It is well known that in the Common Household family extension on the Jewish side, size matters.
On Sunday a week ago, a group of three women, including me,
spent four hours braiding and baking 24 mini-challahs, to have on hand for
Shabbat services and shiva minyans when needed.
Since you’re asking, each mini-challah was approximately ten
inches long, with a diameter of about three inches. A normal-sized challah is maybe four times
larger.
I was able to bring one challah home for the Common
Household to enjoy. When my husband saw it,
he said, “Oh, what a cute little challah…. Wait, you spent FOUR HOURS making
that tiny challah? If I had know you
were going to make a challah the size of a toothpick,
I would have bought more bread at the store this morning.”
Some of our challah loaves seemed to come out of the oven
with personalities.
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| The Very Hungry Caterpillar |
 |
| This one is called Moses, because it has horns. (Biblical scholars will know that this is based on a mistranslation, but once people get an image in their heads it just won't go away.) |
 |
| Papoose |
Already, the rabbi has taken one of our challahs to someone
who just returned home from the hospital.
Last week I felt that my heart had shrunk to the size of a shriveled
pea, but knowing that our little challah has welcomed someone home has made my heart just a
little bit larger.
The recipe for challah is here, at the end of the post.
 |
| Mathematically-minded readers will notice that there are only 23 challah loaves here. We had to test the product, of course. |
5 comments:
This bread looks delicious! Would it be kosher to do Communion with a loaf of challah sometime?
It turns out that chicken soup make with matzoh balls is not the only thing that can cure a person!
I, too, am curious if it would be acceptable to use a loaf of challah at Communion.
I love Challah! I only make it once in a while as a special treat. I use Mollie Katzen's recipe from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Yours look delicious.
I only ate Challah twice in my life, but recall it with drooling mouth. Yum!
Those are so pretty! I have never ever had challah. Do you cheat and use Rhodes rolls as a base (the way I do with most of my bread recipes), or would that be considered sacrilegious? However you go about it, I am impressed.
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