Round breads of Rosh Hashana symbolize cycle of Jewish year

Published on September 07, 2007

Challah is one of the foods likely to appear on Jewish tables next week at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins on Sept. 13.

Challah is traditional for Sabbath too, and indeed, with its shiny crust and rich eggy flavor it is popular throughout the year. But while challah is usually a braided, more or less oval loaf, at Rosh Hashana it comes instead in a circular form, sometimes braided, sometimes simply coiled into a turban shape.

The round breads of Rosh Hashana signify the cycle of the Jewish Year. In the process, Jews hope to grow and learn and become better each year.

At Rosh Hashana many sweet foods are served to symbolize a sweet beginning to the new cycle of Jewish celebrations. In keeping with this, the round challah is generally sweetened, sometimes with raisins as well as additional sugar. As author Tamar Ansh explains, this is "to usher in a sweet and delectable judgment."

Ansh is the author of a new book devoted to the subject of challah. Published by Feldheim Publishers at $34.99, it's called "A Taste of Challah," and if the word "taste" suggests a morsel rather than something more complete, then the subtitle "A Comprehensive Guide to Challah and Bread Baking" makes absolutely clear that this is not the case.

Every step of making challah of many kinds is lavishly illustrated. Those complicated braids? This book shows you how to make them. Want to know a number of different braiding patterns or circular shapes? This book will give them to you. Want to make little individual-size challahs? The book has them too. It also has instructions for making a woven basket of challah dough, napkin rings of challah, a challah wine-bottle holder and a long challah called a simchah challah for when there are lots of guests.

It also has challah customized for other Jewish holidays such as Purim, and for making popular breads such as garlic bread. For good measure the book concludes with sections on pizza and Middle Eastern breads, including a few breads that are not yeast-based.

All this should suggest that this book will find a place on the bookshelves of anyone interested in making bread. No book could be more thorough in its explanations, nor more enticing in its illustrations, and it convincingly supports Ansh's claim that even a beginner can learn from it.

But for Jews the book has a special religious value in that it explains the history and dietary laws of challah in a way that will be helpful to those who wish to observe religious tradition. The bread is very special because the word "challah" actually indicates not the loaf that it is eaten, but the small portion of dough that is discarded and traditionally burned as a symbolic offering to the priesthood. The laws governing this practice are detailed and specific, and Ansh's book gives them all, as well as the appropriate prayers in both English and Hebrew. She also includes many challah stories.

A world of Breads

A second baking book that has many Jewish recipes as well as a host of other bread recipes is "Secrets of a Jewish Baker: 125 Breads from Around the World" by George Greenstein, published by Ten Speed Press at $29.95.

The author formerly ran a bakery on Long Island for 20 years, and his book includes pretty much all the breads and bready things that you would expect an American bakery to sell. With such a strong immigrant tradition, this means that there are bloomers and scones from Britain; baguettes and fougasse from France; pizza and focaccia from Italy; pita and lavash from the eastern Mediterranean; naan from India; psomi from Greece; pumperknickel from Germany; raisin bread from Ireland, as well as Jewish classics such as bagels, bialys and, of course, challah.

Greenstein includes no fancy cakes in his book, but he does offer some recipes that are sweet, such as Rich Carrot Loaf, Aunt Bertie's Date-Nut Bread and the unusual German hutzelbrot. He also has lots of recipes for small breads such as muffins and biscuits.

The book has no pictures to guide you, but it certainly makes things easy for the novice baker. There are directions for making the breads in both food processors and electric mixers as well as by hand when that's feasible, and the word "secrets" in the title is serious because many pages have a box with some professional advice for making things easy or better.

For example, Greenstein suggests that when making biscuits or scones, you hold back a quarter of the dough for mixing with the leftover scraps after cutting to get "a more tender second set of biscuits" (or scones as the case may be).

For making challah, he suggests two brushes of egg wash. In his recipe for Portuguese Corn Bread, he notes, "Potato flour dusted on to the top of a loaf before baking cracks haphazardly in the oven, creating crisp fissures that add to the bread's unique flavor and texture." This tip works for other breads as well.

