not likely. Dancing? Probably not. Friends and family? Perhaps a very few. With the pandemic limiting celebrations this year, perhaps it’s time to turn to the comforting traditions of Jewish bridal breads. Read more… *Photo by Clara Shoots Weddings, Used by permissionMarriage of Anthony Russell to Rabbi

Thank you to The Jewish Week’s Food and Wine for running my story, “Zooming for Challah.” The internet has been popping with real-time challah baking sessions since shelter in place began. These free pre-Shabbat meet ups nourish a hunger for recipes, relief, rituals, and relationships. Despite nationwide yeast and flour shortages, longtime bakers and novices

Hasidic communities mark the first Shabbat after Passover with a special challah as they transition back to the world of chametz. They shape the first post-Passover Shabbat challah into a key. The key, or shlissel as it is called in Yiddish, is meant to symbolize openings, passageways, and transition. Rabbi Pinchas Shapiro of Kovitz (b.

Almost cake-like, though not a cake, this orange tinged bread enhances any holiday table. My story about diasporic High Holiday celebratory breads was published at the Jewish Week, “Beyond Challah and Honey.” More will be forthcoming in On the Bread Trail. Prep time: 2-2.5 hours Rising time: 40-45 minutes Baking time: 30 minutes Yield: 2

This bread brings fall ingredients to your festive meals and reflects the longtime usage of pumpkin among Sephardi Jews. See the Jewish Week for my story about unusual Rosh Hashanah breads, “Beyond Challah and Honey: Rosh Hashanah Breads From Around the World.” Prep time: 30 minutes Rising time: 1 hour 45 minutes Baking time: 45

This sweetly spiced bread maximizes honey, both inside and out. For more about this and other unusual Rosh Hashanah breads see my story at the Jewish Week “Beyond Challah and Honey: Rosh Hashanah Breads From Around the World.” Prep time: 30 minutes Rising time: 2-2 ¼ hours Baking time: 1 hour Yield: One large bread

On the first Shabbat following Passover, after a week deprived of yeasty breads, hassidic custom serves up not just any challah, but a shlissel or key challah. About seven weeks or fifty days later at Shavuot, challot boast ladders and other symbols signifying ascension to heaven. This key shaped bread or bread embedded with an

This stunning challah makes a great centerpiece and tastes delicious. Allow time for the shaping of the various elements of this celebratory Shavuot challah and enjoy the anise flavored liqueur in the dough. Read my story at the Jewish Week “Exotic Celebratory Breads for Shavuot“ The recipe is adapted from Rabbi Robert Sternberg’s The Sephardic

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

Admittedly, by heritage I am more a German kugelhopf than an Eastern European babka, having eaten homemade kugelhopf at family celebrations in Los Angeles. Indeed when I mentioned my interest (obsession?) with babka to my German speaking father in LA, he looked puzzled and asked, “What’s a babka?”At one point I wrote him a note that