Challa

From time to time, I take the opportunity to show the world what I've been doing, by making a post on FaceBook. Each time I post about Challas I am making, I get quite a bit of feedback, and have come to the realization that a gift I received growing up was my Grandmother Sadie. I simply new her as Grandma, though initially called her nana. I was fortunate to have two grandmothers, Mamie lived to 105 but Sadie passed at 80. The gift Grandma Sadie gave me is the appreciation of good food, and food prepared well. While I'm sure I'll write another post about this topic, the one that links good food, Challas, and FaceBook stems from a story that is worth sharing for the rest of the world.

I come from a long line of bakers, in particular, a member of the Schwebel family, who owns and operates one of the largest, still family owned, baking companies in America, Schwebel Baking Company (). The website has the story of how the company started, but my grandma was the one that taught me how to bake, and her close friends, how to refine it. One of the more important aspects of a good chef, is someone always willing to learn; according to my grandma. And I agree. Do not think that my grandma gave me everything I needed to know on baking; she didn't. But her appreciation for food prepared well and willingness to learn were the greatest gifts I received in this aspect of life.

So the story I'm about to tell begins with my grandma, her friends instructions, a piece on the food network on baking good bread, some tips from a dear friend Florence Gussman, and Mike Monigan who was a plant manager for Schwebel Baking company years ago. The story begins when I had a desire to begin making Challas for the sabbath, or for my Jewish family, Shabbat, when I was about 20 years old. I was looking at the Rodef Shalom Jubilee Cookbook for a recipe, and found one by S. Waldman. When I read the ingredients I was shocked to find it included milk! For those that are not Jewish, Challa bread is to be made with ingredients that would allow it to be eaten with both milk meals and meat meals, but not both milk and meat at the same meal. How in the world could you eat bread made with milk at a meat meal? It's not allowed by Kosher law. So when I asked my grandma, she too became puzzled. Then she asked who submitted the recipe to Jubilee. I told her someone named Waldman.

My grandma went on to tell me that S. Waldman, was Sonny Waldman - Sonya. Sonny was originally Sonya Marx, and her sister was Anne Marx who was one of my grandmother's dear friends. I knew her as Aunt Anne Zoss, or just Aunt Anne. Both Aunt Anne and Sonya had escaped the Holocaust when their family immigrated to the US. Several years before the encounter with Sonny's recipe, Aunt Anne had taught me how to knead bread, both in a bowl for kuchen, and on a board for other kneaded pastries. So my grandma asked me to get her phone number and she'd call. I did, and gramdma called. They both spoke briefly about the recipe, the issue of milk, and as usual, all I heard grandma say was huh-huh. You just never knew what was being said on the other end of the phone. Then my grandma handed me the handset and Mrs. Waldman and I spoke.

The first thing Mrs. Waldman said to me, as I called her Mrs. Waldman, was to call her Sonny. I said yes Mrs. Waldman. When I asked Sonny about the recipe and the milk, she said to me that the editors of the Jubilee attributed the recipe to her, but in fact was not her recipe. She knew very well that there was no way milk could be in that bread. Then I told her what I wanted to do and she seemed puzzled. She asked if Schwebel's still makes Challas, and I said they did, but I wanted to make my own. Besides, the bread made by the bakery seemed too airy or fluffy. So Sonny said to me that she would only give me her recipe if I promised to make the bread by hand. It seemed like a reasonable request at the time, and I agreed.

Sonny asked me if I had a large bowl. I asked how large, and she said really large. She said that Sears had these really large ceramic bowls, and suggested I get one. I said I'd get one, did, and have it to this day; it sits on top of my refrigerator as a reminder of this day. Then she began to tell me the recipe. The ingredients are the following:

• 8 cups bread flour
• 2 cups tepid warm water
• 2 pkgs. of active dry yeast - 4.5 tsp
• 1/2 cup sugar (Sonny's used 1/3 cup) plus 1 tblsp
• 4 heaping tblsp vegetable shortening (or 1/3 cup canola oil)
• 1 tblsp kosher salt
• 5 eggs (extra large or jumbo)
• 1/4 cup of cornmeal