Most interestingly and useful of all, and valuable even for experienced home cooks, at the back of his book Greenstein has a section called "Twelve Menus: A Morning of Baking." As he points out, professional bakers have to work out how to schedule their work so they create many kinds of breads in the time normally required to make just one or two kinds. Adapting these professional time-management skills, he has created 12 menus that feature a morning of baking that will give you several breads, some to be used later that day, others for storing.

Here is an example. His first morning includes making Milk Bread, muffins of your choice, 100 percent Whole Wheat Bread and Italian Bread. The yield will be 6 loaves of bread and 24 muffins. As for using them, he suggests a breakfast of hot muffins with cheese, jelly and assorted spreads, and lunch of soup and sandwiches made from the Milk Bread. If you'd like to bake more and have enough bread to cover your household needs for several days or even a week, these menus will be an inspiration.

Here are some recipes from these two books. The challah recipe features one of the round shapes typical for Rosh Hashana.

CHALLAH

Braiding challah into either the usual oval shape or into the round shapes for Rosh Hashana is hard to describe using words alone. Tamar Ansh's "A Taste of Challah," from which the following basic challah recipe is taken, uses a series of pictures and diagrams to make the braiding technique to create the round bread in our picture clear. George Greenstein agrees that only with diagrams, or better yet, hands-on instruction can one learn the braiding techniques for challah - and he speaks from years of experience training young bakers in his bakery.

However, he does have what he calls a "turban" shaped challah that uses only two coils, and which is clearly explained in his "Secrets of a Jewish Baker." So this method for creating a round Rosh Hashana challah is tacked on to the end of Tamar Ansh's recipe, which makes either 16 large, 8 medium or 30 small challahs. Unless you have an extremely large bowl, you may want to halve these quantities.

16-17 cups freshly sifted white flour

4¾-5 cups warm water

1 1/ 3 -1½ cups sugar

3 tablespoons dry yeast

1 cup canola oil

1 tablespoon salt

Put half a cup of boiling water and 1 cup of tap water together then test with your finger to make sure it is warm not hot. Add ¼ cup sugar to this water and then the yeast. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes to make sure the yeast starts bubbling. If the yeast doesn't bubble it means the yeast is no good; discard and start again.

In a large bowl, place in this order: oil, the rest of the sugar, 2 cups warm water, salt, 8 cups flour. Mix very well until a thin sort of batter is formed. After the yeast mixture has bubbled, add it.

Now start adding the remaining flour slowly, 1 or 2 cups at a time. At this point 4 cups of water has been used. Keep adding water, ¼ cup at a time, and mixing until a pliable, smooth and non-sticky dough has formed. If the dough is too firm, you will need to add a bit more water and also 2 more tablespoons of oil. If the dough is too wet, add more flour, even if you have to go over the 17-cup limit. Climates, different flours, and different yeasts all make a vast difference at this stage.

Grease your hands with a fine layer of oil. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix the dough at the very bottom to insure that all the flour is well mixed into the dough and that it is uniform in texture. If there is excess flour in the bottom of the bowl, add a bit more oil before remixing. It is better to use oil than water in order to keep the dough from getting too sticky. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 10 minutes.

Uncover and knead with a drop more oil for 5 minutes. For added smoothness, you can repeat these two steps. Grease your hands lightly and remove the dough from the bowl. At this point it is appropriate to do the mitzvah of separating the challah. (Ansh includes the laws for doing this in her book.) You can now either put the dough in a large garbage bag and leave it overnight in the fridge to shape it next morning, or leave it covered with plastic on the counter for 1 hour before shaping. It will rise to at least double in size.

Prepare your hands and work surface with a little oil. Punch down the dough and reknead it for 2-4 minutes. Prepare baking trays by lining them with parchment paper. Cut off slices of the dough and roll each one into a thin oval, then roll it so that it resembles a log. Make about 10-12 such logs and set them to one side of the work surface, covering them loosely with plastic so they won't dry out. Let them rise for 5 minutes then roll each one gently before working with it. This will make them longer and easier to work with and will remove or diminish the "seam" left when you rolled the oval in to a log. If you want a braided oval challah that is higher in the center, increase the pressure on the rolls as you work outwards so they are thicker in the middle.

After the challahs are shaped, let them rise on a baking sheet for 45 minutes, covered loosely with plastic wrap so they will remain moist and plump. (See below for instructions on shaping a round "turban" challah.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Make an egg glaze from 2 whole eggs plus one yolk and 1 teaspoon oil. Mix and gently brush over the challahs. If you want to add toppings such as poppy seeds, sesame seeds or cinnamon and sugar, now is the time to do it. Bake 20-25 minutes until the challahs start to turn brown. Lower the heat to 350 degrees and continue baking until challahs are done, when they are browned completely on the bottom - usually 25-30 minutes more.

The following instructions for Turban- Shaped Round challah are from George Greenstein's. "Secrets of a Jewish Baker": Divide enough dough for one challah in half. Roll each half into a fat rope and allow to rest for several minutes.

Leaving one end thick, roll once more with your palms, lengthening the strand and tapering the other end to a point. You should end up with two 18- to 24-inch lengths, thick on one end and thin on the other. Alternate between the two strands while you are working to allow each to rest. Keeping the thick end on the work surface, with one hand, lift the tapered end and wind the entire length around the wide piece (which will be the center) to form a coil. Slip the tip under the coil and press down hard so that it will not open upon rising. Brush with egg wash and follow instructions as above for baking.

BUTTERMILK BREAD

George Greenstein, author of "Secrets of a Jewish Baker," writes, "Buttermilk bread has an old-fashioned farm flavor and just enough texture to give it a homemade taste." This recipe makes 2 loaves.

½ cup warm water

2 packets active dry yeast

1 cup buttermilk

4 teaspoons honey

2 tablespoons butter, softened

5-6 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon salt

melted butter for brushing the loaves

In a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and allow to soften. Add the buttermilk, honey, butter, 5 cups of flour, and the salt. Mix until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a flour-dusted work surface.

Knead, adding more flour ¼ cup at a time if necessary until the dough feel smooth and silky. (8-10 minutes.) Transfer to a clean oil-coated bowl and turn over once. Cover and set aside until doubled in volume (40-60 minutes).

Punch down the dough and cut in half. Shape into rounds, cover and let rest for 15 minutes. Shape the loaves into 2 loaf pans. Place the loaves, seam-side down, into greased 8- or 9-inch loaf pans. Proof, covered, in a warm draft-free place until the loaves form nicely rounded tops and rise above the tops of the pans.

Place on a baking sheet. Punch 3 holes in the top of the loaves with an ice-pick or skewer. To bake, preheat the oven to 375. Bake until the loaves are browned and emit a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom. (35-40 minutes.) The loaves can be removed from the pans for the last 5 minutes of baking to improve the crust. Let cool on a wire rack.

AUNT BERTIE'S DATE NUT BREAD

Sweet things are traditional for Jewish New Year because they signify the hope for a sweet year to come. Dates are an exceptionally sweet fruit, and this bread from "Secrets of a Jewish Baker" has all their lushness of flavor. The author notes that the aunt who originally made this used a coffee can instead of a loaf pan.

1 cup boiling water

2 cups coarsely chopped pitted dates

1 egg, beaten

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, pour the boiling water over the dates. Allow to cool, then beat in the egg and granulated sugar. Add the brown sugar, butter, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix thoroughly until smooth. Fold in the walnuts.

Grease two 8- or 9-inch loaf pans, then line them with parchment or waxed paper. Grease the bottoms again and dust with flour. Turn out the batter into the prepared pans. Bake until browned and the center feels firm when gently pressed with your fingertips (about 1 hour).

Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. The bread tastes best when wrapped in aluminium foil and refrigerated overnight before being eaten; it also freezes well.