As Sonny explained it to me, you get your large bowl, and fill it with 5 cups of flour. In the middle of the flour, dig a well that goes almost to the bottom, but not to the bottom, pushing the flour to the sides evenly. In a small container, put the yeast and 1 tblsp of sugar. Add 1/2 cup of warm tepid water, and stir the mixture to dissolve the yeast. Add that to the well in the flour. Add another 1/2 cup of warm tepid water to the same container to clean out the remaining yeast/sugar and put in the well in the flour. From the sides of the bowl, bring the flour on top of the yeast/sugar mixture, covering it. Let that stand. In the mean time, pour the remaining sugar around the edge of the bowl, not on top where the yeast is now fermenting. Do the same with the shortening and the salt. (Not Sonny's method but one I use is to substitute canola oil for vegetable shortening, so I do not add the oil to the bowl, but I do add it to the next ingredient.) Beat 4 eggs in a small bowl, with a pinch of salt. Sonny said the salt will breakdown the egg whites. Sonny also reserved some egg for later, but I use an entirely 5th egg. Sonny said that when the yeast ferments it will push against the flour on top and eventually cracks will form in the flour and yeast will begin to ooze out. That's when it is ready to mix. Add the beaten eggs (eggs and oil if you are using my modification), and another full cup of tepid warm water.

Mix the dough and ingredients by hand until everything is mushy. Then, add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and begin kneading. kneading should take about 10 minutes total, adding additional flour until the dough pulls away from your hands and begins to firmly become bread dough. Knead for another 4 minutes and then you are done. Again, the total kneading time should be about 10 minutes. (A side note, if you use a mixer, plan to use a bit more flour and only knead for 10 minutes). Keep the dough in the bowl, and place it in a warm location such as an oven at 100F. I have used a car outside during the day, which is quite warm in the sun. Let the dough rise an hour which should be double in size. Punch the dough down, remove it from the bowl and turn out onto a dry surface.

From this point, Sonny said to simply make the Challa. This is where my instruction as a youth from Rodef Shalom temple and the tips from Flo helped. Sprinkle cornmeal on a baking sheet about 20"x10" or larger. Divide the dough into 2 equal sized pieces. With one piece, divide it into 4 equal parts based on weight. For three of the pieces, roll them into thick, 12"-14" rolls (logs), and braid them. Place the braided dough on a floured surface, and use a knife to etch a 1/2" cut in the center top. Use your fingers with a dip in water to spread the cut apart, but not too wide and not too much water. With the last of the 4 pieces, cut it into 3 equal parts by weight, roll them out similarly but about 16" long. Braid them, and place the braid on top of the first braid, using your pinky finger to slightly push the smaller braid into the larger one at each of the dough cross-overs in the smaller braid. This will ensure it stays in place. Put the now formed Challa onto the baking sheet, leaving room for a second one. Repeat this process for the second Challa.

Let the Challa's rise in the oven for about 30 minutes at 100F. Take them out, beat the 5th egg in a small bowl with a pinch of salt, and coat the Challa's with the beaten egg. Place the Challa's back into the cold oven, set the temperature to 350F and bake for 35 minutes. Mike Monigan always said baking was time and temperature. So if you decided to preheat the oven because it takes more than 7 minutes to heat it, bake at 350F for 30 minutes. When the bread comes out, you'll need to let it cool for a few hours before eating. Shabbat Shalom!

At first I made these by hand. I did it routinely, particularly Friday afternoon when I had some time off from school or work. I made them for family functions, received rave reviews from Schwebel Aunts and Uncles about how good the bread was. Then, one day I received a call from my grandma that Sonny had passed away. I was heart broken because this amazing lady had given a gift to me, but I never met her. She lived in the same town, and side of town that my grandma lived, but we never seemed to connect our schedules. It's one of the very few regrets I have in life. When I returned from California where I was working at the time to see my parents and grandma, my grandma said that I needed to go to the Waldman's because there was something left for me. I called, and Mr. Waldman answered. He asked that I come when I can, because Sonny had left something for me. When I arrived at the small home, I was warmly greeted, and was taken to the kitchen. There, in the kitchen I was given her bowl, an orange colored bowl with a yellow stripe around the middle of the circumference. It was the same size and style of bowl I had in white, and cherish it always in my home.

So if you are so inclined to make Challa, and use this recipe, I ask the same I was asked to do; make it by hand at least the first time. Then you can truly appreciate what it means to have the warmth and love of Challa on Shabbat given to me from an angel.

Instilling Your Educational Values

Recently at my pharmacy, the RiteAid where I usually have prescriptions filled, one of my pharmacist friends told my daughter that to become a NASA engineer is no simple task. It takes a special breed of person to achieve that accomplishment. It struck me as odd that it takes a special person to become a NASA engineer because, working at NASA, I'm surrounded by individuals who indeed are all special. When you are one in a sea of many, you don't think of yourself as special. In fact, I still think I'm normal, but that difference is more than likely the source of tension in my life.

What I find normal, others seem to find extraordinary. A friend and colleague once told me that he is commonly asked, isn't his job boring. He said that sitting in front of a computer screen 8 to 10 hours a day, looking at numbers, writing computer programs, and making a graph from time to time is exciting to him because he is developing the latest technology in human evolution of knowledge to predict how well an aircraft or spacecraft will fly. The general person in the world looks at us as if we are strange for finding excitement in making a plot and looking at a few numbers. So the moral of his take on what others see us do, is that what we are doing looks boring because the outsider cannot understand exactly what we are doing. That's the beginning of understanding why we seem to think we are normal and others think we are weird.

Another recent life changing event brought fourth a crossing of G-d sent angels to my fiance, when I was confronted about something that stressed me into a state of shock. The event is not germane here, but the recognition that an angel was sent, is. Today, I had another angel come to me, out of the blue; and old colleague and former assistant branch head where I work at NASA. We discussed our family's dynamics, and in particular dealing with our children. It seems that parents in my workplace commonly discuss issues that arise from time to time to make sure they are doing the right thing. After all, we are all strange to the outside, but common inside NASA. This gentleman (angel) said that to become a NASA engineer, we took a path that was very different from everyone else.

The path we followed to NASA was characterized as socially inept acts, academically dominated thought, and deeply driven desires. Most of us knew before we made it to college what we wanted to do; we wanted to work for NASA. How we arrived has a path of similar traits including going to public libraries to study, studying instead of talking on the phone for hours at a time, attending intellectual events that contribute to our understanding of the world around us and our desires for what we want to do in life, and generally, setting the academic path that others find odd and in some cases insane. We made it to our destination and are proud of the path we took.

So when we marry, and work to have a family, parents typically try to instill their values on their children and possibly spouses, because we found through experience it can produce desirable results; achieving a dream. But is it fair to expect those we love to follow our footsteps? Is it too much of an expectation that if what works for us, will work for everyone? These questions are why this post is presented. The answers to these questions are no and yes. It is unfair to expect our children to follow our footsteps, and it is too much of an expectation that what we do will work for everyone.

Where this is headed is this; I want my daughter to get straight A's in her grades so that she can make it to college to get an education to do what she really wants to do for the rest of her life. But are all A's the only way to get there? Maybe, maybe not. My daughter currently strives to get straight A's and succeeds, but at what cost? What is difficult in general is to expect someone to work extremely hard to get good grades, and not get an A for their work. I've been told I'm placing too much stress on my daughter to get straight A's. My daughter has even commented that it is my desire that drives her. My colleague, the angel, said is as long as your child works hard, does not distract themselves from their work, and gets the best grade they can, then that is what will lead to their success; not an A grade. So as we go through life, it is important to remind ourselves that as long as we work hard to achieve what we want, and get the grades we get, we know deep down we did the best we could do, and that is all that should ever be expected. While I will not back off on wanting my daughter to continue to strive for the great grades she obtains, I plan to be more forgiving if she does her best and is not quite able to achieve the A that we both want.